"while truth has its legitimate influence, and reason " controls the judgments of men."

66

That Webster felt the force of Calhoun's argument is evident from the change in his own views within the next few years. In 1839, in the case of the Bank of Augusta vs. Earle, Webster used such language as this: "I am not prepared to say that the States have no "national sovereignty.” "The Constitution treats "States as States." "The States of this Union, as "States, are subject to all the voluntary and customary "laws of nations." The language of the Supreme Court in this case was: "They are sovereign States." "A corporation created by one sovereignty is per"mitted to make contracts in another, and to sue in its "courts." "The same law of comity prevails among "the several sovereignties of this Union." Thus the Supreme Court held that sovereignty is still retained by the several States of the Union under the Constitution. Webster admitted it. The great "expounder "of the Constitution," in 1839, was immeasurably behind his successor of 1861, who held with Lincoln that the relation of a State to the United States was simply that of a county to a State-without one shadow or spark of sovereignty.

Subsequently, in his letter to the Barings, bankers of London, who enquired as to the right of States to issue bonds and borrow money, Webster recognized in the State this high privilege of sovereignty. "Every "State," said he, " is an independent, sovereign, politi"cal community, except in so far as certain powers, "which it might otherwise have exercised, have been "conferred on a General Government." Again, in

1851, Webster expressed similar views in a speech made at Capon Springs, Virginia. He said:

"How absurd it is to suppose that when different parties enter into a compact for certain purposes, "either can disregard any one provision, and expect, "nevertheless, the other to observe the rest."

"I have not hesitated to say, and I repeat, that if "the Northern States refuse, wilfully and deliberately, "to carry into effect that part of the Constitution "which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, the "South would no longer be bound to observe the com"pact. A bargain cannot be broken on one side and "still bind on the other."

The Resolutions of Calhoun in 1833 did not express more distinctly than this language of Webster, that the Union is a Union of States, that the Union is founded upon compact, and that a compact broken on one side does not continue to bind the other side. No vote was taken upon the Calhoun resolutions of 1833, but on December 28, 1837, only four years later, Calhoun introduced to the Senate a new set of resolutions, the first of which, in these words, set forth the very idea of those of 1833.

Resolved, That in the adoption of the Federal "Con"stitution, the States adopting the same, acted severally "as free, independent, and sovereign States; and that "each for itself, by its own voluntary assent, entered "the Union with the view to its increased security "against all dangers, domestic as well as foreign, and "the more perfect and secure enjoyment of its advan"tages, natural, political and social."

It will be observed that this resolution is in direct conflict with the Websterian doctrine as announced in

1838, and with the generally accepted meaning of Jackson's proclamation. Calhoun here announced that the Union is a compact springing from the States acting as States, and not a government springing from the people. This resolution was adopted by a vote of thirty-two Senators against thirteen. Eighteen States voted for it; and Senators representing only six States voted against it. One State was divided and one did not vote. Thus more than two-thirds of the States, through their Senators, vindicated the political ideas of Calhoun, and this verdict was given only four years after the ordinance of nullification, and after Jackson's proclamation.

CHAPTER VIII.

Controversy between Alabama and the United States— Intrusion on the Creek Lands-Killing of Owens-Message of Governor Gayle-Threats of Resistance to the Military Resolutions of a Legislative CommitteeMission of Key to the State-Adjustment of the Difficulty-The Federal Government Compromises the Question, &c., &c.

"Allegiance, a word brought from the Old World, of Latin origin, from ligo, to bind, means the obligation which every one owes to that power in the State, to which he is indebted for the protection of his rights of person and property. Allegiance and sovereignty, as we have seen, are reciprocal. To whatever power a citizen owes allegiance, that power is his sovereign.' To what power are the citizens of the several States indebted for protection of person and property, in all the relations of life, for the regulation of which governments are instituted? Certainly not to the Federal Government."

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.

"The use of force against a State would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound. * * Any government for the United States formed on the supposed practicability of using force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the States would prove visionary and fallacious."

JAMES MADISON, IN THE CONVENTION,

The lands occupied by the Creeks in Alabama were laid off and organized into nine counties, by an act of the General Assembly, so as to put the entire machinery of the State Government into full operation. This was in accordance with the action of Georgia, in pursuance of the Constitution of Alabama, and consistent with the views of President Jackson, as understood at the time the treaty was made, and before his views had