if necessary, has never been attempted by those who have urged the state on this destructive measure. The state might have proposed the call for a general convention to the other states; and congress, if a sufficient number of them concurred, must have called it. But the first magistrate of South Carolina, when he expressed a hope that "on a review by congress and the functionaries of the general go. vernment of the merits of the controversy," such a convention will be accorded to them, must have known that neither congress nor any functionary of the general government has authority to call such a convention, unless it be demanded by two thirds of the states. This suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless inattention to the provisions of the constitution with which this crisis has been madly hurried on; or of the attempt to persuade the people that a constitutional remedy had been sought and refused. If the legislature of South Carolina "anxiously desire" a general convention to consider their complaints, why have they not made application for it in the way the constitution points out? The assertion that they "earnestly seek" it is completely negatived by the

omission.

This, then, is the position in which we stand. A small majority of the citizens of one state in the union have elected delegates to a state convention; that convention has ordained that all the revenue laws of the United States must be repealed, or that they are no longer a member of the union. The governor of that state has recommended to the legislature the raising of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that he may be empow. ered to give clearances to vessels in the name of the state. No act

of violent opposition to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this instrument to PROCLAIM, not only the duty imposed on me by the constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent of the powers already vested in me by law, or of such others as the wisdom of congress shall devise, and entrust to me for that purpose; but to warn the citizens of South Carolina who have been deluded into an opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and dis organizing ordinance of the convention; to exhort those who have refused to support it to persevere in their determination to uphold the constitution and laws of their coun. try, and to point out to all the peril ous situation into which the good people of that state have been led, and that the course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and disgrace to the very state whose rights they affect to support.

Fellow citizens of my native state! let me not only admonish you, as the first mgistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but to use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you. Mark under what pretences you have been led on to the brink of insurrection and treason, on which you stand! First, a diminution of the value of your staple commodity, lowered by over production in other quarters, and the consequent diminution in the value of your lands, were the sole ef

asser

fect of the tariff laws. The effects of those laws are confessedly injurious, but the evil was greatly exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were taught to believe, that its burthens were in proportion to your exports, not to your consumption of imported articles. Your pride was roused by the tion that a submission to those laws was a state of vassalage, and that resistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to the opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws of Great Britain. You were told that this opposition might be peaceably-might be constitutionally made; that you might enjoy all the advantages of the union, and bear none of its burthens.

Eloquent appeals to your pas sions, to your state pride, to your native courage, to your sense of real injury, were used to prepare you for the period when the mask which concealed the hideous features of DISUNION should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with complacency on objects which, not long since, you would have regarded with horror. Look back at the arts which have brought you to this state--look forward to the consequences to which it must inevitably lead! Look back to what was first told you as an inducement to enter into this dangerous course. The great political truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolutionary right of resisting all laws that were palpably unconstitutional and intolerably oppressive; it was added, that the right to nullify a law rested on the same principle, but that it was a peaceable remedy! This character which was given to it, made you receive, with too much confidence, the assertions that were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its oppressive effects. Mark, my fel.

low citizens, that by the admission of your leaders, the unconstitutionality must be palpable, or it will not justify either resistance or nullification! What is the meaning of the word palpable, in the sense in which it is here used?-That which is apparent to every one; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that description? Let those among your leaders who once approved and advocated the principle of protective duties, answer the question; and let them choose whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of perceiving that which must have been apparent to every man of common understanding, or as imposing upon your confidence, and endea vouring to mislead you now. In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous path they urge you to tread.

Ponder well on this cir. cumstance, and you will know how to appreciate the exaggerated language they address to you. They are not champions of liberty, emulating the fame of our revolutionary fathers; nor are you an oppressed people, contending, as they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vassalage. You are free members of a flourishing and happy union. There is no settled design to oppress you. You have indeed felt the unequal operation of laws which may have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally passed; but that inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in public opinion had commenced. The nearly approaching payment of the public debt, and the consequent necessity of a diminution of duties, had already produced a considerable reduction, and that too on some articles of general con

sumption in your state. The importance of this change was under. stood, and you were authoratively told, that no further alleviation of your burthens was to be expected, at the very time when the condition of the country imperiously demand. ed such a modification of the duties as should reduce them to a just and equitable scale. But, as if apprehensive of the effect of this change in allaying your discontents, you were precipitated into the fearful state in which you now find yourselves.

I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to hurry you on to the position you have now assumed, and forward to the consequences it will produce. Something more is necessary. Contem. plate the condition of that country of which you still form an impor. tant part! Consider its government, uniting in one bond of common in terests and general protection so many different states, giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of AMERICAN CITIZENS, protecting their commerce, securing their literature and their arts, facilitating their intercommunication, defending their frontiers, and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth! Consider the extent of 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, humanity, 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 honour, and sayWE, TOO, ARE CITIZENS OF AMERICA; Carolina is one of these proud states: her arms have defended,

her best blood has cemented this happy union! and then add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this happy union we will dissolvethis picture of peace and prosperity we will deface-this free intercourse we will interrupt-these fertile fields we will deluge with blood

the protection of that glorious flag we renounce--the very name of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men! for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings--for what would you exchange your share in the advantages and honour of the union? For the dream of a separate independence--a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbours, and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be your situation? Are you united at home--are you free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences? Do our neighbouring republics, every day suffering some new revolution, or contending with some new insurrection-do they excite your envy? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed.

The laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary power on the subjectmy duty is emphatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you-they could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived by names: disunion, by armed force, is TREASON. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the

fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.

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 union will be preserved, and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confidence in repub. lican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.

May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with

By the President:

Edward Livingston, Secretary of State.

Gentlemen of the Senate

and House of Representatives, In my annual message, at the commencement of your present session, I adverted to the opposition to the revenue laws in a particular quarter of the United States, which threatened, not merely to thwart their execution, but to endanger the integrity of the union. And although I then expressed my reliance that it might be overcome by the prudence of the officers of the United States, and the patriotism of the people, I stated that should the emergency arise, rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable, from any cause whatever, prompt notice should be given to congress, with the suggestion of such views and measures as might be necessary to meet it.

Events which have occurred in the quarter then alluded to, or which have come to my knowledge subsequently, present this emer

date of the annual message, the convention which assembled at Columbia, in the state of South Carolina, passed, on the 24th of November last, an ordinance declaring certain acts of congress therein mentioned within the limits of that state to be absolutely null and void, and making it the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to carry the same into effect,. from and after the 1st of February next.

A copy of that ordinance has been officially transmitted to me by the governor of South Carolina, and is now communicated to congress.

The consequences to which this extraordinary defiance of the just authority of the government might too surely lead were clearly foreseen, and it was impossible for me to hesitate as to my own duty in such an emergency. The ordinance had been passed, however, without any certain knowledge of the recommendation, which, from a view of the interests of the nation at large,