of a single individual into the cabinet, under the circumstances which accompanied that admission, threw all into confusion. The mischievous influence over the president, through which this individual was admitted into the cabinet, soon became apparent. Instead of turning his eyes forward to the period of the payment of the public debt, which was then near at hand, and to the present dangerous political crisis, which was inevitable, unless averted by a timely and wise system of measures, the attention of the president was absorbed by mere party arrangements, and circumstances too disreputable to be mentioned here, except by the most distant allusion.

It was thus that the reason able hope of relief, through the election of General Jackson, was blasted; but, still, one other hope remained that the final discharge of the public debt, an event near at hand, would remove our burden. That event would leave in the treasury a large surplus; a surplus that could not be expended under the most extravagant schemes of appropriation, having the least colour of decency or constitutionality. That event at last arrived. At the last session of congress, it was avowed on all sides, that the public debt, for all practical purposes, was, in fact, paid; the small surplus remaining being nearly covered by the money in the treasury, and the bonds for duties which had already accrued; but with the arrival of this event, our last

hope was doomed to be disappointed. After a long session of many months, and the most earnest effort on the part of South Carolina and the other southern states to obtain relief, all that could be effected was a small reduction in the amount of duties; but a reduction of such a character, that while it diminished the amount of burden, distributed that burden more unequally than even the obnoxious act of 1828; reversing the principle adopted by the bill of 1816, of laying higher duties on the unprotected than the protected articles, by repealing, almost entirely, the duties laid upon the former, and emposing the burden, almost entirely, on the latter. It was thus, that instead of relief-instead of an equal distribution of the burdens and benefits of the government on the payment of the debt, as had been fondly anticipated, the duties were so arranged as to be, in fact, bounties on one side, and taxation on the other, and thus placing the two great sections of the country in direct conflict in reference to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that flood of political corruption which threatens to sweep away our constitution and our liberty.

This unequal and unjust arrangement was pronounced, both by the administration, through its proper organ, the secretary of the treasury, and by the opposition, to be a permanent adjustment; and it was thus that all hope of relief through the action of the general government terminated, and the crisis so

long apprehended at length arrived, at which the state was compelled to choose between absolute acquiescence in a ruinous system of oppression, or a resort to her reserved powerspowers of which she alone was the rightful judge, and which only, in this momentous juncture, could save her. She determined on the latter.

The consent of two thirds of her legislature was necessary for the call of a convention, which was considered the only legitimate organ through which the people, in their sovereignty, could speak. After an arduous struggle, the state rights party succeeded; more than two thirds of both branches of the legislature favourable to a convention were elected; a convention was called-the ordinance adopted. The convention was succeeded by a meeting of the legislature, when the laws to carry the ordinance into execution were enacted; all of which had been communicated by the president had been referred to the committee on the judiciary, and this bill is the result of their labour.

Having now, said Mr. C., corrected some of the prominent misrepresentations, as to the nature of this controversy, and given a rapid sketch of the movement of the state in reference to it, he would next proceed to notice some objections connected with the ordinance and the proceedings under it.

The first, and most prominent of these, is directed against what is called the test oath-which

an effort has been made to render odious. So far from deserving the denunciation which has been levelled against it, he viewed this provision of the ordinance as but the natural result of the doctrines entertained by the state, and the position which she occupies. The people of that state believe that the Union is a union of states, and not of individuals; that it was formed by the states, and that the citizens of the several states were bound to it through the acts of their several states; that each state ratified the constitution for itself, and that it was only by such ratification of a state, that any obligation was imposed upon the citizens, thus believing, it was the opinion of the people of Carolina, that it belonged to the state which had imposed the obligation, to declare, in the last resort, the extent of that obligation, as far as her citizens were concerned; and this, upon the plain principles which exist in all analagous cases of compact, between sovereign or political bodies. On this principle the people of the state, acting in their sovereign capacity, in convention, precisely as they had adopted their own and the federal constitutions, had declared by the ordinance, that the acts of congress which had imposed duties under the authority to lay imposts, were acts, not for revenue, as intended by the constitution, but for protection, and therefore null and void. ordinance thus enacted by the people of the state themselves, acting as a sovereign communi

