Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-12-07

d1OPtc4 SucCbuat ued1S 10 ISSiTdln Inc
States from interfering with their exercise
for that purpose. II has in strong prohi-
bitory language expressly declared, that no
State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or
confederation, grant letters of marque and
reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit,
make anything but gold and silver coin
tender In payment of debts, pass any bill
OF attainder, ex post facto Law OF laws i'm
pairing the obligations of contracts. More
over, without the consent of Congress, no
State shall lay any imposts or duties on any
imports or exports except what may be b
soiutely necessary for executing its inspec-
ton laws, and if they exceed this amount
the excuses shall belong to the United
States, and no State shall without the con-
sent of Congress lay any duty on tom
mage, keep troops or ships of war in time
time of peace, enter into any agreement or
compact with any other State or with for
eign power, or engage in war unless actual
ly invaded Or in such imminent danger as
will not admit of further delay.
In order still further to secure the unin-
terrupted exercise of these high powers
against State interposition, it is provided
that the Courts and the laws of the United
States, which shall be made in pursuance
thereof, and all treaties made or which shall
be made under the authority Of the United
States, shall be the supreme law of the
land, and the Judges in every State shall
be bound thereby, anything in the Consti-
tuition or laws OF any State to the contrary
Notwithstanding. The solemn sanction of
religion has been superadded to the obliga-
lions of official duty, and all Senators and
Representatives of the United States, all
members of State Legislatures, and all Ex-
ecutive and Judicial officers, both of the
United States, and the several States, shall
be bound by oath or affirmation to support
the Constitution.
In order to carry into effect these laws
the Constitution has established perfect
government in all its forms, Legislative,
Executive and Judicial, and the Government
to the extent of its powers, acts upon the
individual citizens of every State, and exc
cutes its own DEGREES by the agency of its
own officers. In this respect IL differs en-
tirely from the Government under the old
Confederation, which was confined TO ma
king acquisitions on the States in their SOW
ereign character. This left il in the dis
erection of each whether to obey or to refuse,
and they often declined to comply with
such acquisitions. 1t thus became neces-
sary, for the purpose of removing the bar
rier, and in order to form a more perfect
union, to establish q Government which
could act directly upon the people, and ex
ecute its own laws without the intermedi-
ate agency of the States. This has been
accomplished by the Constitution of the
United States.
In short, the Government created by the
Constitution, and drawing its authority
from the sovereign people of each of the
several States, has precisely the same right
to exercise its power over the people Of all
States in the enumerated cases, that each
one of them possesses over subjects not
delegated to the United States, but re-
served to the States respectively, or to the
people. To the extent of the delegated
powers, the Constitution of the United
States is as much part of the Constitution
of each State, and is as binding upon the
people as though it had been texually in
serted therein This Government, there
fore, is great and powerful government,
invested with all the attributes of soyer-
eighty of the special subjects to which its
authority extends. Its trainers never in
tended to implant in its bosom the seeds of
its own destruction; nor were they at its
creation, guilty Of the absurdity of proyid-
ing for its own dissolution.
1t was not intended by its trainers to be
the baseless fabric of vision, which, at
the touch of the enchanter would vanish
1AIO Iu1n DuJ SuDSJdulldl anu l1lPHtJ
fabric, capable of resisting the slow decay
of time, and Of defying the storms of ages.
Indeed, well may jealous patriots of that
day have INDUCED fears, that government
of such high powers might violate the re.
served rights of the States, and wisely did
they adopt the rule of strict construction
Of those powers, TO prevent the danger;
but they did not fear, nor had they any
reason to imagine, that the Constitution
would ever be SO interpreted as to enable
any State, by her own act and without the
consent of her sister States, to discharge
her people from all or any of their Federal
obligations 1t may be, asked, then, are
the people of the States without redress
against the tyranny and oppression of the
Federal Government? By no means. The
right of resistance on the part of the gov
erned against the oppression of their gov
ernmeDts, cannot be denied: it exists indie
pendent of all constitutions, and has been
exercised at all periods of the worlds his
tory. Under it old governments have been
destroyed, and under it new ones have been
replaced. 1t is embodied in strong and ex-
press language, in our own Declaration Of
but the distinction must ever
be observed, that this is revolution against
an established government, and not a vol
untary secession from 1t by virtue Of an in
herent constitutional right.
In Short let Us look the danger fairly in the face
Secession Is nothing more nor less than revolution II
may or il may not be juststabe revolution, but still
il Is revolution What, III the meantime is the re
spensbity and true position Of the executive bound
by solemn oath before God aud the country to take
Te that the laws be faithfully executed? From this
obligation he cannot be absOlyei by any human power
But what if the performance Of this duty in whole
IN part, has been rendered impractIcable by events
over which he could have exercised no contrOl2 such
1t the present moment is the case throughout the
State Of South Carolina SO far as the laws OF the
United States the administration OF justice
Dy means the Federal Judiciary is concerned all the
Federal officers within its limits through whose agency
alone those laws can he carried into execution have
lIready resigned We have longer District Judge,
n District Attorney in South Carolina. Ia fact the
whole machinery OF the Federal Government necesSa-
y the distribution remedial justice among the
1cople has been demolished and II would be dlicult
not impossible, to replace 1t. The only acts OF Con
Tcss the statute book bearing upon tine subject
hose of the 2Sth February 1875 and Sd March, 1901
These authorize the President. after he shall have
sceTtaned that the Marshal with his posse comHlit
Is unable to execute civil criminal process in
my particular case, to call forth the militia and en-
1lOy the army and navy to aid him in performing the
ervice, having first, by proclamation, commanded
he insurgents TO disperse and return peaceably 10
heir respective abOdeS within a limited time ms
.uty cannot by any possibility, be performed IN
state where Judicial authority exists to issue
Process and where there is Marshal to execute and
yhere, even if there such officer, the entire
population would combine in one solid column TO resist
lin.
The mere enumeration of these provisions
Droves how inadequate they are, without
urther legislation, to overcome a united OPP
position in single State, not to speak of
other States who may place themselves in a
similar attitude. Congress alone has power
10 decide whether the present laws cannot be
amended so as to carry out more effectually
the objects Of the Constitution. The same
obstacles do not lie in the way of
executing the laws for the collection of
the customs. The revenue still continues to
be collected as heretofore at the Custom
House in Charleston, and should the
Collector unfortunately resign, sue
cessor may be appointed to perform
this duty. Then, in regard to the
of the United States in South Caro-