Brookville Inquirer, Volume 1, Number 1, Brookville, Franklin County, 4 January 1833 — Page 2

It would seem superfluous to add any thing to show the nature of that Union which connects us; but as erroneous opinions on this subject are the foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must give some farther development to my views on this subject. No one, my fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of the States, than the Magistrate who now addresses you. No one would make greater personal sacrifices, or official exertions, to defend them from violation; but equal care must be taken to prevent on their part an improper interference with, or resumption of, the rights they have vested in the nation. The line has not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts of the Constitution : but there are others on which

dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right of

secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged undivided sovereignty of the States, and on their having formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called the Constitution, from which, because they made it, they have the right to secede. Both of these arguments are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them so have been anticipated. The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to make treaties declare war levy taxes exercise exclu

sive judicial and legislative powers, were all of

them iunctions ot sovereign power. 1 he Sates, then, for all these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. The allegiance of their citizens was transferred, in the first instance, to the Govverment of the United States, they became Amerrican citizens, and owed obedience to the constitution of the U. S. to laws made in conformity

with the powers it vested in Congress. This last

position has not been, and cannot be denied. How then can that State be sovreign and independant whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it,and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws-, when they come in conflict with

those passed by annother? what shows conclusively that the States ennnot be said to have reserved an undivided sovreignty is, that they expressly ceded the right to punish treason not treason against their separate power but treason against the United States. Treason is an offence against sovereignty, and sovereignty must reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved rights of the States are not less sacred, because they have for their common interest made the General Goverment the depository of their poAvers. The unity of our plitical chracter (as has been shown for another purpose) commenced with its very existence. Under the Royal Government we had no separate character our opposition to its oppressions began as United Colonies. We were the United States under the confederation 1 and the name was perpetuated, and the Union rendered more perfect, by the Federal Constitution. In none of these stages did we consider ourselves in any other light than as forming one nation. Treaties and alMances were made in the name of all. Troops were raised for the joint defence. How, then, with all these proofs, that under all changes of our position we had, for designated purposes and with defined powers created National Governments ; how is it that the most perfect of those several modes of "union should now be considered as a mere league that may be dissolved at pleasure? It isfroman abuse of terms. Compact is used as synonymous with league,although the true term is not employed because it would at once 'show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to say that our Constitution was only a league ; but, it is labored to prove it a compact, (which in one sense it is) and then to argue that as a league is a compact, every compact between nations must of course be a league, and that from such an engagement every sovereign power has a right to recede. But it has been shown, that in this sense the States are not sovereign, and that even if they were, and the National Constitution had been formed by compact, there would be no right in any one State to exonerate itself from its obligations. So obvious are the reasons which forbid this secession, that it is necessary only to allude to them. The Union was formed for the benefit

of all. It was produced by mutual sacrifices of

interests and opinions. Can those sacrifices be recalled? Can the States who magnanimously surrendered their title to the Territories of the

West, recal the grant? Will the inhabitants of

the inland States agree to pay the duties that may be imposed without their assent by those on the Atlantic or the Gulf, for their own benefit? Shall there be a free port in one state, and

onerous duties in another? No one believes that

any right exists in any single State to involve all the others in these and countless other evils, con

trary to the engagements solemnly made. Eve

ry one must see that the other States, in self-defence, must oppose at all hazards. These are the alternatives that are presented

by the Convention: A repeal of all the acts for

raising revenue, leaving the Government with

out the means of support; or an acquiescence in

the dissolution of the Union by the secession of j

one ot its members. H hen the hrst was, proposed, it was known that it could not be listened

to for a moment. It was known if force was ap

plied to oppose the execution of the laws, that

it must be repelled by lorce that Congress could not, without involving itself in disgrace and the country in ruin, accede to the proposition; and

yet, if this is not done in a given day, or if any attempt is made to execute the laws, the State is, by the Ordinance declared to be out of the

