authorities and lucid expositions, Mr. WEBSTER seemed to cower, for not pretending to resist, he made a very feeble attempt to evade them, by giving them a construction in direct contradiction to their plain and literal import.

The last leading proposition of Mr. WEBSTER was that in no case of federal usurpation and oppression, however enormous, could a State interpose its sovereign authority to protect the rights, property, and liberties of its citizens against an unauthorized Act of Congress, without incurring the guilt of treason, in the persons of her functionaries. To this it was rejoined, that the idea of a State committing treason, against its confederates, or against any human authority, was inconsistent with the first elementary notion of sovereignty, and was essentially founded upon the assumption that the States were dependent corporations, or unorganized masses of individuals. That the interposition of a State in cases of gross usurpation and oppression, was a rightful and constitutional remedy, and being the act of a sovereign power through its civil organs, was in itself peaceful, and could only be made otherwise by the lawless application of force on the part of the Federal Government. In short, that it was the happy expedient of resisting intolerable oppression, and coercing a compromise, under our federal system, in cases which would produce civil war and revolution under other forms of government. These positions were unanswerably sustained by the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions.

The former declare, "that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of powers not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to in

terpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them."

Those of Kentucky declare, "that the several States who formed that instrument, (the federal compact,) 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." Mr. JEFFERSON adds on another occasion, "it is the peculiar felicity of our constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal where that of other nations is at once to force." Nothing can be more conclusive than these authorities.

Such is a brief outline of this celebrated senatorial conflict, and I think every impartial judge will agree that the great champion of a consolidated government, without limitation of powers, was completely overthrown.

Three years afterwards, when the progress of events had brought on the crisis which constrained South Carolina to maintain and exercise practically those sovereign rights and powers, which had been so ably vindicated in the Federal Senate, by our lamented fellow citizen, he was chosen a member of the State Convention. As Chairman of the Committee of Twenty-one, he reported the Ordinance of Nullification, preceded by an able and eloquent exposition of our wrongs, showing the utter hopelessness of redress from Congress, and the undoubted right and solemn duty of the State to make void the unconstitutional acts by which those wrongs were inflicted. A short time after the passage of this important measure, he was elected Governor of the State-a station of the very highest responsibility in

the then critical state of our relations with the Federal Government, and demanding the rarest combination of talents to meet the possible exigencies which might grow out of these relations. No higher evidence 'could have been given by the State of her confidence in his wisdom, firmness, prudence and patriotic devotion; and never was public confidence more fully justified, or public expectation more completely fulfilled, than by the consummate ability with which he performed his arduous duties.

On assuming this high trust, obviously impressed with a profound sense of the eventful issues which might grow out of the crisis, the sacred principles involved in the approaching contest, and his own solemn and responsible duties, he delivered an address, which for lofty and heroic patriotism, soul-inspiring eloquence, and perfect adaptation to the occasion, was never surpassed by any similar effort. After presenting a lucid exposition of our wrongs, of the sovereign right and duty of the State to arrest their progress, and alluding to the possibility of an attempt on the part of our federal rulers to reduce her to subjection by military force, he thus proceeds: "She has warned her brethren of the inevitable consequences of an appeal to arms; and if she shall be driven, in defence of her dearest rights, to resist aggression, let it be remembered that the innocent blood which may be shed in such a contest, will, on the great day of account, be required of those who shall persevere in the unhallowed attempt to exercise an "unwarrantable jurisdiction over us." If such, fellow citizens, should be 'our lot, if the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained by the blood of her citizens, shed in her defence, I

trust in Almighty God, that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother." "Should she succeed, her's will be glory enough to have led the way in the noble work of reform. And if, after making these efforts, due to her own honor, and the greatness of the cause, she is destined utterly to fail, the bitter fruits of that failure, not to herself alone, but to the entire South, nay, to the whole Union, will attest her virtue. The speedy establishment upon the ruins of the rights of the States, and the liberties of the people, of a great CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT, "riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman, and beggared yeomanry," of our once happy land—our glorious confederacy broken into shattered and dishonored fragments-the light of liberty extinguished never perhaps to be relumed-thesethese will be the melancholy memorials of that wisdom which saw the danger while yet at a distance, and of that patriotism which struggled gloriously to avert it; memorials over which repentant though unavailing tears will assuredly be shed, by those who will discover, when too late, that they have suffered the last occasion to pass away when the liberties of the country might have been redeemed, and the Union established upon a foundation as enduring as the everlasting rocks. We may not live to witness these things. To some of us it may not be allotted to survive the republic. But if we are only true to our duty, our example will, in that dark hour, be a rich legacy to our children—and which of us would desire a higher reward than to have it inscribed on his tomb," here lies the man who sacrificed himself in a noble effort to rescue the Constitution from vio

STAND OR FALL service of the

lation, and to restore the liberties of his country."
Fellow citizens, "this is our own, our native land ;”
it is the soil of Carolina which has been enriched by
the precious blood of our ancestors, shed in defence
of those rights and liberties, which we are bound by
every tie, divine and human, to transmit unimpaired
to our posterity. It is here we have been cherished
in youth and sustained in manhood, by the generous
confidence of our fellow citizens; here repose the
honored bones of our fathers; here the eyes of our
children first beheld the light, and here when our
earthly pilgrimage is over, we hope to sink to rest in
the bosom of our common mother. Bound to our
country by such sacred and endearing ties, let others
desert her if they can; let them revile her if they
will; let them give aid and countenance to her ene-
mies if they may; but for us, we will
WITH CAROLINA." Engaged in the
State on a different theatre, it was not my fortune to
hear this noble effusion of patriotic eloquence, but I
can confidently say that I have read nothing in the
speeches of the great Athenian Orator delivered on
a similar occasion, against the usurping tyrant of
Macedonia, in any respect more powerful. Of the
effect it produced on them who heard it, let one of
our distinguished citizens who was present-himself
among the most eloquent speakers of our country—
bear testimony. "It was," said he, "one of the most
successful displays of eloquence I ever heard. It in-
spired the hearers with irrepressible enthusiasm,
which burst forth in involuntary plaudits. I was agi-
tated and subdued under its influence; many wept
from excitement, and all, of all parties, were carried
away, entranced by the magic powers of the speaker."

Such, my fellow citizens, were the principles and