REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL RELATIONS. DECEMBER 20, 1832. (See Pamphlet Laws, Reports and Resolutions of 1832, p. 29.) In the House of Representatives, December 20, 1832. The committee on federal relations, to which was referred the proclamation of the President of the United States, have had it under consideration, and recommend the adoption of the following resolutions: Resolved, That the power vested by the constitution and laws in the President of the United States, to issue his proclamation, does not authorize him, in that mode, to interfere, whenever he may think fit, in the affairs of the respective states, or that he should use it as a means of promulgating executive expositions of the Constitution, with the sanction of force, thus superceding the action of the other departments of the General Government. Resolved, That it is not competent to the President of the United States, to order by proclamation the constituted authorities of a State to repeal their legislation; and that the late attempt of the President to do so, is unconstitutional, and manifests a disposition to arrogate and exercise a power utterly destructive of liberty. Resolved, That the opinions of the President, in regard to the rights of the states, are erroneous and dangerous, leading not only to the establishment of a consolidated government in the stead of our free confederacy, but to the concentration of all power in the chief executive. ex Resolved, That the proclamation of the President is the more traordinary, that he has silently, and as it supposed with entire approbation, witnessed our sister state of Georgia avow, act upon, and carry into effect, even to the taking of life, principles identical with those now denounced by him in South Carolina. Resolved, That each State of this Union has the right, whenever it may deem such a course necessary for the preservation of its liberties or vital interests, to secede peaceably from the Union; and that there is no constitutional power in the General Government, much less in the executive department of that government, to retain by force such state in the Union. Resolved, That the primary and paramount allegiance of the citizens of this state, native or adopted, is of right due to this state. Resolved, That the declaration of the President of the United States, in his said proclamation, of his personal feelings and relations towards OF the State of South Carolina, is rather an appeal to the loyalty of subjects, RESOLUTIONS than to the patriotism of citizens, and is a blending of official and indi- LEGISLATURE. vidual character, heretofore unknown in our state papers, and revolting to 1832. our conceptions of political propriety. Resolved, That the undisguised indulgence of personal hostility in the said proclamation, would be unworthy the animadversion of this legislature, but for the solemn and official form of the instrument which is made its vehicle. Resolved, That the principles, doctrines and purposes, contained in the said proclamation, are inconsistent with any just idea of a limited government, and subversive of the rights of the States and liberties of the people, and if submitted to in silence would lay a broad foundation for the establishment of monarchy. Resolved, That while this Legislature has witnessed with sorrow such a relaxation of the spirit of our institutions, that a President of the United States dare venture upon this highhanded measure, it regards with indignation the menaces which are directed against it, and the concentration of a standing army on our borders-that the State will repel force by force, and, relying upon the blessing of God, will maintain its liberty at all hazards. Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be sent to our members in Congress, to be laid before that body. Resolved, That the House do agree to the report. Ordered, that it be sent to Senate for concurrence. By order of the House. Resolved, That Senate do concur. House of Representatives. By order R. ANDERSON, C. H. R. In the Senate, December 20, 1832. Ordered to be returned to the of the Senate. JACOB WARLEY, C. S. PROCLAMATION, BY THE GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CARO LINA. DECEMBER 21, 1832. Whereas, the President of the United States hath issued his Proclamation concerning an "ORDINANCE OF THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States," laying "duties and imposts for the protection of domestic manufactures:" And whereas, the Legislature of South Carolina, now in session, taking into consideration the matters contained in the said Proclamation of the President, have adopted a Preamble and Resolution to the following effect, viz. "Whereas, the President of the United States has issued his Proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of this State, calling upon the citizens thereof to renounce their primary allegiance, and threatening them with military coercion, unwarranted by the Constitution, and utterly inconsis tent with the existence of a free State; be it therefore, Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested, forthwith, to issue his Proclamation, warning the good people of this State against the attempt of the President of the United States to seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity, and protect the liberty of the State, against the arbitrary measures proposed by the President." Now, I, ROBERT Y. HAYNE, Governor of South Carolina, in obedience to the said Resolution, do hereby issue this my Proclamation, solemnly warning the good people of this State against the dangerous and pernicious doctrines promulgated in the said Proclamation of the President, as calculated to mislead their judgments as to the true character of the government under which they live, and the paramount obligation which they owe to the State, and manifestly intended to seduce them from their allegiance, and by drawing them to the support of the violent and unlawful measures contemplated by the President, to involve them in the guilt of REBELLION. I would earnestly admonish them to beware of the specious but false doctrines by which it is now attempted to be shown that the several States have not retained their entire sovereignty, that "the allegiance of their citizens was transferred in the first instance to the Government of the United States," that "a State cannot be said to be sovereign and independent, whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it" that "even under the royal government we had no separate character," that the Constitution has created "a national government," which is not a compact between Sovereign States"-" that a State has NO RIGHT TO SECEDE"-in a word, that ours is a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, in which the people of all the States are represented, and by which we 66 PROCLAMA TION. are constituted " ONE PEOPLE”—and "that our representatives in Congress GOVERNOR'S are all representatives of the United States, and not of the particular States from which they come"-doctrines which uproot the very foundation of