Union. The majority of a Convention assembled for the purpose have dictated these terms, in the name of the people of South Carolina. It

is true the Governor of the State speaks of the submission of their grievances to a Convention of all the States; which, he says, they M sincerely

ana anxiously seeK ana aesire. ' l et this obvi

ous and constitutional mode ot staining the sense of the other States on the construction of the Federal Compact, and amending it, if necessary, has never been attempted by those who have urged the State to 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 Government 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 twothirds of the States. This suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless inattention to the provisions of the Constitution with which tills crisis has been madly hurried on; or 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" 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 empowered 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 that 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 entrust to me for that purpose ; but to warn the citizens of South Carolina, who have

been dchided into an opposition to the laws, of

the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing Ordinance of the Convention to exhort those who have refused to persevere in their determination to uphold the

Constitution and laws of their countrv, and to point out to all the perilous 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.

rellow-citizens ot my native Slate! let me

not only admonish you, as the first Magistrate of

our common country, not to incur the penalty of

its laws, but nse the influence that a b ather would over his children whom he saw rushing to cer

tain ruin. In that paternal language, with that

paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are cither deluded 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 ettect ot the 1 anil laws. 1 he effect of those laws are confessedly injurious, but the evil was greatly exaggerated by the unfounded the

ory you were taught to believe, that its burthens

were in proportion to your exports, not to not to your consumption of imported articles. Your pride was roused by the assertion 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 r athers offered to the oppression 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 passions, to your State pride, to your native courage, to your sense of real injury, rere used to prepare you for the period when In., mask which concealed the 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 3-0U, 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 fellow citizens, fjp.t by the admission of your leaders, the unconsiitftvionality must be palpable, or it will not justify either resistance or nullification ! What is the meaning of the word palpable in thesense 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 amongst your leade" fvho once approved and advocated the principn "jf protective duties, answer the qypstion ; antnlet them choose whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of perceiving that w hich must have

been apparent to every man of common under

standing or as imposing upon your confidence, and

endeavoring to mislead you now. In either case,

they are unsale guides m the perilous path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, 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 vou. again worse than colonial vassalage. You J ' , n a l 1 IT-

are free members oi a nouniing au uaYY3, v

ni An 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; and that inequality, must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on to the course you have Knrl rnmmenr-

ed. 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 consumption in your State. The importance of this change was understood, and

you were authoritatively told, that no further al

leviation ol j our burthens was to be expected, at the very time when the condition of the coun

try imperiously demanded such a modification of

the duties as should reduce them to a mst 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

winch you now hnd 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 thg consequences it will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition of that country of which you still form an important part! Consider its government, uniting in one bond of common interest 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 inter-communication, defending their frontiers, and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth! Consider the extent 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 honor, and say we, too, are citizens of America : Carolina

is one of those 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 dissolve this 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 will renounce the very names 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 honor of the Union? For

the dream ol a separate independence a dream

interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, 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 ap

prehension ol civil discord, with all its fearful

consequences? Do our neighboring republics,

every day suttering some new revolution, or con

tending with some new insurrection do they excite your envy? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you can

not succeed. -

The laws of the United States must be execu

ted. I have no discretionary power on the sup-

ject my duty is emphatically pronounced

in the Lonstitution. 1 hose who told you that you might peacably prevent their execution, deceived

you they could not have been deceived them

selves. 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 lorce is treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on

the haeds ol the instigators ot the act be the dread

ful consequences on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment on vour

unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of

the conflict you torce upon the government of your country. It cannot accede to the mad project

ol disunion ol which you would be the hrst victims its first Magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty he consequence must be fearful for j'ou, distressing to your fellow citizens her, and to the friends of good government

throughout the world. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation they could not

conceal it was a standing relutation ol their slav

ish doctrines, and they will point to our discord

with the triumph of malignant joy. It is in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sumpters,the Rutledges; and of the thousand others names which adorn the pages of your revolutionary history will not abandon that Union to support which, so many of them fought, and bled, and died. I adjure your as you honor their memory as you love the cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace you steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizes edict of its Convention bid its members to re-assemble and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct youj to safety, prosperity and honor tell them that compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all declare that you will never take the field unless the star spangled banner of your country shall float over you that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your countrj'! Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace you may interrupt the course of its prosperity you may cloud its reputation for stability but its tranquility will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stainjupon its national character will be transferred, and remain an eternaV,blot

on the memory of those who caused the d; Fellow-citizens of the U. States! Thci of unhallowed j disunion the names of once resDected. bv whom it U 1 .,lJ0sc

