FEB. 13, 1833.] Revenue Collection Bill. [SENATE. themselves as the only patriots to save the country, are of Andrew Jackson, because he assures us Andrew Jackstill unprepared, are still desirous of delay? Why is it son never has abused power." I congratulate the honorathat those who are opposed to this measure, whenever it ble gentleman upon the extent of his faith. It is at least comes up, are raising those delays? Motion follows mo- equal to "the grain of mustard seed," and it may yet action to adjourn, to postpone, to lay on the table. Why complish miracles. The honorable gentleman should renot meet it at once in a proper spirit? The allegation of member that this bill proposes to authorize the President gentlemen not being yet prepared, he was not willing to to transfer these extraordinary powers to his agents. Great admit; he himself had been constrained to occupy the as the President is, powerful as we all know him to be, floor some days when he was equally unprepared; but he he must employ agents to execute his will; and it necessawas willing to pursue his course; and, prepared or un-rily follows that that discretion with which you clothe the prepared, discharge his duty to the best of his ability. As President must be by him transferred to his agents, to the regarded the objection raised by the Senator from Ken- commanders of his army and his navy, to the collectors of tucky [Mr. BIBB] to the judiciary clauses, and the opinion the revenue, to his marshals and his bailiffs. I am not disadvanced of the removal of criminal prosecutions from posed to make a question with the gentleman about his the State courts being unconstitutional, let that gentleman faith in the President; but I would ask him, are you premake a motion at once to strike out the provision, and pared to grant such powers on the faith which you repose this would bring up the question. As regarded the gen- in such agents as these? But, sir, away with such solemn tleman from Alabama, [Mr. MOORE,] as he (Mr. W.) was trifling. I consider this a question of liberty, and not of not aware of that gentleman's intention to address the faith; and I can assure him, that if his constituents, the Senate, it could not be supposed that he had any desire free laborers, of which we have heard so much, permit to embarrass him. He was under the impression that an- their representatives to bring their liberties as a faith ofother gentleman, a Senator from Virginia, [Mr. RIVES,] fering, a propitiation to conciliate the good will of the would occupy the floor. President, those of whom I am an unworthy representaMr. BIBB, after a few remarks in reply, moved to post-tive place theirs above all price. Sir, the people of Alapone the further, consideration of the bill, and to make it bama are as much devoted to this Union, as established by the special order for to-morrow, in order to afford him our fathers, as the people of any other State can be; time to examine the third section more at his leisure. they are devoted to the Union, but they are devoted to it, The yeas and nays being ordered on this question, it not as the means of oppression, not as the source of civil was decided as follows: war, but as the palladium of liberty. I have said, sir, that I am not called upon to defend either the principles or the action of South Carolina. I have said that this bill NAYS.--Messrs. Bell, Chambers, Clay, Clayton, Dud-makes another issue, which involves directly the rights, ley, Dickerson, Ewing, Foot, Forsyth, Frelinghuysen, interests, and liberty of my constituents. The gentleman Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Holmes, Johnston, Kane, Nau- tells us about the free labor of the North; and they tell dain, Robinson, Robbins, Ruggles, Seymour, Smith, us that they never will consent that this free labor of the Sprague, Tipton, Tomlinson, Waggaman, Webster, North shall be reduced to the same condition as the slave White, Wilkins, Wright.--30. labor of the South. Do gentlemen forget that there are YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Calhoun, King, Miller, Moore, Poindexter, Tyler.-8. Mr. MOORE then rose to make a few remarks on the free laborers in the South as well as in the North? Do bill. He said he rose with no hypocritical pretence of an gentlemen forget that the object of this constitution and extraordinary attachment to the Union. As members of of our Union was to secure equal rights, peace, and hapthis body, said he, we have all sworn to support the con-piness to all our citizens? If they concede this, (and none stitution, and I concede to each as earnest a desire to fulfil will be so lost to all sense of propriety as to deny the this duty as I know that I myself feel. 1, sir, am proud truth of the assertion,) what right has the free laborer of to be an American citizen; I am proud to be a citizen of the North to demand that his labor shall be protected at the State of Alabama; I am proud of the honor of a seat in the expense of the free labor, or even the slave labor of this Senate. But much as I prize this name, and proud as the South? Yes, sir, I say of the slave labor of the South. I am of the honor assigned to me by the partiality and indulgence of my fellow-citizens, I should be false to them, to their interests, and to myself, if I could permit this bill to become a law without having done all in my power to prevent it. Much has been said about the course which South Carolina has adopted. I do not feel called upon to defend either her principles or her action; that task will be performed by those to whom she has assigned that duty. In my opinion this bill presents another