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

A distinguished Senator from one of
the New-England States Mr.. Hillhouse]
in speech delivered here, OIL bill for
enforcing the embargo, declared" feel
myselfbonnd in conscience to declare (,est
the blood Of those who shall fall in the
execution of this measure, shall be on my
head) that consider this to be an act
which directs mortal blow at the liberties
of my conntry-an act concerning uncon-
stitutional provisions, to which the people
are not bound to submit, and to which,
IN my opinion, they will not submit"
And the Senator from Massachusetts
himself, in speech delivered on the same
subject in the other House. said, "This
opposition is constitutional and legal il is
also conscientious. 1t rests on settled
and sober conviction, that such policy is
destructive TO the interests of the people.
and dangerous to the being of the Gov
eminent. The experience of everv dav
confirms these sentiments. Men who act
IRON such motives are not to be discour-
aged BY iriAing obstacles, nor awed by
any dangers. They know the limit of
constitutional opposition ; up to that limit
at their own discretion, they will walk, and
walk fearlessly." How " the being ofthe
Government" was to be endangered by
constitutional opposition" to the en-
barge, leave to the gentleman to explain.
Thus, it will be seen, Mr.. President,
that the South-Carolina doctrine is the
Republican doctrine of '9S: that it was
first promulgated by the fathers of the
iaIth--that it was maintained by Virginia
and Kentucky in the worst of times-that
1t constituted the very pivot on which the
political revolution of that day turned
that 1t embraces the very principles, the
triumph of which, at that time, saved the
Constitution at its last gasp, and which
New-England statesmen were not unwil-
ling TO adopt when they believed them
selves to be the victims of unconstitutional
legislation. Sir, as to the doctrine that
the Federal Government is the exclusive
Judge of the extent, as we'll as the limita-
tons of its powers, it seems to me to be
utterly subversive of the sovereignty and
independence of the States. 1t makes
but little difference, in my estimation,
whether Congress or the Supreme Court
are invested with this power. IF the
Federal Government, in all, or any of its
departments, are to prescribe the limits of
its own authority, and the States are bound
to submit to the decision, and are not to
be allowed to examine and decide for
themselves, when the barriers of the
Constitution shall be overleaped, this is
practically "a Government withou, lmi-
,ation of powers" The States are at
once reduced to mere petty corporations,
and the people are entirely at your mercy.
! have but one word more TO add. In
all the efforts that have been made by
South Carolina, to resist the unoonsttu-
tional laws which Congress has extended
over them, she has kept steadily in view
the preservation of the Union, by the only
means by which she believes it can be
long preserved-af firm, manly, and steady
resistance against usurpation. The meas
ures of the Federal Government have, it
is true, Frustrated her interests, and will
soon involve the whole South in irretrev-
able ruin. But even this evil, great as it
is, is not the chief ground of our com
plants. II is the principle involved in
the contest, principle, which substitnt-
ing the discretion of Congress for the linn
itations Of the Constitution, brings the
States and the People to the feet of the
Federal Government, and leaves them
nothing they can call their own. Sir, if
the measures of the Federal Government
were less oppressive, we should still strive
against this usurpation. The South is
acting on a principle she has always held
sacred---resistance TO unauthorized taxa
ton. These, Sir, are the principles
which induced the immortal Hampden to
resist the payment of tax of twenty shil-
lings. Would twenty shlllings have ruin
ed his fortune mo! but the payment of
half twenty shillings, on the principle on
which il was demanded, would have
made him slave. Sir, if in acting on
these high mo,ives-if animated by that
ardent love of liberty which has always
been the most prominent trait in the
Southern character-we should be hurried
beyond the bounds Of cold and calculat-
ing prudence, who is there, with one no.
Bile and generous sentiment in his bosom,
that would not be disposed, in the lam
guage of Burke, to exclaim, =" You must
pardon something to the spirit of Lber-
]y."
! Mr.. WEBSTER'S SECOND SPEECH.
| Wy