American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-06-13
The meeting then adjourned.
THE ALLEGED GRIEVANCES OF SOUTH
CAROLINA.
BY CHIEF JUSTICE CRANCH.

| BY CHIEF JUSTICE. CRANCH.
| Since the elaborate discussions which have
| been had, both in and out of Congress- in rela-
ton to the complaints of South Carolina, it has
become manifest that she has only one pre-
tended grievance to complain of against the
United States; and that is, that the balance of
political power has changed, and South Carolina
finds herself in minority, SO that she can no
| longer WELD the power of the United States to
the accomplishment of her particular views.
She finds that, as a part of the United States,
she has duties to perform under the Constitu-
ton and laws, which she may be compelled to
perform while she continues in the Union; she
therefore threatens to withdraw, and claims q
| right to reassumc the position she occupied be-
fore she adopted the Constitution of the United
| States, and even before the old articles of Con-
| federation that is, to be an independent SOW
ereign State, without control. This she claims
TO be, and, as such, to be capable of forming
new associations, domestic and foreign, for the
maintenance of her independence
The question then arises, Can she do so?
The grievance is that she can no longer WELD
| the power of the United States, because she is
| in the minority. She demands present protec-
ton from the acts of the majority, and secu-
rty for the future. There never was q time
when she was u perfectly independent sover-
| eign State. She never had the power to form
| foreign alliances, or to raise and maintain ar
mics and navies. She had no such power un-
| der the royal government; and if she had, she
transferred il, with all her rights of war and
peace, and her right to form foreign associa-
| tons, to the Congress of the Confederation
but, however that may be, her grievance is,
that, according to the great republican rule and
maxim, without which there can be no republi-
| can government, she is bound to submit to the
tho i'm ll,, In
fully expressed. If she repudiates that maxim,
as in practice she proposes to do, what sort Of
government will it beg 1t must be minority
| government; and what is monarchy, or an
arstocracy, but government by minority
| There is no provision in the Constitution by
which South Carolina can repudiate or aban-
don the Union. The doctrine of Republican
ism is, that the majority can do no wrong
in the same sense in which it is said in Eng
land that the king can do no wrong, and for
the same reason; because there can be no
| legal remedy. The ultimate sovereignty re-
sides in the majority. Republicanism also
supposes that the majority will exercise its
power discreetly, and for the public good; and
if the minority should be of opinion that it is
not 80 exercised the remedy is only at the bal
lot-box or by revolution but revolution can
only be justified by nsufferable injuries. Such
injuries have not yet been inflicted, nor, by the
Constitution and laws of the United States, as
construed by the Judiciary, can they be inflicted
by the United States. The complaint is what the
lawyers call guia timet. South Carolina pretends
that she fears that Congress will do what it has
not the power to do, and she claims to have Sc
curity for the future. She is not content to
wait until Congress shall threaten to do her
some great and insufferabe injury, but upon q
suggestion only that as the balance of political
power in the United States is changed, or is
about to be changed, the new majority may dis
regard the Constitution and laws and trample
upon the rights of the minority. Alarmed al
the possibility Of such q course proceedings
she now rushes madly from the Union, ant
plunges into the abyss Of political anarchy