The Arkansas advocate., 1833-01-30
NO. 43.

winch then received the sanction of those great men, whose recorded sentin ents have come down to us as a light to onr feet and lamp to our path. 1t is Vi,gin- la and not South Carolina, wLo speaks when 1t Is said that she views the pawera of the Federal Government as resulting from fhe compact 10 phich the Sfafes aYe gar- tsss, as limited hy tire plain sense ana in- tention of the instrume nt constitating that cempact--as no further valid than theyare authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of delib- crate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other pnwera, not granted by the said coIn- pact, tho States who are partics thereto. have the right, and are in duty bound. to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil and for maintaining within their re- spective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appcrtaining to them.'
 iiskenthcky y wiodeciared in '9a,speak- ing in inc explicit language of Ihomas Jefferson, that the principles and construc- lion eonteDded for by members of the State Legislatures, the very same now maint ain- ed by the President] that the general go- vcrnment is the exclusive judge of the ex- tent of the powers delegate:l to Ii, stop no- thing short of despotism--since the discre- ton of those who administer the eoyern- ment, and not the constitution, would be the measure of their powers; That the se- yefai States who formed the instrument being sovereign and independent, lave the unquestionable right to judge of the in- fraction, and, THAT X Nl1LLIFICA- TON BY THOSE SOY Fl, + ffs N NNanIiissss iisssss OF ALL UNAUTHOKIZED ACTS DONE UNDER COLOR OF THAT IN- sfKUMENT, IS THE KIGHTFUI4 RFMEDY.'' J
 A eFty himself who has coDsecratcd these principles, and left them as legacy 10 thf- Amerlcan people, recorded by his own hand. It is by him that we are instrnct- ed---Tthat to the Constitutional compact, each State acceded as State, and is an integral party, its co-states forming as 10 itself tue other party,' that sthey alone being parties to the compact arc soIeiy a,- thprized 10 ju1tgp iR Me insf sesoyg of sbss# powers exercised under 1t; Congress be- iug not party, but merely the creature of the conpact;' that itsbecomes a soye- reign State to submit to und efcgated, and consequently unlimited power, in no man or body of men. upon earth; that whera powers are assumed which have pot been delegated, [the very caso now before nsl ratification of the act is the rigLtfiIt remedy; that every State has natural right in eases not within the compact lca~ ses non .jipderisj to nuiiify of their own a,l- thority all assumption of power by others within their limits, and that without this right they would be under the dominion absolute and unlimited, of whomsocyer might exercise the right of judgment for them,' and that iB case of Rcts being passrr ed by Congress so palpahly against thr Constitution as to amount to an undisguis- ed declaration, that the compact is noE meant to be tho measnre of the pow CTS of tho General Government. but that it will proceed to exercise over the States alk powers whatsoever, it would be the duty oi the States to declare the acts void and Of 10 Jogce, and that ench shouid luke naeu- sures of is oaon for providing ,hnt neither such acts, nor any other of the General Gov vernment not plainly and Intentionally authorized by the ConstitutioD, shall be exercised within their respective territn- ries'
 If is on these great and essential truths, that South Carolina has now acted. Jndc+ ing for herself as a sovereign State. she has pronounced the Protecting System, lnaIt it's branches, to be sgross, deliberate. and palpable violation Of the Constifition- al compact; and having exhausted every other means of redress, she has, in the ex- ercise of her sovereign rights as one of the
 
 formance Of a high and sacred duty, inter- posed fer srfestipg the evil of ,,si,rpaiion, within her own limits-by declaring these acts to be sDuti, void, and no law, and tas king measures of her own, that they shall not be enforced within her Iimis.'
 x
 We hold 1t to be impossible to resist tho argument. that tine several States as sove- reign parties to the compact, must possess the power, in cases of sgross, deliberate Z and paIpabIe violation of the Constitution, 10 judge each for atsey, as we'll Of the inc traction as the mode and measure of re~ dress, or ours is CONSOLIDATED GOVERN MENT, without limitation of powers,'- submission to which Mir. Jefferson has aol- emnly pronounced 10 be greater evil than disunion itself, If, to borrow the language of Madison's report, 'the deliberate exer. else of dangerous powers palpably with. held by the Contribution, conid not justify tbe parties to 1t, in interposing even so far as to arrest the progress Qf the evi!- and t!.ereby to PRESERVE THE CoNsTITu1IoM ITSELF, as we'll as to provide for the safety of the parties to it, there would be an end to all relief from usurped power, and a direct subversion of the rights specified or recognized under all the State Consfitu- tions, as well as a plain denial of tlse funA damental principle on which our indepen- dencc itself was declared.'
 The only plausible objection that can bo urged against this right, so indispensable to the safety Of the Staten. is that it may be abused. But this danger IS believed tn be altogether imaginary. So long as our Union IS felt as a blessing and this will be just so long as the Federal Government shall confine its operation within the acc knowiedged limits of the Charter-there