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MR. CALHOUN'S RESOLUTIONS.

THE great debate in the Senate, on Nullification, between Mr. Webster and General Hayne, took place in the year 1830. The controversy then turned upon the true construction of the language of the Constitution, upon which Mr. Webster's speech was conclusive. But South Carolina proceeded to the extreme of practical nullification, and its advocates found it necessary to assume new grounds of justification. They founded their arguments upon the nature and essential character of political sovereignty. Mr. Calhoun, their great champion, was, in 1830, Vice President, and could take no part in the discussion. In 1833, he was a member of the Senate, and offered certain resolutions, embodying his favorite doctrine. In the debate upon these, Mr. Sprague made the following remarks.

NULLIFICATION.

MR. CALHOUN'S RESOLUTIONS.

IN SENATE, FEBRUARY 26, 1833.

MR. CALHOUN'S Resolutions, declaratory of the nature and power of this Government, being under consideration,

MR. SPRAGUE said: That the transcendent importance of the topics of this debate had not been exaggerated by the Senator from South Carolina. The consequences, said Mr. Sprague, already resulting, and those still more disastrous, which are threatened from the doctrines which he maintains, demonstrate that they should be regarded with intense interest. The President has declared that the laws must be enforced, and has called upon the National Legislature for the powers necessary to the performance of his high constitutional duties as the Chief Executive of the United States. The people of South Carolina have solemnly declared, that the revenue laws shall not be executed within their limits. They have raised their banner, and inscribed upon it in capitals-"No more taxes shall be paid here." They have denounced our legislation as oppressive, and proclaimed that "they will throw it off at every hazard;" and they have announced, in the most authoritative manner, by a fundamental ordinance, that our laws are null and void, and that the passage, by Congress, of any act to authorize the use of force against the citizens of that State, dissolves her connexion with her sister

States. The bill which has passed the Senate, may be considered as of that character; and if so regarded, and the ordinance shall be executed, South Carolina will deem herself out of the Union, and hold the citizens of the United States, as she does the rest of the world, "enemies in war, in peace, friends." We have, indeed, the hope that the operation of their ordinance, of their extraordinary replevin act, and their new military law, made to concentrate the whole martial energies of the State, may be arrested and postponed by the efforts of leading individuals. But a whole people have become deeply excited-not from their own feeling of oppression, but by the persuasions of others that they were the devoted victims of injustice. The address of the convention itself, acknowledges that "the difficulty has been great to bring the people to the resisting point." The manner in which that was accomplished has been described by the Senator from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun.) Tracts, pamphlets, newspapers, speeches, and addresses, were scattered, and reiterated over the whole surface, to the remotest recesses of the State, till the people "received the doctrine." They have been aroused, excited, exasperated, wrought almost to desperation, and have hurled defiance at their supposed oppressors. The necromancers, who have conjured up this evil spirit, may not be able to bid it down. Those who have raised the storm, may not have the power to allay it. The hand which has kindled the conflagration, may in vain attempt its extinguishment. When the fountains of the deep are broken up, and ocean waves are heaving, who shall say that thus far shalt thou go and no farther? They have raised the wind, and may have to reap the whirlwind; they have "scattered firebrands, arrows, and death;" they may not now say, "Am I not in sport?"

We hope for the best. But no prescience can foresee the ultimate effects of our measures, and in their adoption, we occupy a position of oppressive responsibility. It behooves us to consider well, to deliberate profoundly upon the fundamental principles of our action. For, if we are wrong in this question of constitutional power-if we have no legitimate authority or moral right to pass the bill, then it may well deserve the denunciations which the fervid eloquence and burning zeal of its opponents have poured forth. But, if they are wrong, if it be a rightful authority which they resist, and if their decrees shall be carried out in

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