Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1830-03-16

tnls emphatlck manner. 1t is a fatal her.
esyto suppose that either our State Govern.
ments are superiour to the Federal, or the
Federal to the State neither, is authorized
! literally to decide which belongs to itself 0,
its copartner in Government; in differences
OF OPINION between their different sets Of
puollck servants, the appeal is to neither
but to their employers peaceably assembled
I oy Their representatives in convention
The opinion of Mr.. Jefferson on this subject
has been so repeatedly and so solemnly ex.
pressed, that they may be said to have beer
among the most fixed and settled conyic.
tons Of his mind.
In the protest prepared by him for the
Legislature of Virginia, in December, 1925
in respect to the powers exercised BY the
Federal Government in relation to the Tia.
RIG ana ltAernal improvements, which he
declares to be usurpations of the powers
retained by the States, mere. interpretations
into the compact, and direct infractions o.
it,"-he solemnly re-asserts all the proyi
sions of the Virginia resolutions of '9s-pro.
tests against these acts of the federal branch
OF the government, as null and void, and de-
clares that although Virginia would consid.
er dissolution of the Union as among the
greatest calamities that could befal them
yet 1t IS not the greatest. There is one We,
greater-submission to government of un.
limited powers. 1t is only when the hope
OF this shall become absolutely desperate
that further for. earance could not be indul.
ged."
In his letter to Mr.. Giles, written about
the same time, he says:-
81 see as you DO, and with the deepest
affilction, the rapid strides with which the
federal branch of our Government is adyan-
cling towards the usurpation of all the rights
reserved to the States, and the consolidation
in itselfof all powers, foreign and aomestick
and that, too, by constructions which leave
no limits to their powers, &c. Under the
power to regulate commerce, they assume
indefinitely that also over agriculture and
manufactures, &c. Under the authority to
establish post roads, they claim that of cut
ting down mountains for the construction of
roads and digging canals, &c. And what
is our resource for the preservation of the
Constitution? Reason and argument? You
might as well reason and argue with the
marble columns encircliag them, &c. Are
we then to stand to our arms, with the hot.
headed Georgian? No land say no, and
South Carolina has said no]-that must be
the last rsource. We must have patience
and long endurance with our brethren, &c.
and separate from our companions only
when the sole alternatives left are disso-
luton of our Union with them, or submission
to Government without limitation of pow
ers. Between these two evils, when we
must make choice, there can be no hest
tation."
Such, sir, are the high and imposing
authorities in support of "the Carolina
doctrine" which is in fact the doctrine of
the Virginia Resolutions of 1898.
Sir, at that day the whole country was d.
vided on this very question. 1t formed the
line of demarcation between the federal and
republican parties, and the great political
revolution which then took place turned up
on the very question involved in these reso-
buttons. That question was cided by the
people, and by that decision the Constitution
was, in the emphatick language of Mr..
Jefferson, saved in its last gasp" should
suppose, sir, it would require more self res
pect than any gentleman here would be
willing to assume, to treat lightly doctrines
| derived from such high sources. Resting
on authority like this, will ask gentlemen
whether South Carolina has not manifested
high regard for the Union, when under a
| tyranny ten times more grevious than the
alien and sedition laws, she has hitherto
gone no further than to petition, demonstrate
and solemnly to protest against series Of
measures which she believes TO be wholly
unconstitutional and utterly destructive Of
her interests. Sir, South Carolina has NOT
gone one step further than Mr.. Jefferson
himselfwas disposed to go, in relation tc
the very subject of our present complaints
not q step further than the statesmen from
New-England were disposed to go under
similar circumstances no further than the
Senator from Massachusetts himself once
considered as within the limits of con-
stitutional opposition" The doctrine that
it is the right ola State to judge Of the vic.
lations of the Constitution ON the part of the
Federal Government. and to protect her cit
liens from the operations of demonstrations
laws, was held by the enlightened citizen.
Of Boston, who assembled in Faneuil Hall
on the 25th January, 1909. They state, il