66 work of peaceable times and deliberate consent. Some new form of confederacy should be substituted among those states which shall intend to maintain a federal relation to each other. Events may prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and permament. They may be found to proceed not merely from the blindness or prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of party spirit, or the con ly came. The Massachusetts Legislature, by | bad administrations, it should be, if possible, the report of a joint committee on the question of calling a Convention of the States, urged a conference as expedient to lay the foundation of a radical reform in the national compact, and devise'some mode of defence suitable to those States, the affinity of whose interests are closest, and whose habits of intercourse are most frequent." This report was adopted by a vote of three to one, though it was protested against by a powerful minority, who declared it a step toward a dissolution of the Union, and therefore treason. fusion of the times; but they may be traced to implacable combinations of individuals or of states to monopolise power and office, and to trample without remorse upon the rights and interests of commercial sections of the Union. Whenever it shall appear that the causes are radical and permanent, a separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by constraint among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and aggression from abroad,--but a severance of the Union by one or more states against the will of the rest, and especially in time of war, can be justified only by absolute necessity." On the 18th of October twelve delegates were elected to confer with delegates from the other New England States. Seven delegates were also appointed by Connecticut and four by Rhode Island. New Hampshire was represented by two and Vermont by one. The Convention met at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 15th of December, 1814. After a session of twenty days a report was adopted, which, with but slight stretch of imagination, we may suppose to have originated from a kind of en rapport association with the Southernment. Carolina Convention of 1861. We may quote from the Report: "To prescribe patience and firmness to those who are already exhausted by distress is sometimes to drive them to despair, and the progress towards rėform by the regular road is irksome to those whose imaginations discern and whose feelings prompt to a shorter course. But when abuses, reduced to a system, and accumulated through a course of years have pervaded every department of government, and spread corruption through every region of the state; | when these are clothed with the forms of law, and enforced by an Executive whose will is their source, no summary means of relief can be applied without recourse to direct and open resistance. It is a truth not to be concealed that a time for a change is at hand. *** A reformation of public opinion, resulting from dear bought experience in the Southern Atlantic states at least, is not to be despaired of. They will have seen that the great and essential interests of the people are common to the South and to the East. They will realize the fatal errors of a system which seeks revenge for commercial injuries in the sacrifice of commerce, and aggravates by needless wars the injuries it professes to redress. Indications of this desirable revolution of opinion among our brethren in those states are already manifested. Finally, if the Union be destined to dissolution by reason of the multiplied abuses of The Report then proceeds to consider the several subjects of complaint, the principal of which is the national authority over the militia, claimed by gov vices and measures for raising men, this Convention Continuing, it says: "In this whole series of de discerns a total disregard for the Constitution, and a disposition to violate its provisions, demanding from * * the individual States a firm and decided opposition. *This sentiment, here italicised, is that of State supremacy in its unadulterated form-such supremacy as really renders the hold of the Constitution and the power of Congress over the States that of a mere contract, to be dissolved at will. But, nullifying and disintegrating as it was, Mr. Jefferson himself set the precedent. In his Kentucky resolutions, before referred to, he began with a resolution that the Federal Constitution is a compact between States AS States, by which is created a General Government HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. The Convention adjourned January 5th, 1815, and, so doubtful was it of the propriety of its acts, that the resolutions adopted were not made public until two weeks after adjournment. These resolutions were, in brief, as follows: The first recommended the Legislatures of the States represented to protect the citizens of the several States from the operation of acts passed by Congress, subjecting them to forcible drafts, conscriptions or impressments, not authorized by the Constitution. The second recommended that the States be em powered to defend themselves, and that they have The third recommended each State to defend itself. stitution as follows: Apportionment of representation and taxation the basis of white population. 