Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-05-16

that the esteem therein expressed for yourself
and services is fully shared by me. Please favor
the Club with a letter of acceptance. and if you
should see &c to make it a medium of conveying
to the public your opinions upon the present
status of the country, general currency will be
given TO it.
I am. very truly, &c.
CREreHToS DANDY,
Corresponding Secretary.
IsDtAsAPoLIs. May 6. 1864.
Creighton Dandy, Esq Corresponding Secretary
OF the Democratic Club Of LGurenceburg:
DEAR SIR-I am in receipt of yours of April
90. ul1mO. enclosing copy OF a resolution of the
Democratic Club of Lswrenceburg, making me
an honorary member of that society.
Absence from home has prevented an earlier
acknowledgment of It's reception.
i thank the Association for the compliment,
and you for the kind manner in which il is com
municated. 1t is true, | am unacqusiuted with
your consultation and by laws; but a man rarely
goes amiss in acting with old UuiOn loving De
mocracy under whom the country was always
happy.
The resolution speaks approvingly of my hum
tle efforts to sustain the constitution aud laws,
and courts of the country. / am rejoiced to
witness this feeling of respect for law and order.
Let me say that the war. with all its attendant
evils. which pow affiicts the country, is but the
consequence of a refusal to abide by the Consti-
tuition of the United States rs expounded by the
judicial tribunals of the nation.
Less than one hundred years ago. our fathers
framed and adopted a constitution for the United
States; and in it they provided that all questions
arising about its meaning and the respective
rights of the States and people under it. should
be decided by the courts Of the United States,
and not by the States and people themselves,
according TO their own several notions. upon the
l. HI -
uniformly respected, peace and prosperity would
now have reigued throughout the land.
1t has been disregarded 10 three memorable
instances.
l.. By the New England Federalis;s.
9. By the Southern Nullifers.
:. By the Northern Lincoln men
FIRsr-THE Csc OF NEW ENGLAND.
Ii was during the attempt to establish a New
England Confederacy, that Mr.. Josiah Quincy,
one of the ablest and most accomplished men Of
Massachusetts,, the near connection of j G.
Adams. then a Federalist, and now a radical, and
ardent supporter Of Mr. Lincoln's Administra-
ton. gave an exposition OF the constitutional
views held by the federal and radical secessionisis
of the eastern section of the Union. The par
ticular occasion was this: Soon after Mr.. Jeffer
son became President. Louisiana was acquired,
whereby the United States got the control of the
Mississippi river. New England opposed this
acquisition because il tended to increase the
power of the South and West, and thus relative
ly diminish hers; and on the 18th of January,
1911. OH the bill to provide for the formation of
a State Government in a part of the acquired
Louisiana territory. Mr.. Quincy asserted that the
passage of the bill would be. ipso facto, a disso-
luton of the Union. Excitement was produced
by This proposition. Mr.. Poindexter, a leading
Southern statesman from Mississippi, and a
bosom friend of Henry Clay, called Mr.. Quincy
/ A., .riar doolarinU that SGf vas radicaIlv ur,.n1
for any member to use arguments going to dis
solve the Government, and tumble this body
itself to dust and ashes"
"Mr. Quincy repeated and justified the remark
he had made, which, to save all misaDprehen-
sion. he committed to writing in the following
words: If this bill passes, it is nv deliberate
opinion thas it is virtually a dissolution of this
Union; that it will free the States from their
moral obligation, and, as it will be the right of
all, so it will be the duty Of some. definitely to
prep,re for a separation. amicably if they can,
violently if they must" And the House, by
three majority, refused to sustain Mr.. Poindex-
ter, of Mississippi. and decided that Mr.. Q%uincy's
reasonable remarks "were in order" and he
proceeded in his speech, to enforce them thus:
81 will add only a few words in relation TO the
moral and political consequences of usurping this
power. | have said that it would be a virtual
dissolution of the Union; and gentlemen express
great sensibillty at the expression. But the true
source OF terror is not in the declaration | have
mad, but in the deed you propose. Is there a
moral principle Of public law better settled, or
more c~onformable 10 the plainest suggestions of
reason, than that the violation of a contract by
one of the parties may be considered as exempt
ing the other from its obligations ?" A Bent.
Deb p 1926, et seq
sECOSD-THE CASE or SOUTH CAROLINA.
Congress enacted a tariff law. 1t WAS oppres-
sive upon the South. The South declared it a
violation of the Constitutions; and, failing to get
The Law repealed, South Carolina proceeded in
1882, to pass a notification ordinance prohibiting
the enforcement of the law in that State Gen.
jackson was then President. He. came out in a
message declaring that, however il may be al
legged that a violation of the compact the Con
%stitutiOnl by the measures of the Government.
can affect the obligations of the parties. it can
not even be pretended that such violation can be
predicatel OF these measures until all the cOnsti-
tutional remedies shall have been fully tried. If
the Federal Government exercises powers not
warranted 10y the constitution, and Immediately
affecting Individuals, it will scarcely be denied
that the proper remedy is a recourse TO the Judi
ciary." 10 Bent Deb p ~. And in his proc
~lainatiOn he said: al consider, then, the power
to annul a law of the United States, assumed by
one State. incompatible Nth the existence of the
Union; contradicted expressly by the letter of the
Constitution; unauthorized by its spirit; incon-
srstent with every principal on which it was
founded; and destructive of the great object for
which it was formed" Accordingly the Courts
Of South Carolina pronounced the nu,li6cltion
ordnance void. sustained the law of Congress,
the ordinance was repealed. and South Carolina
finally submitted TO the decision of the Courts.
South Carolina riehted herself.
And here | wish to notice a moment the point
so often made. that, in the case OF the United
States Bank. Jackson refused to act upon the
rule that the decision of the Supreme Court was
binding. The assertion is not true. The Su
preme Court of the United States never decided
that. as a banking institution, a bank Of the
United States was constitutions. But, on the
other hand. that Court decided that a bank
could not be created, simply as a bank Of the
United States. but that, if it was necessary, as a
fiscal agent of the Government. it was c~onstitu-
tional as such agent; and, il it was not necessary
as such agent, it was not constitutional. JACK
son accepted the decision of the Court in its
terms; and was of opinion, as matter of fact,
that it was not necessary MS a fiscal agent, and
hence, was demonstrations by the decision OF
the Court. and The experience of the last Is enty-
five years has proved him right in his opinion.
He was against rechartering the Bank OH the ex-
piration of its original charter.
{ THIRD-THEC CASE OF LINCOLN AND HIS FOLLOWERS.
Congress enacted a law for the return of fugi
tives from labor and service. The Supreme
Court of the United States unanimously decided
il constitutional. Many of the people and States
Of the North refused to obey il. and several States
enacted notification laws obstructing its enforce.
ment i'm such States. These laws, according to
the proclamation of Gen. jackson against South
Carolina, were incompatible pith the ~eristenct
ffbs Uuion" Some of them Ia ve not VET beeu