Whereas a convention, assembled in the State of South Carolina, have passed an ordinance, by which they declare that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially "two acts for the same purposes, passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the citizens of that State or its officers, and by the said ordinance it is further declared to he unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts within the same State, and that it is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinances:
And whereas, by the said ordinance it is further ordained, that, in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of said State, wherein shall be drawn in question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the acts of the legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of the said laws of the United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and that any person attempting to take such appeal, shall be punished as for a contempt of court:
And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the people of South Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard, and that they will consider the passage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing the ports of the said State, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people of the said State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do.
And whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South Carolina a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its Constitution, and having for its object the instruction of the Union-that Union, which, coeval with our political existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them than those of patriotism and common cause, through the sanguinary struggle to a glorious independence-that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitution, has brought us, by the favor of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations; to preserve this bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honor and prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this my PROCLAMATION, stating my views of the Constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted by the Convention of South Carolina …
***
The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of
resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional, and too oppressive to be
endured, but on the strange position that any one State may not only declare
an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution- that they may do this
consistently with the Constitution-that the true construction of that
instrument permits a State to retain its place in the Union, and yet be bound
by no other of its laws than those it may choose to consider as constitutional
… There are two appeals from an unconstitutional act passed by Congress-one to
the judiciary, the other to the people and the States. There is no appeal from
the State decision in theory; and the practical illustration shows that the
courts are closed against an application to review it, both judges and jurors
being sworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is
superfluous, when our social compact in express terms declares, that the laws
of the United States, its Constitution, and treaties made under it, are the
supreme law of the land; and for greater caution adds, "that the judges in
every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of
any State to the contrary notwithstanding." And it may be asserted, without
fear of refutation, that no federative government
could exist without a similar provision. Look, for a moment, to the
consequence. If
If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the
In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we very early
considered ourselves as connected by common interest with each other. Leagues
were formed for common defense, and before the Declaration of Independence, we
were known in our aggregate character as the United Colonies of America. That
decisive and important step was taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation
by a joint, not by several acts; and when the terms of our confederation were
reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of several States, by which
they agreed that they would, collectively, form one nation, for the purpose of
conducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign relations. In the
instrument forming that
Under the Confederation, then, no State could legally annul a decision of the Congress, or refuse to submit to its execution, but no provision was made to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but they were not complied with. The Government could not operate on individuals. They had no judiciary, no means of collecting revenue. But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed … This state of things could not be endured, and our present happy Constitution was formed, but formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine prevails.
The most important among these objects, that which is placed
first in rank, on which all the others rest, is "to form a more perfect
I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.
*** The next objection is, that the laws in question operate unequally. This objection may be made with truth to every law that has been or can be passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law makes it unconstitutional and if all laws of that description may be abrogated by any State for that cause, then, indeed, is the federal Constitution unworthy of the slightest effort for its preservation.
The two remaining objections made by the ordinance to these
laws are, that the sums intended to be raised by them are greater than are
required, and that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. The
Constitution has given expressly to Congress the right of raising revenue, and
of determining the sum the public exigencies will require. The States have no
control over the exercise of this right other than that which results from the
power of changing the representatives who abuse it, and thus procure redress.
Congress may undoubtedly abuse this discretionary power, but the same may be
said of others with which they are vested. Yet the discretion must exist
somewhere. The Constitution has given it to the representatives of all the
people, checked by the representatives of the States, and by the executive
power. The
*** If a bare majority of the voters in any one State may,
on a real or supposed knowledge of the intent with which a law has been
passed, declare themselves free from its operation-say here it gives too
little, there too much, and operates unequally-here it suffers articles to be
free that ought to be taxed, there it taxes those that ought to be free-in
this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to purposes which we do not
approve, in that the amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is
true, are invested by the Constitution with the right of deciding these
questions according to their sound discretion. Congress is composed of the
representatives of all the States, and of all the people of all the states;
but WE, part of the people of one State, to whom the Constitution has given no
power on the subject from whom it has expressly taken it away-we, who have
solemnly agreed that this Constitution shall be our law-we, most of whom have
sworn to support it-we now abrogate this law, and swear, and force others to
swear, that it shall not be obeyed-and we do this, not because Congress have
no right to pass such laws; this we do not allege; but because they have
passed them with improper views. They are unconstitutional from the motives of
those who passed them, which we can never with certainty know, from their
unequal operation; although it is impossible from the nature of things that
they should be equal-and from the disposition which we presume may be made of
their proceeds, although that disposition has not been declared. This is the
plain meaning of the ordinance in relation to laws which it abrogates for
alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not stop here. It repeals, in express
terms, an important part of the Constitution itself, and of laws passed to
give it effect, which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. The
Constitution declares that the judicial powers of the
Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of the voters of a single State. Here is a provision of the Constitution which is solemnly abrogated by the same authority. On such expositions and reasonings, the ordinance grounds not only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it complains, but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union if any attempt is made to execute them.
This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitution, which they say is a compact between sovereign States who have preserved their whole sovereignty, and therefore are subject to no superior; that because they made the compact, they can break it when in their opinion it has been departed from by the other States. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of our government sufficiently to see the radical error on which it rests.
The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting through the State legislatures, in making the compact, to meet and discuss its provisions, and acting in separate conventions when they ratified those provisions; but the terms used in its construction show it to be a government in which the people of all the States collectively are represented. We are ONE PEOPLE in the choice of the President and Vice President. Here the States have no other agency than to direct the mode in which the vote shall be given. The candidates having the majority of all the votes are chosen. The electors of a majority of States may have given their votes for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The people, then, and not the States, are represented in the executive branch.
In the House of Representatives there is this difference,
that the people of one State do not, as in the case of President and Vice
President, all vote for all the members, each State
electing only its own representatives. But this creates no material
distinction. When chosen, they are all representatives of the
The Constitution of the
Because the
*** Men of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts of the Constitution, but there are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged undivided sovereignty of the States, and on their having formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called the Constitution, from which, because they made it, they have the right to secede. Both of these positions are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them so have been anticipated.
The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to make treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise exclusive judicial and legislative powers, were all functions of sovereign power. The States, then, for all these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. The allegiance of their citizens was transferred in the first instance to the government of the United States; they became American citizens, and owed obedience to the Constitution of the United States, and to laws made in conformity with the powers vested in Congress ***
I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to
burly you on to the position you have now assumed, and forward to the
consequences they will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the
condition of that country of which you still form an important part; consider
its government uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection
so many different States-giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of
AMERICAN CITIZEN-protecting their commerce-securing their literature and
arts-facilitating their intercommunication--defending their frontiers-and
making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth! Consider the
extent of its territory its increasing and happy population, its advance in
arts, which render life agreeable, and the sciences which elevate the mind!
See education spreading the lights of religion, morality, and general
information into every cottage in this wide extent of our Territories and
States! Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and the oppressed find a
refuge and support! Look on this picture of happiness and honor, and say, WE
TOO, ARE CITIZENS OF AMERICA--
The laws of the
Fellow-citizens! the momentous
case is before you. On your undivided support of your government
depends the decision of the great question it
involves, whether your sacred
***
ANDREW JACKSON