13 Congress shall not have power to interdict foreign trade without a vote of two-thirds of both houses. Congress shall not make war by a less vote than two-thirds of both branches, unless in defence of territory actually invaded. No naturalized citizen to be eligible to any civil office under the United States. No President to be elected twice, or for two terms, nor to be chosen from the same State twice in succession. The report concluded with the recommendation that if the foregoing resolutions should be unsuccessful when submitted to the general government through the respective States, if peace should not be concluded, and the defence of the New England States be neglected, as it had been, it would be expedient for the Legislatures of the several States to appoint delegates to another Convention to meet at Boston, "with such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis so momentous may require." The sessions of the Convention, like those New States to be admitted by a vote of two-thirds of similar conventions held in the seceded of both houses of Congress. States at a later day, were secret. The people Congress shall have no power to lay an embargo of Hartford, justly indignant at the presence of more than sixty days duration. for special purposes-each State reserving for itself the residuary mass of power and right; and "that, cs in other cases of compact between parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions AS OF THE MODE AND MEASURE OF REDRESS." Perhaps the special pleader may be able to discover that this assumption, by Mr. Jefferson, is not that of the Hartford Convention; but, to the mass of readers, who take words in their accredited signification, the Hartford resolves will seem but Mr. Jefferson's reproduced. If any lingering doubt exists as to the extent of Mr. Jefferson's nullification sentiments, they will be dissipated by the eighth resolution, which expressly and directly declares that (the States themselves being the sole judges) where Congress assumes powers not delegated by the people," a nullification of the act is the right remedy; and that every State has a natural right, in cases not within the compact, to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power by others within their limits." We are at a loss, in view of this express declaration, and that which immediately follows it in the same resolutions, to discover upon what authority Mr. Everett [See his address, July 4th, 1861] denies the nullification sentiment as Mr. Jefferson's own. The "theoretic generalities" read so much like Hartford Convention and South Carolina Convention specialities, that ordinary perceptive faculties will not discover their differences. of a "body of disorganisers" in their midst, expressed their loyalty to the government in various ways. The resolutions brought forth a burst of indignation from all quarters of the Union. The good sense of the mass of New England people then perceived what a dangerous thing they had nursed into life, and none were more willing to consign the twentysix members of the Convention (twenty of whom were lawyers!) to infamy, than the intelligent and influential portion of the "Yankees" themselves. The responses of such States as took the trouble to respond to the propositions made in the Constitution. The doctrines set forth to them, were adverse to the proposed changes both in the Address and Resolutions gave dissatisfaction to those dissatisfied with the embargo and the war. No second Convention was called, for, not a town or village in New England, one year later, would have tolerated the sittings of such a body in its precincts. Well would it have been for the country-for the lately seceded States-if the loyal people of the cotton-growing commonwealths had crushed their disloyal leaders as the New Englanders crushed out the treason hatched by the Hartford Disunion Convention 66 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE EX CITEMENT-1819-21. The well known " compromise" resolutions, and, by his eloquence and great personal influence, succeeded in securing their passage—thus averting the peril threatened, of a disruption of the Union. The Compromise consisted of admitting Missouri as a Slave State, but conceding, as an equivalent for Northern concession in the premises, the prohibition of any further Slave territory north of the parallel 36 deg. 30 min. The Compromise, though unpalatable to the opponents of the right of Slave extension, was accepted as a solemn guarantee against all further extension, as, south of the parallel named, the territory then was not ours. Had it not been proposed and pledged as such a guarantee, the bill of Mr. Clay never could have passed the House of Representatives. It was not until August, 1821, that the tory had adopted a State Constitution, one provision of which required the Legislature to pass a law "to prevent free negroes from coming to and settling in the State." When presented to Congress, this provision was strenuously opposed, but Missouri was finally admitted, on condition that no law should be The Territory of Missouri came forward, in December, 1818, for admission into the Union as a State. As Slavery existed in the territory, the admission as a State involved the principles of a recognition of the "peculiar institution," and its right to extension. Freesoil element of the Northern or Free States becoming alarmed, resolved to oppose the admission of the territory as a State with a Slave clause in its constitution. The South, equally determined, resolved the State should have Slavery if it wanted it, and thereby assumed that position which it has ever since persistently maintained-of a Slave right in the territories. The issue, thus squarely presented, was met in the House of Representatives by a bill (introduced by Mr. Tall-State was admitted. Prior to this the terrimadge, of New York,) prohibiting