issue, which involves directly the rights, the interests, and the liberty of my constituents. It proposes to clothe the President of the United States with dictatorial and discretionary powers. It does more; it proposes to place the issue of civil war upon the discretion of a captain of a revenue cutter, the caprice of a young lieutenant fresh from school, or the folly of a tide-waiter. For, sir, with us, labor is labor; it matters not whether it be of the slave or of the free, of the bondsman or his master; in fact, there can be none in theory, but in the minds of those hypocritical pretenders in philanthropy, who would emancipate our slaves under the pretence that all men are born free and equal," and butcher their masters with mercenary bayonets; but as the gentleman from Pennsylvania who spoke last [Mr. DALLAS] does not like the word mercenary, I will say the bayonets of power; because we insist that it never was intended by the framers of the constitution to tax the slave labor of the South for the purpose of protecting "the free labor of the North." Your northern gentlemen have a holy horror at holding a fellow-creature in bondage, but they feel no horror at the idea of sending an army to compel the owners of these slaves to pay over all the profits of these slaves into the pockets of the northern manufacturers and It makes the President of the United States a national capitalists. They consider slavery a most heinous offence dictator, and converts the agents who may be intrusted against God and man; yet they call upon us, in the name of with the execution of his supreme discretion into petty all that is dear in religion and morals, to authorize them chieftains, who are required to trample upon the judicial to overrun South Carolina with fire and sword, unless she authorities of the States. You see it places the military will pay over to them the profits of her slave labor. Or, above the civil authority, and substitutes a military despot- in other words, they are too pious, too benevolent, to own ism for the peaceful administration of the laws. But we are told by the honorable chairman of the committee who reported this bill, [Mr. WILKINS,] that we may safely intrust these extraordinary powers to the hands slaves themselves; but they ask us very modestly, sir, to convert the owners of slaves in South Carolina into their overseers, superintending cotton fields and rice plantations for their benefit. SENATE.] Election of Printer.--Tariff Resolutions, &c. [FEB. 14, 1833. Yes, Mr. President, disguise this matter as you will, workshops and manufacturing establishments; at this enthis is the question. We have long seen the tendency lightened hour, and in this free country, you cannot enand object of the tariff policy. We deny your right to force it. We know our rights, and, knowing them, dare protect the free labor of the North, at the expense of the maintain and defend them." slave labor of the South. With us there is no distinction between the labor of the slave and the labor of the free, of the bondsman and his master. The God of nature, nor the constitution, which alone has the right to determine what shall be law upon this subject, has made no distinction, and we will not permit this Government to do it; to yield such a power would be to permit the free laborers of the North to convert the masters of our slaves into the slaves of northern masters. And it is because I believe the bill involves this question, and because I know the people of Alabama have a common interest with the people of South Carolina in resisting this oppression, that I am opposed to this bill. We hear gentlemen loud in the praises of the constitution, vociferous in their professions of attachment to the Union. I can tell them, nay, they have been told again and again, how they can maintain the constitution, and preserve the Union. Reject this bill, and modify the tariff; do justice, and the necessity for force will cease. The committee rose and reported the bill as amended; and the amendments were concurred in. Mr. POINDEXTER expressed a hope that the final de- THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14. ELECTION OF PRINTER. The resolution fixing the election of a public printer for Friday was then taken up for consideration. Mr. BENTON moved to lay the resolution on the table for the present. He reminded the Senate that he had introduced a resolution to alter the time for this election. That resolution had gone to the Library Committee, and, until the report of that committee should be made, he hoped this resolution would not now be acted on. withdrew his motion at the request of He Mr. CHAMBERS, who stated that the House had fixed on 12 o'clock this day for the election of a printer. Consequently, the resolution of the Senator from Missouri was too late to have any effect on the election of the next printer. But some gentlemen seem to think they must support the President. I can understand why the Senators representing manufacturing States, and particularly those who never had any constitutional scruples upon the question of power, should support this bill. Although we are told this measure originated with the Executive, I can find no apoMr. BENTON said, that if this resolution were now to logy in that suggestion, which could justify me, as a Senator be acted on, he should feel bound to offer at length the representing a Southern State--yes, sir, 'a slave-holding, reasons which had induced him to introduce his joint reanti-tariff State-if I were so far to sacrifice their interest solution. He renewed his motion to lay the resolution on as to vote for this bill. I