"The General Assembly doth explicitly illustrated by common practice, and essenand peremptorily declare, that it views the tial to the nature of compacts, that, where powers of the federal government, as re- resort can be had to no tribunal superior sulting from the compact to which the to the authority of the parties, the parties states are parties, as limited by the plain themselves must be the rightful judges in sense and intention of the instrument con- the last resort, whether the bargain made stituting that compact, as no further valid has been pursued or violated. The conthan they are authorized by the grants stitution of the United States was formed enumerated in that compact; and that in by the sanction of the states, given by each case of a deliberate, palpable, and danger- in its sovereign capacity. It adds to the ous exercise of other powers not granted stability and dignity, as well as to the auby the said compact, the states who are thority, of the constitution, that it rests parties thereto have the right, and are in upon this legitimate and solid foundation. duty bound, to interpose for arresting the The states, then, being the parties to the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, constitutional compact, and in their sovwithin their respective limits, authorities, ereign capacity, it follows of necessity that rights, and liberties, belonging to them." there can be no tribunal above their auIn addition to the above resolution, the thority, to decide, in the last resort, whethGeneral Assembly of Virginia "appealed er the compact made by them be violated, to the other states, in the confidence that and consequently that, as the parties to it, they would concur with that common- they must decide, in the last resort, such wealth, that the acts aforesaid [the alien questions as may be of sufficient magniand sedition laws] are unconstitutional, tude to require their interposition." and that the necessary and proper measures would be taken by each for co-operating with Virginia in maintaining unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The legislatures of several of the New England States, having, contrary to the expectation of the legislature of Virginia, expressed their dissent from these doctrines, the subject came up again for consideration during the session of 1799, 1800, when it was referred to a select committee, by whom was made that celebrated report which is familiarly known as "Madison's Report," and which deserves to last as long as the constitution itself. In that report, which was subsequently adopted by the legislature, the whole subject was deliberately re-examined, and the objections urged against the Virginia doctrines carefully considered. The result was, that the legislature of Virginia reaffirmed all the principles laid down in the resolutions of 1798, and issued to the world that admirable report which has stamped the character of Mr. Madison as the preserver of that constitution which he had contributed so largely to create and establish. I will here quote from Mr. Madison's report one or two passages which bear more immediately on the point in controversy. "The resolutions, having taken this view of the federal compact, proceed to infer that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers the states who are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them."" "The resolution has guarded against any misapprehension of its object by expressly requiring for such an interposition the case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous breach of the constitution, by the exercise of powers not granted by it.' It must be a case, not of a light and transient nature, but of a nature dangerous to the great purposes for which the constitution was established. "But the resolution has done more than guard against misconstructions, by expressly referring to cases of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous nature. It specifies the object of the interposition, which it contemplates, to be solely that of arresting the progress of the evil of usurpation, and of maintaining the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to the states, as parties to the constitution. "From this view of the resolution, it would seem inconceivable that it can incur any just disapprobation from those who, laying aside all momentary impressions, and recollecting the genuine source and object of the federal constitution, shall candidly and accurately interpret the meaning of the General Assembly. If the deliberate exercise of dangerous powers, palpably withheld by the constitution, could not justify the parties to it in interposing even so far as to arrest the progress of the evil, and thereby to preserve the constitution itself, as well as to provide for the safety of the parties to it, there would be an end to all relief from usurped power, and a direct subversion of the rights specified or recoganized under all the state constitutions, as well as a plain denial of the fundamental principles on which our independence itself was declared." But, sir, our authorities do not stop here. It appears to your committee to be a The state of Kentucky responded to Virplain principle, founded in common sense,ginia, and on the 10th of November, 1798, adopted those celebrated resolutions, well known to have been penned by the author of the Declaration of American Independ- into the compact, and direct infractions of ence. In those resolutions, the legislature of Kentucky declare, "that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge, for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress." At the ensuing session of the legislature, the subject was re-examined, and on the 14th of November, 1799, the resolutions of the preceding year were deliberately reaffirmed, and it was, among other things, solemnly declared,— clares to be "usurpations of the powers retained by the states, mere interpolations it," he solemnly reasserts all the principles of the Virginia Resolutions of '98, protests against "these acts of the federal branch of the government as null and void, and declares that, although Virginia would consider a dissolution of the Union as among the greatest calamities that could befall them, yet it is not the greatest. There is one yet greater-submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of this shall become absolutely desperate, that further forbearance could not be indulged." In his letter to Mr. Giles, written about the same time, he says,— "I see as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is ad"That, if those who administer the gen-vancing towards the usurpation of all the eral government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, an annihilation of the state governments, and the erection upon their ruins of a general consolidated government, will be the inevitable consequence. That the principles of construction contended for by sundry of the state legislatures, that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of despotism; since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the constitution, would be the measure of their powers. That the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction, and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." rights reserved to the states, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic, and that too by constructions which leave no limits to their powers, &c. