Year: 1861

from publishing tho whole Of President Buch-
anan's recent Message to Congress. Such por-
tion5 5f the able document as arc deemed OF most


interest to the reader will be found in the subjoln-
cd extracts:


The Government, created by the Constitution
and deriving its authority from the sovereign peo-
Pile of each of the several Stcs, has precisely the
same right to exercise its power over the people
Of all the States in the enumerated cases which
Zach one of thom presses over subjects not dele
gated to the United States but reserved to the
States respectively or to the people, to the extent
Of the delegated powers. The Constitution of
the United States is as much a part of the Con-
stitutOn of each State and is as binding upon
itspeople as though it had been textua.y inserted
therein.


This Government, therefore, is a great and
powerful Government, invested with all the attri.
butes Of Sovereignty over the special subjects to
which its authority extends. 1t trainers never
intended to impant 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 q
substantial and mighty fabric, capable of resisting
the slow decay Of time, and Of dcfying the storms
ofages. Indeed well may jealous patriots Of that
day have INDUCED fears, that Government of
such high powers might violate the reserved
rights of the States, and wisely did 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 Constitu-
ton would ever be so interpreted as to enable
any State by her own act and without the con-
sent of her sister States to discharge her people
from all or any Of their Federal obligations.


1t 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 oppression Of their govern
meats cannot be denied it exists independent of
all constitutions and has been exercised at all
periods of the worlds history, Under it, old
governments have been destroyed, and under il
new ones have been replaced. 1t is embodied in
strong and express language, in our own Decla-
ration of Independence, but the distinction must
ever be observed, that this srevolution against an
established Government, and not voluntary
secession from It by virtue Of an inherent con5t-
tutional right.


In short let us look the danger f,iry in the
face secession is neither more nor less than re-
yolution. 1t may or it may not be jusiiabe re-
voll'ton, but still it is areyolution


What, in the meantime, is the responsibility and
true position of the Executive? He is bound to
take care that the laws be faithfully executed
and from this obligation he cannot be absolycd
by any human power. Bat what if the perform
ance Of the duty in whole Or in part, has been
rendered impracticable by events over which he
could have exercised no control? Such at the
present moment is the case throughout the State
Of South Carolina So far as the laws of the
United States to secure the administration of
Justice by means of the Federal Judiciary is con-
cerned, all the Federal officers within It's limits,
anil through whose agency alone these laws can
be carried into execution, have already resigted


We have no longer District Judge, or Dis
trict 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 on the subject, are those of the 2Sth Of
Fsbruaro, l705, and the Sd Of fMarcn, 1907, These
authorize the President after he shall have ascer-
tained that the Marshal with his posse comitatus
unable to execute civil or criminal process in any
particular case to call forth the militia and employ
the army and navy to aid him in performing this
service having first, by proclamation commanded
the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to
their respective abodes within limited tme.--
This duty cannot by any possibility be performed
in state where no judicial authority exists to
issue process, where there is no Marshal to exc
cute, and where even if there were such and Of
fcer, the entire population would constitute SOL
id combination to resist him.


The mere resistance of these provisions proves
how inadequate they are, without further legisla-
ton, to overcome united opposition in a single
State not to speak Of other States who may place
themselves in similar attitude Congress alone