know, sir, that the President has the table. a commanding popularity among my people; the honest, unsuspecting planters and laborers of Alabama gave him their confidence when he was a plain unpretending planter like themselves. But they voted for Andrew Jackson to be the President of a free people, subject to all the restraints of the constitution; they did not expect that he would ask to be clothed with dictatorial powers, much less that he would march at the head of a standing army for the purpose of enforcing, at the point of the bayonet, the collection of odious, unjust, unequal, and unconstitu tional taxes. But I warn gentlemen to pause. Who is it that are now so anxious to clothe the President with these new, undefined powers? Are they not his old enemies? Are they not his late opponents? But, sir, I give them my thanks. I am the representative of a brave, generous, and, therefore, a confiding people. Yet, there are in Alabama, as there are in all other States, "waiters upon Providence"-men whose highest ambition it is to worship power. The policy of our adversaries has been to purchase these false guides, and weaken our resistance by internal dissensions. The motion was then agreed to-yeas 19, nays 12. The Senate then proceeded to consider the resolutions offered yesterday by Mr. WEBSTER. Mr. WEBSTER said, that it had been for some time his wish, on this most interesting subject, to express his own opinions, as briefly as possible, in the form of resolutions, and to follow up those resolutions with a few remarks. It would be agreeable to him to go on at once in the performance of this task, were it not for the standing order which required that the special order shall be called every day at 12 o'clock. As he did not wish to interfere with the important discussion which would commence at that hour, if the gentleman who proposed to occupy the floor to-day on that subject was now ready to proceed, he would postpone what he had to say on the subject of his resolutions until to-morrow. Mr. FORSYTH suggested that the Senate would be glad to listen to the gentleman from Massachusetts at this time, even if he should transcend the hour for the calling of the special order. Mr. CALHOUN said he would conform himself, in this instance, to the convenience of the Senator from Virginia who was expected to occupy the floor. the Senate. He was prepared to proceed with his remarks now, if such was the pleasure of the Senate, or to suspend them until after the Senator from Massachusetts should have been heard. On motion of Mr. CHAMBERS, the resolutions were then laid on the table. If gentlemen will disregard all our entreaties; if, instead of claiming the promise made the peacemakers, they still persist in the exercise of injustice and oppression; Mr. RIVES stated that he was entirely in the hands of if, instead of reducing the duties and giving us peace, harmony, strength, and brotherly love, they force upon us this bill, they will do us one favor, they will force us to be united; they will unbind the eyes of our people; they will then see who it is that "have sung peace, peace, when there was no peace." I again would say to those gentlemen who suppose they are to reap a golden harvest of profit or of honors from this measure, "You may have the power to pass your bill through this House; you may have the physical strength and the same generous majority by which you have passed your tariffs; but you cannot enforce it. I defy you, with all the sycophants, hirelings, and office-seekers now waiting for command. You may sweep the streets of your cities, and empty your REVENUE COLLECTION BILL. The Senate then proceeded to the consideration of the special order, being the bill to provide further for the collection of the duties on imports. Mr. RIVES, of Virginia, then rose and addressed the Senate, as follows: Mr. President: Stranger as I am in this body, and now almost a stranger in my own country, though in spirit and affection never separated from it, I feel that I owe an apology to the Senate for obtruding myself at all upon its attention. Sir, I do it with great reluctance, and with a deep sense of the disadvantages under which I labor. Most of the questions involved in the discussion of the bill now under consideration have sprung up during the period of my absence from the country; and the short interval which has elapsed since my return has afforded me neither the time nor the opportunity for a detailed examination of them. I bring to them, therefore, no other resources of argument or illustration than those settled principles and fundamental notions which are rooted in the mind of every American citizen, in regard to the constitution of his country. [SENATE. be the consequence, if South Carolina be permitted, without opposition, to nullify the revenue laws of the Union? Will not that uniformity of imposts, and that equality in the fiscal and commercial regulations of the Union, which are guarantied by the constitution, be at once abolished by the arbitrary act of South Carolina, to her own advantage, and to the detriment of the other States? Sir, as a representative of Virginia, I am not willing that Virginia shall be compelled to pay taxes, while South Carolina, by her own illegal and unauthorized action, is suffered to go quit of them. Yet this must be the unjust consequence of acquiescence in nullification; or, otherwise, a result still more distressing to the whole country will ensue-the entire commerce of the country will be drawn to the free ports of South Carolina; the ports of the other States, with all the important branches of industry connected with them, will