Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-07-28

one State IN this Union, by virtue OF her a0Ue-
reignty, to make that null and void, which it
presupposes to be null and void before. The
doctrine is not new, nor are those who now
maintain it responsible for its introduction. It
has been the vital disease of eonfederacies, from
the day when Philip Of Macedou obtained seat
among the Amphyctions of Greece. 1t has ne
yer been, perhaps, involved i'll quite so much
absurdity. as when appearing in its newest shape.
1t is now the claim for one State OF this Union,
by virtue of her sovereignty, not only to make,
but to unmake the laws Of the twenty-fOur, each
equally sovereign with herself. This claim in
its extent is most emphaticaly illustrated by its
application to a revenue law. The Constitution
of the United States declares that all duties, i'm
posts, and excuses, shall be uniform throughout
the United States. 1t forbids any preference
to be given, by any regulation of commerce or
revenue, to the ports of one State over those Of
another. The claim for the sovereign State is to
nullify these provisions of the Constitution, in
dissolubly connected with all the acts of Con-
gress for raising revenue. The Constitution Of
the United States, i'll express terms, super.
sedes all State constitutions and laws conflict
ing whit. The sovereign State claims by her
laws to supersede the Constitution of the United
States, and the laws of the other States in the
Union. As member Of the Union, this advances
claim of appeal from the whole to twenty.
fourth part AS sovereign State, claim to
make laws, not only for herself but for others
Phiosophically, politically, morally considered,
it is an inversion of all human reasoning; it can
not be conceived without confusion of thought,
it cannot be expressed without solecism Of Ian
guage, and terms Of standardization.
Its most hideous aspect is, not that its practi-
cal operation must issue in a severance, Of the
Union, but that it substitutes physical force in the
place Of deliberate legislation. Stripped Of the
sophistical augmentation In which this doctrine
has been habited, its naked nature is an effort to
organize insurrection against the laws OF the U.
States; to mterpose the arm Of State sovereign
ts between rebellion and the halter, and to res
cue the traitor from the gibbet. The plan which
it proposes, if pursued by merely individual as
ISOLATION, would be levying war against the Unit
against the Union, if conducted under the
aupisces of State sovereignty; but as State,
cannot be punished for treason, Notification
would case herself in the complete steel of sover
eign power, as the heroes OF ancient poetry were
furnished with panoply from the armory of the
gods.
You have seen, my fellow citizens, from the
Declaration of Independence, that the States Of
this confederation were the offspring of the Uni
on; that their sovereignty is not, and never was,
a sovereignty as defined by Blackstone and the
English lawyers, identical with unlimited power;
that sovereignty, thus defined, is in direct contra
dction to the Declaration Of independence, and
incompatible with the nature Of our institutions;
that the States, united, and the States, separate,
are both sovereign, but creatures OF the people,
and possess none but delegated powers; that the
power of multiplying an act Of Congress, never
has been delegated TO any one State, or to any
partial combination of States, and every
attempt at such notification, by one or
more States, less than the number required, and
otherwise than in the forms prescribed for amend
ment of the Constitution, would, however color
ed. and however vanished, be neither more nor
less than treason, skulking under the shelter of
despotlsm.
Notification is provocative to that brutal and
foul contest of force, which has hitherto baffled
all the efforts of the European aud Southern Anne
rican nations, to introduce among them cOnstltu-
tional governments of liberty and order. 1t strips
us of that peculiar and unimitated characteristic
of all our legsIation-free debate. 1t makes the
bayonet the arbiter of law; it has no argument
but the thunderbolt. 1t were senseless to ina
CINE that twenty. three States Of the Union would
suffer their laws to be trampled upon by the des-
would itself be null and void. Force must be
called in to execute the law of the Union. Force
must be applied by the multiplying State to resist
its execution
cate. hot from He'll,
"Cres Havoc! ard lets slip the dogs Of war"
The blood Of brethren is shed by each other
The citizen of the multiplying State is traitor to
his country, by obedience to the law of his State;
traitor to his State, by obedience to the law OF
his country. The scaffold and the battlefield
stream alternately with the blood Of their victims.
Let this agent but once ,ntrude upon your deli
berations, and Freedom will take her flight for
heaven. The Declaration of independence will
become philosophical dream, and uncontrolled,
despotic soversignties will trample with impuni-
ty, through Iong career Of after ages. at inter-
minable or exterminating war with one another.
upon the indefeasibe and unalienabe rights Of
man.
The event of conflict in arms, between the
Union and one of its members, whether terminal
ing in victory or defeat, would be but an aterna-
tive of calamity to all. In the holy records of
antiquity, We have two examples Of contedera-
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