Year: 1860

/ reHgIon has been Superadded to the obliga
: tions of official duty, and all Senators an
: Representatives of the United States, al
members Of State Legislatures and all Ex


ecutive and Judicial officers, both of tn
f United States and the several States, shall
be bound by oath or affirmation to supper
, the Constitution.


In order to carry into effect these law!
the Constitution has established a perfec


government in all its forms, Legislative


Executive and Judicial, and the Govern


ment to the extent of its powers, acts upon


the individual citizens of every State and


executes its own DEGREES by the agency oil


its own officers In this respect it differs


entirely from the Government under the


old Confederation, which was confined to


making acquisitions on the States in their


sovereign character. This left it in the dis


cretion of each whether TO obey or to re-


fuse, and they often declined TO comply


with such acquisitions. 1t thus became


necessary, for the purpose of removing the


barrier, and in order to form a more perfect
union, to establish a 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 del
egated to the United States, but reserved to
the States respecti vely, 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 rs binding upon the people as though it
had been textualiy inserted therein. This
Government therefore, is a great and pow
ertul government, invested with all the at
tributes OF sovereignty of the special subjects
to which its authority extends. It's trainers
never intended to implant in its bosom the
seeds of its own destruction nor were they
at its creation, guilty of the absurdity of
providing for its own dissolution.


1t was not intended by its trainers to be
the baseless fabric of a vision, which, at the
touch of the enchanter, would vanish into
thin air, but substantial and mighty fab
ric, capable of resisting the slow decay of
time and of defying the storms of ages.
Indeed, well may jealous patriots of that
day have indulged fears, that government
of such high powers might violate the re-





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 ev-
er 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.
It 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 governed against the Oppres-
sion of their governments, cannot be de-
MED; it exists Independent Of all constitu-
tions, and has been exercised at all periods
of the world 5 history. Under it old gov
ernmeuts have been destroyed, and under it
ones have been replaced. 1t is en-
bodied in strong and express language, in
our own Declaration of Independence but
the distinction must ever he observed, that
this is revolution against an established
government, and not voluntary secession
from it By virtue of an inherent constitu-
tional right.


In Short let rs look the danger fairly in
the face Secession is nothing more nor less
than revolution. 1t may or it may not be
justiliHble revolution, but still it is revolu-
ton. What, in the meantime, is the re-
sponsibility and true position of the Execu-
tive, bound by solemn oath before God and
the country to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed From this obligation
he cannot be ahsolved by any human pow
er But what it the performance of this
duty, in whole or in part, has been render
ed impracticable by events over which he
could have exercised no control? Such at
the present moment is the case throughout
ha Sfafa of Sonth fIarOliua 81 for I,o
laws OF the United States to secure the ad-
minist:atiOn of Justice by means of the Fed |
eral Judiciary are concerned, all the Federal |
officers within its limits, through whose |
agency alone those laws can be carried into |
execution, have already resigned.


We hive no longer Il District Judge, or
District Attorney, in South Carolina. In |
fact, the whole machinery of the Federal |
Government, necessary for the distribution
of remedial justice among the people has
been demolished, and it would be difficult,
If not impossible, to replace it. The only /
acts of Congress on the statute book bearing
upon this subject, are those of the 28th OF
February, 1895, and 3rd of March, 1907
These authorize the President, after he shall
have ascertained that the Marshal with his
posse cOmmitatus is unable to execute civil
or criminal process in any particEl case,
to call forth the militia, and employ the ar
my and navy to aid him in performing the
service, having first, by proclamation, COM
manded the insurgents to disperse and re-
turn peaceably to their respective abod=s
within a limited time. This duty cannot,
by any possibility, be performed in a State
where no Judicial authority exists to issue
process and where there is no Marshal to
execute, and where, even if there were such
an Office, the entire population would eom-
bine in one solid column to resist him.


The mere resistance of these provisions
proves how inadequate they are, without
further legislation, to overcome a united op-
position in a single State, not to speak of
other States who may place themselves il a
similar attitude. Congress alone has power
to decide whether the present laws cannot
be amended so as to carry out more effectu-
ally the objects of the Constitution. The
same insuperable obstacles do not lie in the
way of executing the laws for the collec-
ton of the customs. The revenue contin-
ueS to be collected as heretofore at the Gus