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can seal up every Post-Office; arrest every mail; pull down every Custom-House; break up your Treasury; pluck your judges from the bench; strike your venerable President from his chair; lock up the halls of national legislation; demolish your fortresses; disband your army; pull down your flag, the stars and stripes of our Union, and scatter your navy to all the winds of heaven; consume the existence, the very form of our whole nation; and of all this Union, this empire of laws, this glorious achievement of republican freedom, leave nothing but a wilderness of anarchy, where so many States, like so many wild beasts, with no other law but force, and no other restraint but fear, shall hereafter mutually prey upon and devour each other.

"Every man should examine his own principles and opinions, in relation to the Constitution and Government of our country; and be fully satisfied, that he is not corrupted by any false, vain, and treasonable heresies. Our first great principle is, or should be, that the Constitution has made the American People, one people, a nation in all their relations to other nations; and in all the relations of the several States, to each other; that this nation is known to other nations as such, and by them is called by the name of the United States; that, being a nation, they are, and must be, independent of all others; and sovereign in all parts of the United States territory, in all things granted to them by the people under the Constitution; and that each one of the several States holds, and may exercise all the powers of States, not denied to them under the Constitution by the same people. The Constitution, and the laws made under it, in pursuance of the powers granted by it, are as the people of the United States have declared, ordained, and established, the supreme law of the land throughout the whole territory of the United States; whether the same be unappropriated lands, or organized territory, or States established under their own constitutions; and any law made in any such State or territory, must be conformable to the Constitution, and to the laws so made by the United States under it, or they are utterly void, and cannot be carried into execution by any law court in our country.

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"We learn, on the contrary by the creed of Nullification, that each State in the Union, is a perfectly independent, sovereign community; but that the United States are a mere agency of the several States, without sovereignty; and that any State may, within its own territory, call in question, and establish any law made by this agency. This, we are told may be done, because these States are sovereign, and the Constitution, being a compact between sovereignties all equal, there can be no court or tribunal established between them, with power to decide when the Constitution has been violated; and therefore, each State has a right to decide for herself, like any other independent nation.

"The United States is a nation, sovereign and independent; but I deny that either of the States is a nation, or sovereigń, or independent. What is a nation, a sovereignty? It is such a community as is governed by no law, enacted by any power, located out of its own territory? Cannot the United States make such laws and execute them in each of the States? Who established the mail, the post-offices, and post-roads in every State? Who built your custom-houses, and made every law in every State, for collecting the revenue of the whole nation? Who made all the laws for coining that money, on which you see the eagle, the arms of the nation, and the form of liberty, the object of all our institutions? Is each State a nation, and does each of these nations permit a power, not located within its own territory, to enact laws for controlling its transmission of intelligence; the collection of its revenue; and the establishment of its coin and currency? Which one of the States contends, that she has a right to establish post-offices and post-roads; to levy taxes by duties and imposts; or to coin money, or to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins? Can any community be a nation, a sovereignty, without the right to exercise these powers? and yet not even Nullifiers contend, that any one of the States has, or can exercise them.

"There is a great family of communites on the earth, governed by a known and well established code of regulations, called the law of nations. Some of these communities are, in

Western Europe, called Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden; in North America, the United States of America, the United Mexican States; in South America, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, the Argentine Republic, and the Empire of Brazil. How are these nations known to each other; and what powers and qualities must each possess, before it could be received as a nation, into this great community? Each one, for that purpose, must be a sovereignty, governed by its own laws; and be independent, for their enactment of all others. The Canadas are not nations, because they are dependant on England for a part of their laws. Ireland and Scotland are not nations, but integral parts of Great Britain; because they depend on her for a part of their laws. Texas is not a nation, but one of the Mexican States, and dependant on that Republic for a part of its laws. In like manner, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, or any other State in our Union, are not nations, but parts of our great Republic, called States; and they are not nations, because they are not sovereignties, but are dependant on the United States, for laws in many respects; such as laws to regulate their mails, their coin, their impost, their internal State commerce, and commerce with foreign nations. It is not pretended that any State in the Union can make any law, touching any one of these great subjects. How then can any such State, when so dependant on another community, be a nation, an independent sovereignty?

