The Arkansas advocate., 1830-04-21

ol redress,
 At the ensuing session of the Legis- lature, the subject was re-examined, and on the l4th November, I799, the resolutions of the preceding year were deliberately re-afflrmed, and it was a. nlong other things solemnlY declared -
 That If those who administer the General Government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that com pact, by total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, ah annihilation ofthe State Goyernfnen- ments, and the erection upon iheir ruins ofa general consolidated government vii be the inevitable consequence. That the principle and construction con- tended for by sundry ofthe State Legis- latures. that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to i, ,stop nothing gshort ofdespotisn; since the discretion of those who administer the Government, and not the Constitution. would be the meas ure of their powers. That the several States who formed that instrument, be- ing sovereign and independent, have the naquestionable right to judge of it's in- fraction, and that notification by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.o
 Time and experience confirmed Mir. JefIerson's opinion on this all-iinportailt point. ln the year 1891, he expressed himself ill this emphatic manner: sIt is a fatal heresy to suppose that either our State Governments are superior to the Federal, or the Federal to the State; neither is authorized literally te decide which belongs to itself or its eopartner in Government; in difference of opinion, between their diferentsetsof public ser wants the appeal is to neither, but to their employerspeaeeably assembled hy taeir representatives in Convention" !" The opinion of Mr. Jefferson on this subject, has been so repeatedly and so solemnly expressed, that they may be said to have been among the most fixed and settled convictions of his mind.
 ail the protest prepared by him iast ae Legislature of Virginia, in December, 1895, in respect to the powers exercised by the Federal Government ii relation to the Tariff and Internal Improvements, which he declares to be usurpations of the powers retained by the States, more interpretations into the compact, and direct infractions ofit'--he solemn l ly re-asserts all the principles of the Vir- gifaia resolutions of ffaes5 9S-ff against these acts of the Federal branch of the government, as null and void, and de- elares that although Virginia would consider dissolution of the Union as among the greatest calanities that could i,stteiii them, yet t is not the greatest. There is one yet greater-submission to a government of unlimited powers. 1t is only when the hope of this shall be- come absolutely desperate, that farther forbearance could not be indulged.
 In his letter to MT. Giles, written about the same time, he says:-
 q see as you do, ,and with the deepest afiliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our Government is advancing towards the usurpation oi all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic, and that too, by constructions which leave no limits to their powers, Nc. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume indeh- nitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, Nc. Under the authori- l ty to establish post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the construction of roads, and digging ca Inals, Sc. And what is our resource for l the preservation of the Constitution?- 1 Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue with the marble columns encircling them, &c. Are we then to stand to eur arms, with the hot headed Georgian? No--[and say no, and South Carolina has said nol--that must be the last resource. We must have patience and long endurance with our brethren, &c. and sepa- rate from our companions only when the sole alternative left are dissolution of our Union with them, or submission 10 q Government without limitation of powers. Between those two evils, when we must make choice, there can be no hesitation
 saeh si ss E; ere ere the high and imposing, s authorities in support of the "Caroliral doctrine,' which IS in fact the doctrine IL. L. IrzlG ----