Slavery, except for the punishment of crimes, and that all children born in the said State after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." This passed the House, but was lost in the Senate. For eighteen months the discussion was continued in both branches of Congress with great ability, and not without great excitement which extended to every section of the Union On the one hand, it was contended that the ordinance of 1787, which excluded Slavery from all territory north-west of the river Ohio, was a public recognition of the principles of the people of the United States in regard to the establishment of Slavery in new States and Territories in that region, and that the proposal to establish it in Missouri was a direct violation of these fundamental principles. On the other hand, it was urged that Slavery was incorporated in the system of society when Louisiana, which comprehended the territory of Missouri in 1803, was purchased from the French, and that as the faith of the United States was pledged by treaty to all the inhabitants of that wide domain to maintain their rights and privileges on the same footing with the people of the rest of the country, it would be a violation of that faith and those rights to abolish the institution of Slavery without their consent. passed by which any citizen of either of the States of the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States. The vote upon the passage of the bill in the House was 86 to 82, several members from non-Slaveholding States voting for it. In the Senate it was passed two to one-28 to 14. Missouri thus became one of the United States, measureably to increase the power of the Slave States in the government. State by State had been added to the original thirteen-Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, all with Slavery in their borders, and bearing to Congress the preponderating weight of their votes. The admission of Missouri, and the later admission of Arkansas and Florida, confirmed the supremacy of the South in the National counsels; a supremacy which was not disturbed until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 called into life the party which, in 1860, succeeded to the majority.* Mr. Everett states:-" Out of seventy-two years Henry Clay then came forward with his since the organization of this government, the Execu HISTORY OF FORMER THE INDIAN DIFFICULTIES IN The immense tracts of lands held in Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi by the Creeks, Choctaws, Chicksaw and Cherokee Indians, proved, for awhile, the source of much anxiety to government. The “reservations" guaranteed by solemn treaty to the Indians, in the various Southern and Western States, embraced immense bodies of choice land, up to a comparatively recent period. Thus, the treaties secured to the savages, and promised protection from all infringements by the whites on their domains, territories as follows:—In Georgia, nine and a half millions of acres; in Alabama, seven and a half millions; in Mississippi, fifteen and three-quarter millions: in the Territory of Florida, four millions; in the Territory of Arkansas, fifteen and a half millions; in the State of Missouri, two millions and three-quarters; in Indiana and Illinois, fifteen millions, and in Michigan, east of the lake, seven millions. The "march of civilization" soon compassed these reservations with white settlements, and, as a matter of course, trouble followed Encroachments would be made by the whites, covetous of the land or of its game. Indians would murder the whites and give the State authorities and the general government plenty to do to keep them in bounds. So great became the anxiety, in the Southern States named, to get rid of the aborigines, that their State Legislatures demanded of Government the entire removal of the red-men from their midst to the unsettled Territories around the tive Chair has, for sixty-four years, been filled nearly all the time by Southern Presidents; or when not by Southern men, by those possessing the confidence of the South. For a still longer period the controlling influences of the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the government have centered in the same quarter Of all the offices in the gift of the central power, in every department, far more than her proportionate share has always been enjoyed by the South." It is well to remember so important a fact. Judge Holt, of Kentucky, uses these facts, in his speech made at 44 head waters of the Arkansas river. Georgia made her demand peremptorily, since she held the Federal Government bound by a compact to relieve her. This compact stipulated that, in consideration of Georgia relinquishing her title and claim to the Mississippi Territory, the General Government would extinguish the Indian titles to the lands within her confines, "whenever it could be peaceably done and on reasonable terms." After making that agreement the Government succeeded in extinguishing the title to about fifteen million acres, and conveyed the same to the State of Georgia. There still remained 9,537,000 acres in the possession of the Indians, of which 5,292,000 acres belonged to the Cherokees and the remainder to the Creek nation. Shortly before the termination of Mr. Monroe's administration, the State Government became very urgent for the entire removal of the Indians, and at the solicitation of the Governor two Commissioners were appointed to make a treaty with the Creeks for the purchase of their lands. This was a treathe famous Chief, General William McIntosh, ty negotiated on the 12th of February, 