Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-05-17

roborate the conclusion, on the subject Of the
right of secession" drawn from the lately exhumed
between ALEXANDER HAMILTON
and JAMES MADISON, two most conspicuous MEM
Ders of the General Convention which framed the
Constitution, and by their labors secured its final
ratification.
PROM THE RIcHMosD TINES OF MAr7.
High as Mr.. Madison's authority is in all mat
tiers OF constitutional Interpretation, his correspon-
dence with Hamilton is not chiefly important as
making known his individual opinion on the ques-
ton Of the right Of State to withdraw from the
Union. Its great value consists in the historical
facts Of which it is the unimpeachable record. II
tes6es to the nation, for all time, that the States
entered the Union with an explicit understanding
that the act irrevocable except by the process
of revolution. II certfes that in Virginia particu
larly, where the opposition TO the constitution was
most powerful, the scheme of reserving, as con-
dition Of ratification, that very right which South
Carolina now asserts without such reservation, was
started and abandoned. or this important fact we
had not before been advised but we were well
aware that, in the Virginia Convention, the great
contest between the friends of the Constitution and
its opponents was upon the question Of previous
or subsequent amendments. Patrick Henry and
George Mason, at the head of the Opposition,
strained all their energies to procure decision for
previous amendments. The whole scope Of their
arguments was to show that the proposed Constitu-
ton would erect great consolidated Government,
the acceptance of which Virginia could never re-
CALL and which, therefore, she ought only to accept
upon condition of obtaining such notifications as
they considered indispensable. Madison. Marshall,
Pendleton, and Nicholas, on the other hand, con-
tended that the State should ratfy Internationally,
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ments as she wished, in order that they might be
adopted in the manner prescribed by the Constitu-
ton. If the opponents of the Constitution had
conceived such theory, as that the State would
have the right to secede whenever she might become
dissatisfied, it is impossible to suppose that they
would have insisted on 6 previous amendments
or, in other words conditional ratification. What
was the view of its friends is evidenced by Mr.
Madison's letter to Hamilton. After the memora-
BILE debate which was waged between the opposing
parties from the I'd to the 25th of June, the Com
mittee of the Whole on the latter day, reported to
the Convention preamble and the two following
resolutions: 10
Resoed, That is the opinion of this committee that
the said Constitution be ratified.
Resoled, That it is the opinion of this committee that
whatsoever amendment may be deemed necessary
mended to the Congress which shall first assemble under the
said Constitution, to be acted upon according the mode pre-
scrbed in the fifth article thereof"
A motion was made to amend the first resolution
by substituting:
Resolued That previous the ratification Of the new
Constitution Of Government recommended by the late Fede
raj Convention, declaration of rights asserting and
ing from encroachmen the great principles of civil and rel-
gous liberty and the naenabe rights of the people, together
with amendments to the eIceponabe parts Of the said
Constitution Of Government ought be referred by this Con-
venon to the other States in the American Coniedeacy for
their consideration"
The amendment was rejected-ayes 80, noes 49,.
The first resolution Of the Committee of the
Whole was then agreed to-ayes 80, noes 10; and
the second resolution was agreed to without div-
sion. The ratification was made to conform to
the resolves, and bill of rights and various amend.
ments of the Constitution were recommended to
Congress.
1t would be easy to produce from the debates of
the Virginia Convention many declarations, by
speakers on both sides, which show, beyond any
sort of question, that the unconditional ratification
finally determined upon was universally understood
to preclude the possibility Of the States receding
from the Union. True, the form of ratification
affirmed that the "power granted under the Consti-
tuition, being derived from the people othe United
States, may be resumed by them whenever the
same shall be perverted to their injury or oppres-
son;" but this was only the assertion of the I'M
doubted right of popular resistance to oppression,
and not of the right of State to withdraw from the
Confederacy, without corresponding right in the
remaining States to Judge whether she has or has
not just cause for dissatisfaction.
Nevertheless, we do not hold with Judge RoANE,
the great head Of Virginia Democracy, that Sc
,cession is treason We believe that State may
be rightfuly coercedby her confederaes and forced
to perform her stipulated obligations as the men,
bers of mere league may undoubtedly coerce
any recusant party to it. But we cannot consider
our Union as having so Invested the States Of the
attributes Of sovereignty as to be competent to i'm
pose the penalties of treason upon one Of them
which may, in her State capacity, determine to
abandon the Federal compact, trusting in God, her
own energies, the sympathies Of mankind, and the
justice of her cause to sustain her. In brief, we
eschew the doctrine that the citizens Of such
State enlist under her banner with halters around
their necks." But that they must expect to be CO.
creed into submission if they cannot maintain them
selves in arms, is we think, undenable, according
to every just view of our Federal compact And
surely we cannot be charged with very grievous
heresy in this opinion, when it is remembered that
Mr.. JEFFERSON spoke Of even the Old Confedera-
ton in this manner:
sIt has been often said be generally believed that
Congress have no power by the confederation 70 enforce
any thing for example, contributions Of money H,oas not
necessary to grc them that posoer expressly; they hop Il by
the laD Of nature. When t,oo parties make compact there
results to each po,oer compelling the other execute t.
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