be consigned to ruin; and, at the same time, the whole revenue of the nation will be cut off and destroyed. Sir, the questions now to be settled are of the deepest import to the destinies of this country. They touch not the construction of this or that clause of the constitution only; they go to the whole frame and structure of the Government, and the vital principle of its existence. Sir, Bad as these consequences, or any of them, may be, I should be recreant to my duty on this floor, as the re- there is yet another view of the subject of still higher impresentative of a State which, under Providence, had the portance. The example would inflict a mortal wound on chief agency in the establishment of this happy system of the constitution. The Government would be thenceforGovernment, if I did not attempt, however feebly, the expression of my views on such an occasion. ward virtually dissolved, and we should inevitably fall back into the anarchy and confusion of the articles of confederation; if, indeed, after such an example of weakness, the States should continue connected by any tie whatever. I am impelled to this expression, Mr. President, by another consideration. It is my misfortune to differ from my worthy and honorable colleague, as well as from other honorable Senators coming from the same quarter of the For one, therefore, I feel myself constrained, by the Union as myself, in several of the views I have taken of highest considerations of duty, to give my assent to such this subject. It is due to them, as well as to myself and measures as may be necessary and proper to provide for those whom we represent, that the grounds of this differ- the execution of the laws, while they remain unrepealed. ence of opinion should be stated and explained. And, in There are some provisions in the bill now under conorder to preclude all misapprehension, I beg leave to say, sideration of which I do not approve, as I shall have occain the outset, that no one is or has been more thoroughly sion to say more fully when I come to explain my own opposed to that whole system of policy usually denomi- ideas of the legislation best adapted to meet the crisis. nated the American system than I have been, and still am. But we are met at the threshold with a preliminary denial My voice, sir, has been often and strenuously, however of the right of the Government to adopt any measures ineffectually, raised against it in another division of this whatever for the execution of a law of the United States Capitol. I consider it unjust in principle, inexpedient in which shall have been nullified by the authorities of a practice, oppressive and unequal in its operation-in State. This position has been maintained by both the short, an abuse of power contrary to the true genius of honorable Senators from South Carolina, and especially our institutions. by the honorable Senator who spoke first, [Mr. CALHOUN,] in the remarks made by him at the time of submitting his resolutions which are now lying on your table. But, sir, what is entitled to far more consideration, the State which I have the honor in part to represent has repeatedly and strongly protested against this system; and How, sir, has this extraordinary position been attempted it is but yesterday that her Legislature earnestly renewed to be sustained? One would have supposed that a power her appeal to the councils of the nation so to modify the so radically affecting the whole operation of our system system as to remove the just causes of complaint which as an absolute State veto of the laws of the Union, would had arisen against it. Sir, this appeal, and similar appeals have been in some form or other expressed in the constiwhich have emanated from the Legislatures of other tution. Instead of this, we find an express declaration States, fortified by all those high considerations of patri- that the constitution and laws of the United States shall otism, policy, and justice, which the crisis suggests, can- control and be supreme over the constitution and laws of not fail to have their proper effect. There is every rea- the respective States. Yet the honorable Senator [Mr. son to believe that this distracting question will be settled, CALHOUN] Seeks to do away all this, by setting up the and speedily and satisfactorily settled, as it ought to be. metaphysical deductions and ingenious creations of his But, notwithstanding these grounds of hope, one of the own mind in the place of the positive terms of the instruStates of the Union has rashly undertaken to redress her ment itself. Sir, I propose to follow the honorable Senagriefs by a formal abrogation of the laws of the United tor, step by step, in the process of reasoning by which he States within her limits. She has declared the whole has attained so singular a result. And, as I am anxious to series of revenue laws, from the origin of the Government deal with his argument in all possible fairness, I will first to the present day, to be null and void; has prohibited state what I understood that argument to be, in order their execution within her borders, under high penalties; that, if I shall have fallen into a misapprehension of any and has ordained various other measures with the express view of defeating and arresting their operation. part of it, the honorable Senator may set me right. I understand the honorable Senator, then, thus: After In this state of things, we are called upon to say if the stating that the problem is to ascertain where the paraGovernment of the United States shall acquiesce in this mount power of the system is, and that that power must open defiance and