The

ty, was, to all intents and purposes, a part of the constitution of the state; and though of a peculiar character, was as obligatory on the citizens of that state, as any portion of the constitution. In prescribing, then, the oath to obey the ordinance, no more was done than to prescribe an oath to obey the constitution. It was, in fact, but a particular oath of allegiance, and in every respect similar to that which is prescribed under the constitution of the United States, to be administered to all the officers of the state and federal governments; and was no more deserving the harsh and bitter epithets which had been heaped upon it, than that or any similar oath. It ought to be borne in mind, that, according to the opinion which prevailed in Carolina, the right of resistance to the unconstitutional laws of congress belongs to the state, and not to her individual citizens, and that, though the latter may, in a mere question of meum and tuum, resist through the courts an unconstitutional encroachment upon their rights, yet the final stand against usurpation rests not with them, but with the state of which they are members-and that such act of resistance by a state, binds the conscience and allegiance of the citizen. But there appeared to be a general misapprehension as to the extent to which the state had acted under this part of the ordinance. Instead of sweeping every officer, by a general proscription of the minority, as has been represented in debate, as far as the know

ledge of Mr. C. extends, not a single individual had been removed. The state had, in fact, acted with the greatest tenderness, all circumstances considered, towards citizens who had differed from the majority; and in that spirit had directed the oath to be administered only in cases of some official act directed to be performed, in which obedience to the ordinance was involved.

It had been further objected that the state had acted precipitately. What? precipitately? after making a strenuous resistance for twelve years-by discussion here and in the other house of congress by essays in all forms-by resolutions, remonstrances, and protests on the part of the legislature, and finally, by attempting an appeal to the judicial power of the United States. He said attempting, for they had been prevented from bringing the question fairly before the court, and that by an act of that very majority in congress which now upbraid them for not making that appeal; of that majority who, on a motion of one of the members in the other house from South Carolina, refused to give to the act of 1828 its true title; that it was a protective and not a revenue act. The state has never, it is true, relied upon that tribunal, the supreme court, to vindicate its reserved rights; yet they have always considered it as an auxiliary means of defence, of which they would gladly have availed themselves to test the constitutionality of protection, had the

not been deprived of the means of doing so by the act of the majority.

No! it is not Carolina which has acted precipitately, but her sister states, who have suffered in common with her, that have acted tardily. Had they acted as she has done-had they performed their duty with equal energy and promptness, our situation this day would be very different from what we now find it. Delays are said to be dangerous; and never was the maxim more true than in the present case-a case of monopoly. It is the very nature of monopolies to grow. If we take from one side a large portion of the proceeds of its labour and give it to the other, the side from which we take must constantly decay, and that to which we give must prosper and increase. Such is the action of the protective system. It exacts from the South a large portion of the proceeds of its industry, which it bestows upon the other sections in the shape of bounties to manufactures, and appropriations in a thousand forms-pensions, improvement of rivers and harbours, roads and canals, and in every shape that wit or ingenuity can devise. And this is the real reason of the fact which we witness, that all acts for protection pass with small minorities, but soon come to be sustained by great and overwhelming majorities. Those who seek the monopoly, endeavour to obtain it in the most exclusive shape; and they take care, accordingly, to associate

only a sufficient number of interests barely to pass it through the two houses of congress-on the plain principles that the greater the number from whom the monopoly takes, and the fewer on whom it bestows, the greater is the advantage to the monopolists. Acting in this spirit, we have often seen with what exact precision they count, adding wool to woollens, associating lead and iron, feeling their way, until a bare majority is obtained, when the bill passes, connecting just as many interests as is sufficient to insure its success, and no more. In a short time, however, we have invariably found that this lean, becomes a decided majority, under the certain operation which compels individuals to desert the pursuits which the monopoly have rendered unprofitable, that they may participate in those pursuits which it had rendered profitable. It is against this dangerous and growing disease which South Carolina has acted-a disease whose cancerous action would soon spread to every part of the system, had it not been speedily arrested.

There was another powerful reason why the action of the state could not be safely delayed. The public debt, as he had already stated, for all practical purposes, had already been paid; and, under the existing duties, a large annual surplus of many millions must come into the treasury. It was impossible to look at this state of things without seeing the most mischievous consequences; and, among