Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-10-31
Extract from General Jacksnns Proclamation against
Notification and Disunion.I

Extract from General .Jucksons Proclamation against
Modification and Disunion
"On such cXpositious and reasouings,
the ordinance grounds not only nm asser-
ton of the right to annul the laws of
which it complains. but to enforce it by Il
threat of seeding from the Union, if any
attempt is made to execute them. This
right to sccede is deduced from the nature
of the constitution, which, they say, is n
compact between sovereign States, who
have preserved their whole sovereignty
and, therefore, are subject to no superior;
that, because they made the compact. they
can break it when, in their opinion, it has
been departed from by the other States.
FAllncioUs as this course OF reasoning is
it cnlists State pride, and finds advocates
i'll the honest prcjndices of those who
have not studied the nature OF our gov
crnment sufficiently to see the radical cr-
ror on which it rests. The people of the
United States formed the Constitution.
acting through the State Legislatures in
making the compact, to meet and discuss
its provisions. aud acting i'll separate con-
ventions when they ratified those prOYis-
ions; but the terms uscl in its construc-
tion, show il to be Il government in which
the people of all the States collectively
are represented. We are one people in the
choice of the President and Vice Prcsi-
dent. Here the States have no other
agency than to direct the mode in which
the votes shall he given. The candidates
having the maGEttXX Xr9 OF Ct FL the Hm5orsva rH1Gf
States may have given their votes for one
candidate, and yet anothermNy be chosen.
The people, then, and not the States, are
represented in the executive branch.
! In the House of Representatives, there is
/ This iii ff1rnOcp that tho OpOnln ,,f
State do not, Hs in the case of President
and Vice President, all vote for the same
Offices. The people of all The States TO
not vote for all the members, each State
clectiug only its own representatives. But
! this creates no material distinction =
| When chosen, they are all representatives
| of the United States. not representatives
of the particular State from which they
come. They are paid hy the United
States, not by the State; nor are they nc
cOuntablc TO it for any act done i'll the
performance Of their legislative functions; {;
and, however they may in practice, as it is
I! their duty to do, consult and prefer the
interests of their particular constituents
when they come in conflict with any other
partial or local interest, yet il is their
first and highest duty, as representatives
of the United States. to promnte the gen
crol good. The Constitution of the
United States, then, forms a government,
not league and whether it be formed by
compact between the States, or in any
other manner, it's character is the same.
It is government in which all the people
are represented, which operates directly on
the people individually, not upon the
States. they retained all the power they
did not grant Bnt each State having ex-
pressiy parted with SO many powers as
to constitute, jointly with the other States,
a single nation, cannot from that period
possess any right to secede, because such
secession does not break league, hut de-
stroys the unity of q nation, and any in
Jury to that unity is not only breach
which would result from the contraven'
ton of compact, but it is an offence
against the whole nation. To say that
any State may at pleasure secede from the
Onion, is to say that the United States art
not II nation, because it would be
solecism to contend that any part OF :
nation might dissolve its connection will
the other parts. to their injury or ruin
without committing any offence. Seces
sion, like any other revolutionary act, ma.
be morally justified by tht extremity
Oppression; but to call it a. constitutions
r;A,t 10 c0oFnnndinO the meaning of terms