Year: 1860

OF The United States with perfect unanlmlty. II
is founded upon an express provision OF the Con-
suution requiring that fugitive slaves who escape
from service in one State to another shall be de-
ivercd up to their masters. Without this pr)yis-
ion it is a well.known historical fact that the Con-
slitution itself could never have been adopted by
the Convention. In one form or another under the
acts Of 1893 1850, both being substantially the
same, the Fugitive Slave Law has been tho law Of
the land from tho days Of Washington until the
present moment. Here, thon, clear case is pre-
scnted in which it will be tho duty Of the next
President as it has been my own, to act with vigor
in executing this supreme law against the con1ic
ting enacments of State Legislatures Should he
fail in the performance OF this high duty, he will
then have manifested disregard Of the Constitu-
ton and laws to the great injury Of the people of
nearly one-half Of the States Of the Union. But
are we to presume in advance that he will thus
violate his duty? This would be at war with eve
ry principle Of justioa-of Christian charity
Let US wait for the overt act.


The Fugitive Slave Law has been carried into
execution in every contested case since the COM
meneement of the present administration, though
often, it is to be regretted, with great 10th and in
convenience and with considerable expense to the
Government. Let us trust that the State Legisla-
lures will repeal their unconstitutional and obnox-
ious enactmens; unless this shall be done without
unnecessary delay tits impossible for any human
power to save the Union. The Southern States,
standing on the basis Of the Constitution, have u
right to demand this act of justice from the States
of the North. Should it be refused them, the
Constitution, to which all the States are parties,
will have been wilfully violated by one portion of
them, in provision essential to the domestic secu,
rity and happiness Of the remainder In that
event the injured States, after having frst used all
peaceful and Constitutional means to obtain red
ress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance
20 the government Of the Union.


SECESSION. NULMFlcATIoN. GEN. JACRsoY,


I have purposely confined my remarks to revolu-
tonary resistance, because il has boen claimed
within the last few years, that any State, whenever
it shall be her sovereign will and pleasure, may
secede from the Union in accordance with the Con.
stituon, and without any violation of the consti-
tutional rights of the other members Of the CON
toderacy; that as each became parties to the Union
by the vote Of its own people assembled in conven-
ton, so any one of them may retire from the
Union in similar manner, 6y tho vote of such a
convention. In order to justify secession .
constitutional remedy, it must be on the principle
that the federal Government is a mere voluntary
association of States, to be dissolved at pleasure
by one Of tho contracting parties. If this be so,


the confederacy is rope Of sand, and to be pene-
trated and dis solved by the first adverse wave Of
public opinion in any Of the States. In this man
ner our thirty-three Statos may resolve themselves
into as many petty jarring and hostile republics,
each one retiring from the Union without rcspon9i-
bilty whenever any sudden excitement might
impel them to such q course; by this process 4
Union might be entirely broken into fragments in
a few weeks, which cost our lorefathers many
years of toll priyaton and blood to establish
Such principle is wholly inconsistent with its
history, as it was framed with the greatest delib-
errtion ard care, it was submitted to conventions
Of the people of the several States for ratification,


its provisions we're discussed at length in these
bodies composed Of the first men Of the country.
Its opponents contended that it conferred power
upon the federal government, dangerous TO the
rights Of the States whilst its advocates maintain
ed that under fair construction Of the Instrument
there was no foundation for such apprchensons.-
/
Of this any other country, it never occurred to
any individual, either among its opponents or ad-
vocates, to assert or even to intimate that their
efforts were al! vain labor, because :hO moment
that any State felt herself aggrieved, she might
secede from the Union. What q crushing argu-
ment would this have proved against those who
dreaded that the rights of the States would be
endangered by the Constitution? The truth is,
that, it not until many years after the origin
of the Federal Government, that such PROPOSE


ton advanced 1t was then met and Tefuied
by the conclusive arguments of General Jackson,
who, in bis message of the 10th of Janu-ly, 1888,
transmitting the nullfying ordinance Of South
Carolina to Congress, employs the folio wing Ian
guage:


"The right Of the people of single State to
absolve themselves at will without the consent Of
the other States, from their most solemn obga-
tiOns, hazards the liberty and Union, and happiness
Of millions composing this and, cannot DO acknowi-
edged. Such authority is believed to be utterly
repuguant, both to the principles upon which the
General Government is constituted, and to the Oh
jects which it was expressly formed to attain. 1t
is not pretended that any clause in tue Constitution
gives conntenance to such theory, it is altogether
founded upon inference, not from any language
contained in the instrument itself, but from the
sovereign character Of the several States by which
it was ratified; but it is beyond the power of a
State, like au individual to yield portion of its
sovereign rights to secure the remainder" In the
language of Mr.. Madison, who has been called the
Father Of the Constitution, it was formed by the
States that is by the people in each of the States
acting in their highest sovereign capacity, and
formed consequently by the same authority
which formed the State constitutions nor is the
government of the United States, created by the
Constitution, less q government in the stretest
sense of the term within the sphere of its powers
than the governments created by the Constitution
Of the States are within their several spheres. 1t
is like them organized into Legislative, Executive
and Judiciary departments. Itoperates ike them