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume, indefinitely, that also over agriculture and manufactures, &c. Under the authority to establish post roads, they` claim that of cutting down mountains for the construction of roads, and digging canals, &c. And what is our resource for the preservation of the constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue with the marble columns encircling them, &c. Are we then to stand to our arms with the hot-headed Georgian? No; [and I say no, and South Carolina has said no;] that must be the last resource. We must have patience and long endurance with our brethren, &c., and separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left are a dissolution of our Union with them, or submission. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation." Such, sir, are the high and imposing authorities in support of "The Carolina doctrine," which is, in fact, the doctrine of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. Sir, at that day the whole country was divided on this very question. It formed the line of demarcation between the federal and republican parties; and the great po Time and experience confirmed Mr. Jefferson's opinion on this all important point. In the year 1821, he expressed himself in this emphatic manner: "It is a fatal heresy to suppose that either our state governments are superior to the federal, or the federal to the state; neither is authorized literally to decide which belongs to itself or its copartner in government; in differences of opinion, between their different sets of public servants, the appeal is to neither, but to their employ-litical revolution which then took place ers peaceably assembled by their repre- turned upon the very questions involved in sentatives in convention." The opinion of these resolutions. That question was deMr. Jefferson on this subject has been so cided by the people, and by that decision repeatedly and so solemnly expressed, that the constitution was, in the emphatic lanthey may be said to have been the most guage of Mr. Jefferson, "saved at its last fixed and settled convictions of his mind. gasp." I should suppose, sir, it would reIn the protest prepared by him for the quire more self-respect than any gentleman legislature of Virginia, in December, 1825, here would be willing to assume, to treat in respect to the powers exercised by the lightly doctrines derived from such high federal government in relation to the tariff resources. Resting on authority like this, I and internal improvements, which he de- I will ask gentlemen whether South Carolina has not manifested a high regard for the was maintained by Virginia and Kentucky Union, when, under a tyranny ten times in the worst of times-that it constituted more grievous than the alien and sedition the very pivot on which the political revolaws, she has hitherto gone no further than lution of that day turned-that it embraces to petition, remonstrate, and to solemnly the very principles, the triumph of which, protest against a series of measures which at that time, saved the constitution at its she believes to be wholly unconstitutional | last gasp, and which New England statesand utterly destructive of her interests. men were not unwilling to adopt, when Sir, South Carolina has not gone one step they believed themselves to be the victims further than Mr. Jefferson himself was dis-of unconstitutional legislation. Sir, as to posed to go, in relation to the present sub-the doctrine that the federal government is ject of our present complaints-not a step the exclusive judge of the extent as well as further than the statesman from New Eng- the limitations of its powers, it seems to me land was disposed to go, under similar cir- to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty cumstances; no further than the senator and independence of the states. It makes from Massachusetts himself once considered but little difference, in my estimation, as within "the limits of a constitutional whether Congress or the Supreme Court are opposition." The doctrine that it is the invested with this power. If the federal right of a state to judge of the violations of government, in all, or any, of its departthe constitution on the part of the federal ments, is to prescribe the limits of its own government, and to protect her citizens authority, and the states are bound to subfrom the operations of unconstitutional mit to the decision, and are not to be allaws, was held by the enlightened citizens lowed to examine and decide for themof Boston, who assembled in Faneuil Hall, selves, when the barriers of the constitution on the 25th of January, 1809. They state, shall be overleaped, this is practically "a in that celebrated memorial, that "they government without limitation of powers." looked only to the state legislature, who The states are at once reduced to mere were competent to devise relief against the petty corporations, and the people are enunconstitutional acts of the general gov-tirely at your mercy. I have but one word ernment. That your power (say they) is more to add. In all the efforts that have adequate to that object, is evident from the organization of the confederacy." A distinguished senator from one of the New England States, (Mr. Hillhouse,) in a speech delivered here, on a bill for enforcing the embargo, declared, “I feel myself bound in conscience to declare, (lest the blood of those who shall fall in the execution of this measure shall be on my head,) that I consider this to be an act which directs a mortal blow at the