violation of the laws of the Union, be where the sovereignty is, he proceeds by saying that without taking any step whatever for their enforcement? the constitution of the United States is a compact between For myself, I am free to say that I do not thus read my the several States; that these States only are sovereign; oath to support the constitution of the United States. I that the Government of the United States is not sovereign, do not thus understand my duty to my country, or the because, according to the principles of modern political interest and the honor of my own State. What, sir, will science, sovereignty is not the attribute of any Govern SENATE.] Revenue Collection Bill. [FEB. 14, 1833. ment; that it resides in the people; that the only people truly as it resides in the States, or several communities known to the true theory of our institutions is the people composed of individuals, for the purposes of their organiof the several States, distinctly; that if the people of anyzation. one State in the Union, therefore, shall, in its sovereign I should not think it necessary, Mr. President, to dwell capacity, interpose between its citizens and the Govern- on an idea, which, to my mind, is so obvious, if I did not inent of the United States, the act of a sovereign being know that the suggestion of any unity in our federal orgaalways binding on its citizens, the citizens of that State nization had recently given rise to such dissatisfaction, can no longer owe obedience to the Government of the and if we did not live in times when the best settled prinUnited States, or be properly subject to its action; but ciples have been boldly called in question. It may not be that if the act of the State, so absolving its citizens from amiss, therefore, to bring a few proofs to the support of obedience to the United States, be a violation of the com- what I have ventured to assert--that the United States pact with the other States, it is the State only as a political do form, to certain purposes, one community, one intecommunity that is responsible. I hope, sir, I have stated gral political body. We are all agreed that the United the reasoning of the Senator fairly, as I have wished and States form a confederate republic. Now, sir, what is intended to do. the definition of a confederate republic by that writer, Now, sir, in regard to the first proposition laid down who, among the political philosophers of modern times, by the honorable Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. seems to have best understood its characteristics, and to CALHOUN,] it gives me pleasure to say that I am entirely have most justly appreciated its advantages? Montesof accord with him. Here we draw our principles from quieu says, "A confederate republic is a convention by the same pure fountain-the republican doctrines of '98 which several smaller States agree to become members and '99, as asserted at that time by the Legislature of my of a larger one, which they intend to form. It is a kind own State. If there be any thing in politics or history of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one," resting on grounds of incontrovertible evidence and con- &c. The writers of the Federalist, in the 9th number, clusive demonstration, it is that the constitution of the referring to what Montesquieu says on this subject, add, United States was adopted by the people of the United "The definition of a confederate republic seems simply States, not as an aggregate mass of individuals, but as to be an assemblage of societies,' or an association of two separate and independent communities. This, sir, is the or more States into one State." foundation-stone of our federal system; and every attempt to displace it has resulted in acknowledged failure, and has only served to establish it the more firmly. But, sir, let us appeal to a distinguished authority which is often invoked by the politicians of South Carolina, and for which I challenge a portion of their respect, But, sir, are the other propositions of the honorable on the present occasion. Mr. Jefferson, sir, in a letter Senator [Mr.CALHOUN] equally true? Is it true, that to Mr. Edmund Randolph, which will be found in the 3d vothere is no other sovereignty, known to our political sys-lume of his published correspondence, written on the 18th tem, than that which resides in the people of each State August, 1799, in the very crisis of that great struggle for distinctly? And here, sir, as the chief source of diffi- constitutional principles which terminated in the "civil culty in all discussions of this sort is in the vague use of revolution" of 1801, and when he must be supposed to terms, let us fix what we mean by sovereignty. The have weighed well all the bearings of his words, uses the elementary idea of sovereignty is that of supreme, uncon- following language: "Before the revolution, there extrolled power; and when applied to political organiza-isted no such nation as the United States; they then tions, I agree with the honorable Senator from South first associated as a nation, but for special purposes only. Carolina, [Mr. CALHOUN,] that it cannot, with propriety, They had all their laws to make, as Virginia had on her be predicated of Government, which is a delegated and first establishment as a nation. But they did not, as Virlimited trust, but that it resides exclusively in the body ginia had done, proceed to adopt a whole system of laws of the community, which creates and establishes the ready made to their hand. As their association as a nation Government. I readily grant, then, that the Govern- was only for special purposes," &c. ment