Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-11-27
Cen. Jackson on secession.

| 1t may be well in these times when secession
is advocated as constitutional right, to give the
public the benefit of one whose opinions ouqht
| to be entitled to some respect. We extract from
Gen. Jackson's proclamation against nulli6ca-i
ton in 1888.
ION such exposition and reasonings the ordi.
nance grounds not only an assertion OF the right
to annul the laws of which it complains, but to
enforce it by threat of seeding from the Un-
ion, if any attempt is made to execute it."
"Ihis right to secede is deduced from the ma
ture of the Constitution, which they say, is q
compact between Sovereign States, who have
preserved their 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. Fallaclous as the course of reasoning
is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in
the honest prejudices of those who have not stu.
died the nature of our government sufficient to
see the radical error in which it rests.
"The people of the United States formed the
Constitution, acting through the State Legisla-
lures in making the compact to meet and dis
cuss its provisions, and acting in separ. te Goa
ventiOns when they ratified those provisions:
but the terms used in its Constitution show it
to be government in which the people of all
the States collectively are represented. We are
one people in the choice of President and Vice
President. Here the States have TO other agen.
cy than to direct the mode in which the votes
shall be given. Candidates having the majority
of the votes are chosen. The electors of ma
jority of States may have given their votes for
one candidate, and yet another may be chosen.
The people, then, and not the States are repre-
sented in the executive branch.
In the House of Representatives there is this
difference: That the people of one State do not
in fhn of Hnnt md
all vote for the same officers. The people of all
the States do not vote for all the members, each
State electing only its own representatives.
But this creates no material distinction When
chosen they are all representatives of the Uni.
ted States, not representatives of the particular
State from which they come. They are paid by
the United States, not by the State nor are thew
accountable to it for any act done in the per-
formaDce OF their legislative functions howev-
or, they may in practice, as it is their duty to
do, consult and prefer the interests of their par
ticulnr constituents, when they come in conflict
with any other partial or local interest; yet it is
their first and highest duty as representatives of
the United States to promote the general good
The Constitution of the United States then.
forms government, not a league; and whether
it be formed by compact between the States, or
in any other manner, its character is all the
same. 1t is a government in which all the peo-
pie are represented, which operates directly on
the people Individually not upon the States
they retained all the power they did not grant.
But each State, haoang expressly parted sOitA so
many poOers as to constitute jointly Nth the
other States q single nation, cannot from that
period, possess any right to secede, because such
secession does not break league, but DESTROYS
the unity Of a nation; and any injury to that
unity is not only breach which would result
at fo