The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-09


her noble daring and herosm. 1t may be that
she is too rash, too precipitate But is she not
the best and sole judge Of her grievances /
look upon her as upon wronged partner who
demands to have his rights acknowledged and
secured ia the partnership, or to Withdraw from
it, could not advise you 10 follow IN her foot
steps | would rather urge her To pause and
consider Yet whatever be your judgment on
the expedency of her course, there cannot be
two opinions among sensible men as To her sub
stantive an absolute right of seeding from the
Onion, if she chooses.
She does it, no doubt, at her own peril. But
bv so doing, she, after all, but exerts her UNI
doubted privilege as one of the sovereign con
federates
The right to secede, is not right that has no
Judgement any where. 1t exists. IL constitutes
the very essence of sovereignty. 1t is sover-
eighty itself 1t must be somewhere. 1t rs
somewhere. Its assertion rent asunder the con-
nexion which bound the British American colo
MES to their mother country. IL is fully and
most emphaticalIy implied in the reservation
made in the second of the articles of confeder
alton. 1t was neither impaired or abridged nor
surrendered by the new Constitution it is
main attribute of sovereignty, inherent to it, in
separable from it.
To the constitutional compact, each State ac-
ceded BY their independent and sovereign capa-
city, each have her separate individual ratification
and when any one Of them chooses TO withdraw
from it, she but does what in all federatiyc
compacts, a confederate has an indisputable
right to do, resume her independent and separate
action us sovereign.
The Withdrawing Of one State, does not of
necessity break the Union ~ to the other States
As long as there remain niue States aihering to
it, it stands it lives; and seeding State is, in re-
gard to those that remain united, but what North
Carolina and Rhode Island were when they with
held their ratification, that is to say, she is indie
pendent of it. Such is the doctrir e | was taught
at the school of the fathers and opponents of
this system Of government; and am prepared
to show that to deny the orthodoxy of that doc
trine is to belle history and the great monuments
of past tradition of living wisdom.
Mr. Madison, chairman of committee of
tho Virginia legislature in la00, reporting on the
resolution of '98, says: at appears to yonr
to be plain principle, founded on
common sense, illustrated by common practice,
and essential to tho nature Of oompacts that
where resort can be had to no tribunal superior
to the authority of the parties, the parties them.
selves must be the rightfu Judge, In the last
resort, whether the bargain made has been pre-
served or violated The Constitution of the
United States was formed by the sanction of
the States, given by each in its sovereign ca
pacity. 1t adds to the stability and dignity, as
well as to the authority Ct that Constitution, that
it rests on this Legitimate and solid foundation.
The States then being the parties to the Con-
compact, and in their sovereign ca
pacity, it follows of necessity, that there an be
no tribunal above their authority, to decide in
the last resort whether the compact made by
,I,l, til H.,
lies to it, they must themselves decide, in the
asst resort, such questions as may be Of suffi
,ient magnitude to require their interposition"
In the Declaration Of Independence, Mr.. JEFF
ferson had already proclaimed the great political
axiom " that whenever any form of Government
becomes destructive of the ends for which it
was organized, it is the right, nay the duty of
the people to throw off such government ;" and
IN the resolutions Of the Kentucky legislature
in 1898, drafted by him, he further maintained
That the several States composing the United
States of America are not united on the princi
Pile of unlimited submission to the general gov
That the government created by
this compact was not made the exclusive or final
Judge of the extent of the power delegated to
Itself, since that would have made its discre-
lion, and not the Constitution the measure of its
powers; but that, as in all other cases of CON-
pact among parties having no common Judge,
each party has an equal right to judge for itself,
rs well of infraction, as Of The mode aud measure
IF redress"
Mr.. Hamilton, in one of his papers in the Fed
srslist, admits that if the federal government
should Cypress the States, the State govern.
nents should be ready to check il by virtue Of
heir inherent power The State govern
nents," says he, "will in all possible contin-
yencies, afford COMPLETE SECURITY against in
vasions Of the public liberties by the national
authority" John Randolph processes the same
IDENTICAL views IN that resolution which he
Introduced before the people of Charlotte
county, wherein he declares that Virginia is,
md of right ought to be, Free sovereign and
State; that she has never parted
with the right to recall the authority dele
gated by her for good and sufficient cause, nor
with the right to Judge of the sufliciency ofsuch
,ausc, and to sEcEpE from the confederacy whom
ever she shall find the benefit exceeded by its
evils; union being tie means of securing hap
Diness, and not an end to which il should be
'acrfcel." Daniel Webster, in his speech at
Capon Springs, Va, surrenders his former antp
,thies and scruples and svows that to preserve
he Union, we must observe in good faith the
Constitution and all its parts. If the Constitu-
lonp says he, 4" be not observed, and if its pro.
,
binding, 1t would be absurd to suppose that
either the North or the South has the power or
he right to violate any part of the Constitu
ion, and then claim from the other the observ-
lnce Of its provision. If the South were TO VIC.
ate any part OF the Constitution, would the
North be any longer bound by 1t, and If the
North were deliberately TO violate any part of
t, would the South be bound any longer to OBJ
serve it's obligations ? How absurd it would be
% suppose, where different parties enter into a
compact for certain purposes, that either one
disregard any one provision and expect the other
o observe it," And he adds, {" do not hesitate
o say and repeat that if the Northern States
efuse wfully and deliberately to oarry into
fleet any part of the Constitution, the South :
would no longer be bound by the compact A
BARGAIN BROKEN on ONE SIDE is BROKER ON ALL ,
DEs" ,
General Jackson himself in his counter i,
which NJ blair of the Globe ,
ouchsafes as exhibiting the mature and fixed /,
principles of its author, and not only of the au.
hor. but of the great Democratic party which
hen recognized them as the foundation Of its ,
reed, Acknowledges that Gin extreme cases /,