of the United States possess no sovereignty. The Sir, it would be easy to show, if the time of the Senate honorable Senator [Mr. CALHOUN] seems to have sup- were not too precious to be consumed in unnecessary disposed that, this being admitted, it would necessarily follow that the only sovereignty known to our political system is in the people of each State distinctly, there being, as he contends, no other people, according to its true theory, than the people of the several States, separately considered. But, sir, this argument obviously overlooks the peculiar nature of our complex organization, which embraces two distinct species of communities; But, sir, without insisting on the particular weight of the separate communities, called the States, formed by the Mr. Jefferson's authority, in this view of it, I would ask individuals who compose those States respectively; and the if the same language has not been habitually used by all general community, called the United States, formed by the our great men who were contemporary with the formaassociation of all the States into a political Union. There is tion of the constitution, and with the vital questions of one body politic or community as clearly resulting from construction to which the first ten years of its operation the association of States in the one case, as there is such gave rise? We all remember, Mr. President, that Genbody politic or community resulting from the association eral Washington, in that noble monument of patriotism of individuals in the other. In the body of the commu- and wisdom, his farewell address, speaks of the "unity nity, the sovereignty of each system resides; that of the of Government which constitutes us one people,” and of federal system, in the community called the United States; the States as bound together by "an indissoluble commuthat of the State systems, in the body of the community nity of interest as one nation." Mr. Madison, than whom called the State. You will remark, Mr. President, that I certainly no higher authority can be appealed to, in regard here speak of the United States, as contradistinguished to that constitution which is the workmanship of his own from the Government of the United States; and I contend hands, thus writes in his letter to the editor of the North that the term United States, as used in our political no-American Review: "The constitution of the United States, menclature, designates one body politic, one integral being a compact among the States in their highest sovecommunity, (although a community composed of States,) reign capacity, and constituting the people thereof one in which sovereignty resides, as to certain purposes, as people for certain purposes, cannot be altered or annull cussion, that the recognition here made of the United States as forming one nation, for certain purposes, is of particular weight, from the nature of the question which Mr. Jefferson was then discussing, and which would have rendered his course of argument much shorter and simpler, if he could have denied altogether the existence of any national individuality in the United States. ed at the will of the States individually, as the constitution of a State may be at its individual will." [SENATE. condition, and has placed this important power in the hands of three-fourths of the States, in which the sovereignty of the Union, under the constitution, does now actually reside." But why add to this list of distinguished authorities, further than to cite the authority of the honorable Senator from South Carolina himself? In his letter to Governor Here, then, Mr. President, we have a distinct acknowHamilton, published during the last summer, I find the ledgement, in accordance with the principles I have laid following passage: "The General Government is the joint down, that the sovereignty of the federal system is not in organ of all the States confederated into one general com- the people of any one of the States, acting separately, as munity." And again: "In the execution of the dele- the honorable Senator now contends, but in three-fourths gated powers, the Union is no longer regarded in of the States, acting concurrently. The honorable Senareference to its parts, but as forming one great commu- tor has told us that the paramount power of controlling nity, to be governed by a common will," &c. the General Government must reside where the sovereignIf, then, the United States do form "one community, ty of the system resides. The problem stated by him was governed by a common will," sovereignty may and does to ascertain where that power does reside, and is here exist in the body of that community, for the special pur- conclusively solved by his own State, in a solemn exposiposes of the Union, just as effectually and unquestionably tion drawn up by himself. The plain result is, that the as sovereignty exists in the people of an individual State, paramount or sovereign power is not in the people of any for State purposes. My answer, then, and I flatter my-one State, but in three-fourths of all the States. self a conclusive one, to the argument of the honorable This important document, also, in acknowledging that Senator, is, that the sovereignty of our federal system is there "are two distinct and independent sovereignties" neither in the Government of the United States, nor in in our complex organization, recognises the correctness the people of the individual States separately considered, of another of the positions I have laid down-that there but in that "great community" or body politic, called is sovereignty in the United States, in regard to the purthe