f:W.r ' the

ar

ray of military force to support it dpiwi

prriach of a crisis in our affairs on which the tihuaritf .of our unexampled prosperity, 011" liticftl existence, and perhaps that of all free rnlnenis may depend. The conjunction deni ded a free, a full, and expTicjt "enunciation only of my intentions bul: of my principles of a tion ; and as the claim was asserted of a rirht b" a State to annul the laws of the Union and eve to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to the origin and form of our government, and the construction I give t0 the instrument by which it was created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence iu the justness of the legal and constitutional nnin

ion of my duties which has been expressed, I re.1 ly with equal confidence on your undivided sup. port in my determination to execute the laws--to preserve the Union by all constitutional means to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm

measures, the necessity cf a rec9urse to forceand, if it be the w ill of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by an offensive

act on the part ol the United States. Fellow-citizens! The momentous case is be

fore 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 republican 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 which he has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal ambiton, be disregarded and lost: and may His wise Providencebring those'who have produced this crisis, to see ti;eir folly, before they feel the misery of

crv li siriie : ana inspire a returning veneration for

that Union which, u we may dare to penetrate His designs, He has chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Seal of

the United States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand. Done at the City of Washington this 10th day

of December, in the year of our Lord, one thou

sand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-sev

enth. ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President: Edw. Livingston, Secretary of State.

ffT-There will be a Dublin debate at.tlieCnnrt Hnnw

to-morrow even in nr. at earl v candlf? lio-Minn- lu lio

: . . . -. ' J

memDers composing the tsrooKville L.yceum. A gen

eral attendance 01 me citizens is respectiuny solicited.

Sattinets.

CHEAP GOODS.

THE subscriber continues to keep on hand an extensive assortment of Goods, consistine-. in narf.

... . ,. . . . ' o i

ol the loiiowing articles:

Blue, olive, drab, steel-mixed) and brown ClothsOlive and brown, Peter sham,

Blue, olive, brown, Jlue-mix-ed and steel-mixed

Red, white and green Flannel, Red and white Canton do. Rose and Point Blankets.

Black, brown, scarlet, blue and slate-color

ed Circassians, Black and red figured Bombazetts, Black, brown, and blue, plain do. , Tartan and Circassian nlaids.

1 7 7-8, 4-4 & C-4 brown sheetings & shirtings,

1-1 uieacneu snirtings; uea ticking, 4-4, 5-4 and 6-4 Cotton diaper, r" 3-8,6-4 and 9-4 Linen do. Ginghams, calicoes, cotton plaids, Furniture and apron checks, Black and hhie-hlark Tfnlinn drpss silks.

Black satin, worsted and Waterloo shawl?, Merino, worsted & silk dress handkerchiefs,

Irish linen, shirting and sheeting, Flag and Bandanna silk handkerchiefs, White Jackonet and cotton flag do. White cotton and black worsted hose, Ladies leather and silk gloves, Gentlemen's leather do. White, black and colored cambrics, Plain and figured book, mull,) ,T and Jaconet I Musuxs'

Bobinet; thread; bobinct and cotton laces;

Kibbands, linen tapes; cotton cord, Cotton and linen floss, Men's plaid Cloaks, Cotton umbrellas, Men's coarse boots and shoes, do. calf-skin do. Ladies calf skin, morocco & lasting do. Fur and Wool hats; seal skin caps, Books; Leghorn bonnets; cotton yarns, Looking Glasses, Wire seives, &c. ALSO, A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF Groceries, Hardware, Queenstvare, Tinware, Glassware. &c.

TojTplhpr with Bar. TTnnn. nnrl P Troll;

O " 7 X M. . v Nails, Castings, Steel, Wagon boxes, odd lids

irace cna; gs, xc. 3cc. 03- All IS'iv hich he will eel! at the Cincinnati pri ceifor Cash. RICHARD TYNER. Brookville, Jan. 1, 1833.

ALL persons indebted to the subscriber, whose note and accounts are now due are again requested ta make immediate payment. Those who cannot pay allt are reqested to pay a part, and close their accounts bj .a,. Ti 1 i . 1 ... . . . W

iiuLc. il is noneo I n h t nnnp urm norricw.r in romc

e above notice. R. TYNER

with the above notice

Brook vu, Jan. 1, 1S33.

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