liberties of my country -an act containing unconstitutional provisions, to which the people are not bound to submit, and to which, in my opinion, they will not submit." been made by South Carolina to resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended over them, she has kept steadily in view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by which she believes it can be long preserved-a firm, manly, and steady resistance against usurpation. The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole south in irretrievable ruin. But even this evil, great as it is, is not the chief ground of our complaints. It is the principle involved in the contest -a principle which, substituting the discretion of Congress for the limitations of And the senator from Massachusetts him- the constitution, brings the states and the self, in a speech delivered on the same sub-people to the feet of the federal governject in the other house, said, "This opposi-ment, and leaves them nothing they can tion is constitutional and legal; it is also call their own. Sir, if the measures of the conscientious. It rests on settled and sober federal government were less oppressive, conviction, that such policy is destructive we should still strive against this usurpato the interests of the people, and danger- tion. The south is acting on a principle ous to the being of government. The ex- she has always held sacred-resistance to perience of every day confirms these senti- unauthorized taxation. These, sir, are the ments. Men who act from such motives principles which induced the immortal are not to be discouraged by trifling obsta- Hampden to resist the payment of a tax cles, nor awed by any dangers. They know of twenty shillings. Would twenty shilthe limit of constitutional opposition; up lings have ruined his fortune? No! but to that limit, at their own discretion, they the payment of half twenty shillings, will walk, and walk fearlessly." How "the on the principle on which it was demanded, being of the government" was to be endan- would have made him a slave. Sir, if actgered by "constitutional opposition" to the ing on these high motives-if animated by embargo, I leave the gentleman to explain. that ardent love of liberty which has always Thus it will be seen, Mr. President, that been the most prominent trait in the souththe South Carolina doctrine is the republi-ern character-we should be hurried becan doctrine of '98-that it was promul-yond the bounds of a cold and calculating gated by the fathers of the faith-that it prudence, who is there, with one noble and generous sentiment in his bosom, that] be elsewhere. The honorable member, would not be disposed, in the language of however, did not incline to put off the disBurke, to exclaim, "You must pardon something to the spirit of liberty?"" Following Mr. Hayne in the debate, Mr. Webster addressed the Senate as follows: Mr. President: When the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading of the resolution. [The Secretary read the resolution as follows: 66 Resolved, That the committee on public lands be instructed to inquire and report the quantity of the public lands remaining unsold within each state and territory, and whether it be expedient to limit, for a certain period, the sales of the public lands to such lands only as have heretofore been offered for sale, and are now subject to entry at the minimum price. And, also, whether the office of surveyor general, and some of the land offices, may not be abolished without detriment to the public interest; or whether it be expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales, and extend more rapidly the surveys of the public lands."] cussion to another day. He had a shot, he The gentleman, sir, in declining to postpone the debate, told the Senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that there was something rankling here, which he wished to relieve. [Mr. Hayne rose and disclaimed having used the word rankling.] It would not, Mr. President, be safe for the honorable member to appeal to those around him, upon the question whether he did, in fact, make use of that word. But he may have been unconscious of it. At any rate, it is enough that he disclaims it. But still, with or without the use of that particular word, he had yet something here, he said, of which he wished to rid himself by an immediate reply. In this respect, sir, I have a great advantage over the honorable gentleman. There is nothing here, sir, which gives me the slightest uneasiness; neither fear, nor anger, nor that which is sometimes more troublesome than either, the consciousness of having been in the wrong. There is nothing either originating here, or now received here, by the gentleman's shot. Nothing original, We have thus heard, sir, what the reso- for I had not the slightest feeling of disrelution is, which is actually before us for spect or unkindness towards the honorable consideration; and it will readily occur to member. Some passages, it is true, had every one that it is almost the only subject occurred, since our acquaintance in this about which something has not been said body, which I could have wished might in the speech, running through two days, have been otherwise; but I had used philby which the Senate has been now enter-osophy, and forgotten them. When the tained by the gentleman from South Carolina. Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, whether past or present,every thing, general or local, whether belonging to national politics or party politics, seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before us. He has spoken of every thing but the public lands. They have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a passing glance. honorable member rose, in his first speech, I paid him the respect of attentive listening; and when he sat down, though surprised, and I must say even astonished, at some of his opinions, nothing was farther from my intention than to commence any personal warfare; and through the whole of the few remarks I made in answer, I avoided, studiously and carefully, every thing which I thought possible to be construed into disrepect. And, sir, while there is thus nothing originating here, which I wished at any time, or now wish When this debate, sir, was to be resumed, to discharge, I must repeat, also, that noon Thursday morning, it so happened that thing has been received here which rankles, it would have been convenient for me to lor in any way gives me annoyance. I will |