United States, resulting from the association of all the poses of the Union, as well as sovereignty in the several States for special purposes. Mr. Jefferson, in the letter States, for State purposes. It has become fashionable, of to Mr. Randolph from which I read the extract cited a few late, to deny that there is any sovereignty in the United moments ago, says, very properly, that "the whole body States, (I speak, of course, of the United States as a poof the nation" or community "is the sovereign power for litical community, and not of the Government of the Uniitself." ted States,) and to claim for the States, separately, an There is a practical criterion, of very easy application absolute, complete, and unqualified sovereignty, to all inin our American institutions, for determining where sove- tents and purposes whatever. Sir, this is a novelty unreignty resides. Sovereignty resides where the power known to the founders of the constitution, and has sprung of amending the constitution or fundamental law resides. up in the hotbed of excited local politics. At the period In a single State, this power resides in the people of the of the adoption of the constitution, it was distinctly made State; and, of course, the sovereignty resides in them known, and universally understood, that to the extent to also. In the Union, this power resides in the federal which sovereignty was vested in the Union, that of the States community composed of all the States; and, according to severally was relinquished and diminished. What is said, an express provision in the constitution, requires for its sir, by the convention which framed the constitution, in exercise the concurrence of three-fourths of the States. communicating their work to Congress to be submitted to According to this plain practical test, then, the actual the people? The following unequivocal language is held sovereignty of the Union is in three-fourths of the States. in the letter addressed by the convention to Congress, on Here again, I am happy to fortify myself by an autho- that occasion, and signed by General Washington, as prerity, which, if not that of the honorable Senator himself, sident of the convention: "It is obviously impracticable, as it is generally understood to be, must at least command in the Federal Government of these States, to secure all his very high respect. I allude to the report and exposi- the rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet protion adopted by the Legislature of South Carolina in De- vide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals encember, 1828. From that document I beg leave to read tering into society must give up a share of liberty to to the Senate the following extract: preserve the rest," &c. Let not any attempt be made to "Our system, then, consists of two distinct and inde-lessen the weight of this declaration by representing it as pendent sovereignties. The general powers conferred the expression of the individual sentiment of General on the General Government are subject to its sole and Washington, by whom the letter was signed. The draught exclusive control, and the States cannot, without violating of the letter was carefully prepared, under the orders of the constitution, interpose their authority to check or in any manner counteract its movements, so long as they are confined to its proper sphere; so also the peculiar and local powers reserved to the States are subject to their exclusive control, nor can the General Government interfere with them, without, on its part, also violating the constitution. In order to have a full and clear conception of our institutions, it will be proper to remark that there is in But, sir, let us trace this matter a little further. Among our system a striking distinction between the Government the contemporary publications, explaining and recomand the sovereign power. Whatever may be the true mending the new constitution, the essays of the Federalist, doctrine in regard to the sovereignty of the States indi- as well for the distinguished ability with which they were vidually, it is unquestionably clear that, while the Govern- written, as for the high character of the authors, two of ment of the Union is vested in its legislative, executive, whom were members of the convention which framed the and judicial departments, the actual sovereign power constitution, were universally read and profoundly consiresides in the several States, who created it, in their sepa- dered. In the letter of Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Gerry, an rate and distinct political character. But, by an express extract of which was read the other day by the honoraprovision of the constitution, it may be amended or chang- ble Senator from Pennsylvania,[Mr. DALLAS,] it is said with ed by three-fourths of the States; and each State, by great force and propriety, that the constitution should alassenting to the constitution with this provision, has sur-ways be understood in the sense in which it was advocarendered its original rights as a sovereign, which made its ted by its friends, and adopted by the States." Now, sir, individual consent necessary to any change in its political let us see in what light it was presented to the people, in VOL. IX.-32 the convention, by the same committee which was charged with giving the final shape to the constitution itself; and both were sanctioned and adopted by the convention, at the same time. It was, then, the solemn explanation of their own act by the convention themselves, made known to the people, and understood by them, when the States ratified and adopted the constitution. |