The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-22
throo.ons - tbwart their execution.

!
Union.n He hoped that the laws coulC
be enforced peaceable, by the judicia
authority; but if otherwise he would
give prompt notice to Congress. In one
week he issued his celebrated proclama
ton, and in this day of the rapid trans
mission of the news, it would have pre-
ceded the date of the annual message
for the Notification Ordinance bears
date November Gath, ten days
before the date of the annual mes
sage, and seven days before the
+ proclamation appeared. 1t must have
been that the Ordinance was held back
for several days after the date it bears,
since the mails, even in 1882, travelled
at the rate of one hundred miles per day,
and five days would, at furthest, have
been sufficient to bring the document to
Washington.
The Ordinance, with a preamble, stat
ing the grievance in general terms, re-
fers particularly to the Acts of May 30,
1928, and July 18th, 1882, as being I'M
| Just and unconstitutional, in the impOsi-
ton of duties on foreign goods imported,
not for revenue, but for protection; and
declares them to be null void, and no
law, not binding upon this State, its
officers or citizens" Other sections Of
| the Ordinance required the constituted
authorities of the State, all officers of
every grade, (the members of the Legis-
lature excepted to take an oath well
and truly to obey and execute the Ordin-
ance. If the Government of the United
States should employ force against
4I,, hn Dy.fS
ceedingS would be Inconsistent with the
longer continuance of South Carolina in
the Union, and that the people of this
State will thenceforth hold themselves
absolved from all further obligation to
maintain or preserve their political con
nection with the people of the other
States, and will forthwith proceed to or
ganize separate government, and do all
other acts and things, which sovereign
and Independent States may Of right
do"
South Carolina, when this Ordinance
was adopted, contained about two hun
bred and fifty thousand white people.
The United States contained about
twelve millions of white people. The
odds against the State, therefore, were
about forty seven to one. But South
Carolina looked for the co operation of
the entire South, or the greater portion
of it, and was dreadfully mistaken.
The proclamation of the President, az
ter reciting the leading features Of the
Ordinance, as above, proceeds to point out
their unreasonableness, in assuring
the right of a State to set aside the laws
of the Union, and prohibit its enforce
ment. "If this doctrine had been es
tablished at any earlier day." he says,
''the Union would have been dissolved
in its infancy. The excise law in Penn
sylvania, the embargo and non-inter
course law in the Eastern States, the
carriage tax in Virginia, were all deemed
unconstitutional, and were more IN
equal in their operation than any Of the
Laws now complained of; but fortunately
none of those States discovered that they
had the right now claimed by South Car
DINA. In our Colonial State,
though dependent on another power, we
very early considered ourselves as con-
nected by common interests with each
other. Leagues were formed for com
mon defence, and before the Declaration
of Independence We were known in our
aggregate character as the United Colo
MES of America That decisive and i'm
portant step was taken jointly" After
other strong statements in this vein the
President sums up this branch Of the
subject as follows
81 consider, then, the power to annul
a law of the United States, assumed by
one State, incompatible with the ex
istence IF the Union, contradicted eX-
pressly by the letter of the Constitution,
unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent
with every principle on which it was
founded, and destructive Of the great
object for which it was formed"
The proclamation is long, able and
eloquent; but / have space only for the
foregoing outlines. 1t was written by
Edward Livingston, the Secretary of
State, not without full and free CONVEX
sations with Gen. Jackson, and with
embodied in it.
It seems that the proclamation was
being prepared as early as December 3,
although it did not appear until the
18th. The following note of Gen. JACK
sor, of the 4th, to Mr.. Livingston, at
tests that fact, and others of interest.
Referring to some notes he had made to
be embodied, in substance, in the procla-
nation, he says:
Dear Sir:-I submit the above
as the conclusion of the proclama-
ton, for your amendment and revis
ion. Let it receive your best fight
of eloquence to strike to the heart
and speak to the feelings of my deluded
countrymen of South Carolina The
Union must be preserved without blood,
if this be possible; but it must be pre-
served at all hazards and at any price ="
And on the 18th the President sent ar
other note to Livingston, as follows:
"My Dear Sir: Major Donelson having
finished copying the sheets handed by
you about o'clock p. m. to day, is
waiting for the balance. Such as are
ready, please send, sealed, by the bearer.
The message having been made public
on the 4th, it is desirable, while drawing
the attention of the people in South Car
DINA, that their minds should be drawn
to their real situation, before their lead
ers can, by false theories, delude them
again. Therefore it is to prevent blood
from being shed and positive treason
commit d, that | wish to draw the at
tention of the people of South Carolina
to their danger, that no blame can
attach to me by being silent. From these
I