of their respective constitutional spheres of
action. Fur such cases, when they come
within judicial cognizance, & provision has
been made for a common arbiter. That
common arbiter is in such cases, the Su-
preme Court of the United States. That
Court has frequently decided both that
laws of Congress and laws of the severs
States have transgressed the limits of their
respective powers, and has pronounced such
laws, whether passed by Congress or the
States, null and void. And to such decis-
ions every good citizen will, as he is bound
to do, yield his respectful obedience. Here
for such cases, is a remedy provided.
But then there may be cases of conflict
between these two jurisdictions, over which
the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction, and
which by no process can be brought before
that august tribunal. Who then is the
common arbiter? In answer to this ques-
tion, permit me to read what was said by
John Quincy Adams in an address delivered
before the New York Historical Society on
the 30th of April, 1839, in commemora-
tion of the 60th anniversary of the inaugu-
ration of George Washington, as President
of the United States States.
In such cages as that, some gentlemen
have said, and a certain class of politicians
in the country have declared that the only
remedy is coercion, which we are now try-
ing. But the course which true patriotism
seems to me to dictate, is that which has
been laid down by this eminent statesman
and patriot of Massachusetts, who in that
address declares:
" Nations acknowledge no judge between
them upon earth, and their governments
from necessity must, in their intercourse
with each other, decide when the failure of
one party to a con tract to perform its ob-
ligations absolves the other from the recip-
rocal fulfilment of his own. But this last
of earthly powers is not necessary to the
freedom and independence of States con-
nected together by the immediate action of
the people of which they consist. To the
people alone is there reserved, as well the
dissolving as the constituent power, and
that power can be exercised by them only
under the tie of conscience, binding them
to the retributive justice of Heaven. With
these qualifications, we may admit the same
right as vested in the people of every State
ill the Union, with reference to the General
Government, which was exercised by the
people of the United Colonies with refer-
ence to the supreme head of the British |
Empire, of which they formed a part, and
under these limitations have the people of
each State in the Union a right to secede
from the Confederated Union itself. Thus
stands the right."
This puts it upon the ground of revolu-
tion, the same as the colonies adopted in
their revolution against the oppressions of
the crown of Great Britain.
" But the indissoluble link of union be-
tween the people of the States of this con-
federated nation is, after all, not in the
right but in the heart. If the day should
ever come, (may Heaven avert it) when the
affections of the people of these States shall
be alienated from each other; when the
fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indif-
ference, or collision of interest shall fester
into hatred, the bands of political associa-
tion will not long hold together patties no
longer attracted by the magnetism of con-
ciliated interests and kindly sympathies;
and far better will it be for the people of
the disunited States to part in friendship
from each other, than to be held together
by constraint. Then will be the time for
reverting to the precedents which occurred
at the formation and adoption of the Con-
stitution to form again a more perfect union
by dissolving that which could no longer
bind, and to leave the separated parts to be
reunited by the laws of political gravitation
to the centre."
This is the mode, in the emergency
which I have presented, which John Q.
Adams declared to be the course of true
patriotism. Another distinguished son of
Massachusetts has also solemnly declared
his opinion of the propriety of that course.
I refer to the letter of Air. Everett, accept.
ing the nomination as candidate for the
Vice Presidency of the United States in
1860:
" The suggestion that the Union can be
maintained by numerical preponderance
and military prowess of one section, exerted
to coerce the other into submission is, in my
judgment, as self-contradictory as it is dan-
gerous, It comes loaded with the death-
smell from fields wet with brother's blood.
If the vital principle of all republican governments
is the consent of the governed,
much more does a union of coequal sov-
ereign States require as its basis the har-
mony of its members and their voluntary
co-operation in its organic functions."
To the same effect is the doctrine of Mr.
Seward, the present Secretary of State, in
his letter of April 10th, 1861, directed to |