"If we consider the manner in which nations hold intercourse with each other, we shall find that no State in this Union is a nation, a sovereignty; or that any foreign nation could so regard any such State. Nations hold intercourse by public Ministers, or Ambassadors. Would England or France, receive an ambassador from Massachusetts or Connecticut? Would the United States receive such a functionary from Texas? Why not? Because ambassadors are the representatives of nations, sovereign and independent, to other like sovereign and independent nations. For the same reason consuls and commercial agents from those States would not be received by any foreign nation. How has it happened that no nation on earth has ever

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thought of sending an ambassador, or consul, or commercial agent to the sovereign and independent nation of South Carolina? Simply because South Carolina is not a nation, is not an independent, is not a sovereignty.

"Nations contract more intimate relations with each other, by treaties, sometimes for purposes of commerce, and at others, for defence. No foreign nation has ever proposed to form any treaty with any State in this Union. This has happened, not because the Constitution, forbids such States, to make such treaties; but because all foreign communities know, that no one of these States is, or can be, under our Constitution, such an independent and sovereign community, as can be admitted as a nation, into the great family of nations, and form treaties of alliance, amity, or commerce.

"Nations conduct commercial intercourse on the high seas and elsewhere, by national ships, designated by national names, covered by a national flag, authenticated by registers, clearances, rolls of equipage; and navigated by mariners such as the laws of nations may require, or by regulations, such as treaties among them have established. It is this national character of ships, and the national manner of their navigation, which conducts the ships of all civilized nations over the ocean, through every sea, and into all ports. Send out a ship, without these characteristics of nationality; without a name, a clearance, or a flag; and how would she be viewed by foreign nations? As a pirate. Has any State in this Union, ever sent out a ship, under its own authority? Why not? Because no such State is sovereign, no such State is a nation; and no foreign nation would receive into its ports, or regard on the high seas, any such ship so sent out by any such State, any otherwise than as a pirate. Foreign nations know us by our flag, our ships, our commerce, our consuls, public ministers, and treaties; and by all these, they know us as citizens of the United States; as the people of a nation, and not merely as the inhabitants of any one State of this Union. No matter how large, how wealthy, how populous any State may be; the inhabitants of it, are in the account, and in the eyes of all nations, citizens of the United States, Americans; a title as much more imposing than that which any one State could bestow on her citizens, as the entire argent field of our national flag, furrowed with so many stripes, and adorned by a whole constellation, is more glorious and gladdening in the eyes of mariners, than the ensign of a single State, though ornamented by the palmetto leaf, and enlightened by a solitary star.

"If any State in this Union, encouraged by the hostile example of South Carolina, should raise an army, fit out a navy, grant letters of marque, and declare war against-no matter what foreign people; would they be regarded as a nation, and treated as such, by the nations of the earth? Would their war be a lawful war, their ships national ships; or would it be piratical, and their ships be adjudged to be mere corsairs; and all found on board, as pirates, the enemies, not of a single nation only, but of all mankind? This would not be done, because, by our Constitution, no State can declare war, raise armies or navies, or grant letters of marque and reprisal; but because no State is a nation, a sovereign community, admitted into the family of nations, and capable of sending and receiving ambassadors, forming treaties, declaring war, and making peace. Such an act would be, it is true, a violation of the Constitution; and in relation to the American People, the United States, open rebellion; but, in relation to other nations, it would be neither more nor less than piracy.

"There can be but one sovereignty, one supreme power, touching the same things, in the same territory. If each State be the supreme power, in all things in its own territory, then the United States is no sovereignty, and has no supreme power, any where, in any thing. If the United States be the supreme power within the whole territory thereof, touching all things, granted to them by the people under the Constitution, then is the United States a sovereignty, and the people thereof a nation; but of the several States, the holding all the power not thus granted, over the life, liberty, and property, of all the people within their several territories; yet not one of them is a sovereignty, not one of them is a nation.

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