1825, signing it in the presence of Mr. Crowell, the Creek country and several millions of acres United States Indian Agent, by which all the in Alabama were ceded to the United States. ing been concluded by McIntosh without the Complaints followed it to Washington as havauthority of the nation. The ratification of the treaty was opposed, but was finally carried by the strong vote of thirty-four to four. This sanction, on reaching the ears of the disand a secret council of the nation being called, contented Crecks, produced great excitement, they resolved not to accept the treaty. The death of McIntosh was determined on, and on the 30th of April his house was surrounded by a party, who shot him and another chief, and burned his premises. This aroused the State authorities to a determined course, and Georgia resolved to take possession of the lands by force. Troops were called out to sustain the claim. By this act the State opened a controversy with the General Gov 'Camp Holt," late in July, 1860, with most damag-ernment, which was bound to protect the In ing force against those who make the plea that the South has been denied her rights and just share in the Government. dians in their just rights. When Mr. Adams came into power he made the subject an early matter of examination, and became convinced that the Indians were right that the treaty, as they represented, had been made by McIntosh without authority, and therefore that the enforcement of its provision ought not to be urged. As Georgia had called out troops to force the savages into an acceptance and fulfillment of the treaty, it only remained for the President to order a Federal force to the confines of the reservation to protect the Indians in their rights. This step aroused not only Georgia, but also the adjoining States, who were prepared, with troops and money, to assist Georgia "against the Government and the Indians." The passage of the Tariff Act of 1828 was the immediate cause of the excitement known as the "Nullification" rebellion. That act heavily taxed woolens and other imported products—thus greatly enhancing their price to the South, and restricting importations. The complaint was one well calculated to excite a bitter feeling in the Cotton States, since it took the shape of a "Northern exaction"-a "tribute to Northern capital and labor"-an "unequal assessment of burdens," &c. Mr. Hayne, U. S. Senator from South Carolina, in January, 1830, arraigned the act as unconstitutional, and asserted the right and duty of the State to nullify the law by refusing to pay the required duties. This speech called forth from Webster his great oration on the powers of the Constitution. In it he so thoroughly killed the assumed right of nullification, that, for the moment, the friends of resistance to the law were in To avoid this hazard of war, Mr. Adams succeeded in gathering at Washington, in January, 1826, the head men and responsible representatives of the Creeks, and concluded a new treaty, which was substituted for the old one, whereby all the lands in Georgia were ceded, but none in Alabama. Notwith-timidated, if not convinced. standing the oposition of the Georgia delegation in Congress, the new treaty was ratified by the Senate at the ensuing session by a vote of thirty to seven, and the appropriations were made by the House of Representatives by a vote of one hundred and sixty-seven to ten. This treaty was faithfully observed by the Indians, and Georgia became possessed of their valuable land, after waiting a quarter of a century for Government to fulfil its agreement (made in 1802). At a late day the Cherokees' title was extinguished in Alaba-ing began to spread that the dinner was got ma, though their removal to the West was not accomplished until Gen.. Scott took the matter in hand (in May, 1838). THE SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICA TION CONSPIRACY, 1832-3. This Conspiracy raised the direct issue, invented by Mr. Jefferson in his Resolutions of '98, of the right of a State to nullify the acts of Congress and to be its own judge of the constitutionality of a law.* It is denied that Mr. Jefferson is the originator of the idea; but, as we have before remarked, the evidence to the contrary is the resolutions them The excitement, however, soon received a new impetus, from a most trivial but not less significant source. The matter is thus stated: On the 15th of April, 1830, the anniversary of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson was celebrated by a numerous company at Washington city, among whom were the President and Vice-President of the United States, several members of his Cabinet, and a numerous attendance of the members of Congress. With the promulgation of the toasts the feel up to inaugurate the doctrine of nullification, and make Mr. Jefferson its father. Numbers left the table, but the company was still numerous and the festivity a success. When the regular toasts were over, the President selves. The time has gone by for us as partisans to make special pleas to explain away or qualify acts and expressions of great leaders. Let plain words be interpreted in the plain way. There has been so much "pettifogging" in regard to the clear, Saxon expressions of the Constitution, so much good sense wasted in constructing equivocalities for party platforms, so much legal doubt created by Supreme Court decisions on property in men, that we should be permitted to regard them all as consigned to the past, and to read the records by the new and direct light of a present disenthralment of mind from old passions and prejudices. |