our political system-annihilate the rights of the States-and utterly destroy the liberties of the citizen. It requires no reasoning to show what the bare statement of these propositions demonstrate, that such a Government as is here described, has not a single feature of a confederated republic. It is in truth an accurate delineation, drawn with a bold hand, of a great consolidated empire, "one and indivisible;" and under whatever specious form its powers may be masked, it is in fact the worst of all despotisms, in which the spirit of an arbitrary government is suffered to pervade institutions professing to be free. Such was not the Government for which our fathers fought and bled, and offered up their lives and fortunes as a willing sacrifice. Such was not the Government which the great and patriotic men who called the Union into being in the plenitude of their wisdoms framed. Such was not the Government which the fathers of the republican faith, led on by the Apostle of American Liberty, promulgated and successfully maintained in 1798, and by which they produced the great political revolution effected at that auspicious era. To a Government based on such principles, South Carolina has not been a voluntary party, and to such a Government she never will give her assent. The records of our history do, indeed, afford the prototype of these sentiments, which is to be found in the recorded opinion of those who, when the Constitution was framed, were in favor of a "firm National Government," in which the States should stand in the same relation to the Union, that the colonies did towards the mother country. The Journals of the Convention and the secret history of the debates, will show that this party did propose to secure to the Federal Government an absolute supremacy over the States, by giving them a negative upon their laws, but the same history also teaches us that all these propositions were rejected, and a Federal Government was finally established, recognizing the sovereignty of the States, and leaving the constitutional compact on the footing of all other compacts between "parties having no common superior." 66 SOCIAL COM It is the natural and necessary consequence of the principles thus authoritatively announced by the President, as constituting the very basis of our political system, that the Federal Government is unlimited and supreme; being the exclusive judge of the extent of its own powers, the laws of Congress sanctioned by the Executive and the Judiciury, whether passed in direct violation of the Constitution and rights of the States, or not, are "the supreme law of the land." Hence it is that the President obviously considers the words, "made in pursuance of the Constitution," as mere surplusage; and therefore, when he professes to recite the provision of the Constitution on this subject, he states that our PACT in express terms declares that the Laws of the United States, its Constitution, and the Treaties made under it, are the supreme law of the land," and speaks throughout of "the explicit supremacy given to the laws of the Union over those of the States"-as if a law of Congress was of itself supreme, while it was necessary to the validity of a treaty that it should be made in pursuance of the Constitution. Such, however, is not the provision of the Constitution. That instrument expressly provides that "the Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 1832. PROCLAMA- 1832. GOVERNOR'S Here it will be seen that a law of Congress, as such, can have no validity unless made "in pursuance of the Constitution." An unconstitu- tional act is therefore null and void, and the only point that can arise in this case, is whether, to the Federal Government, or any department thereof, has been exclusively reserved the right to decide authoritatively for the States this question of Constitutionality. If this be so, to which of the departments, it may be asked, is this right of final judgment given? If it be to Congress, then is Congress not only elevated above the other departments of the Federal Government, but it is put above the Constitution itself. This, however, the President himself has publicly and solemnly denied, claiming and exercising, as is known to all the world-the right to refuse to execute acts of Congress and solemn treaties, even after they had received the sanction of every department of the Federal Government. That the Executive possesses this right of deciding finally and exclusively as to the validity of acts of Congress, will hardly be pretended— and that it belongs to the Judiciary, except so far as may be necessary to the decision of questions which may incidentally come before them, in cases of law and equity," has been denied by none more strongly than the President himself, who on a memorable occasion refused to acknowledge the binding authority of the Federal Court, and claimed for himself and has exercised the right of enforcing the laws, not according to their judgment, but "his own understanding of them." And yet when it serves the purpose of bringing odium upon South Carolina, "his native State," the President has no hesitation in regarding the attempt of a State to release herself from the controul of the Federal Judiciary, in a matter affecting her sovereign rights, as a violation of the Constitution. It is unnecessary to enter into an elaborate examination of the subject. It surely cannot admit of a doubt, that by the Declaration of Independence the several Colonies became "free, sovereign, and independent States," and our political history will abundantly show that at every subsequent change in their condition up to the formation of our present Constitution, the States preserved their sovereignty. The discovery of this new feature in our system, that the States exist only as members of the Union—that before the Declaration of Independence we were known only as "United Colonies"-and that even under the articles of confederation the States were considered as forming "collectively ONE NATION”without any right of refusing to submit to " any decision of Congress"was reserved to the President and his immediate predecessor. To the latter "belongs the invention, and upon the former will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to practice." South Carolina holds the principles now promulgated by the President (as they must always be held by all who claim to be supporters of the rights of the States) "as contradicted by the letter of the Constitutionunauthorized by its spirit-inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded-destructive of all the objects for which it was framed”—utterly incompatible with the very existence of the States-and absolutely fatal to the rights and liberties of the people. South Carolina has so solemnly and repeatedly expressed to Congress and the World the principles which she believes to constitute the very pillars of the Constitution, that it is deemed unnecessary to do more at this time, than barely to present a summary of those great fundamental truths, which she believes can never be subverted without the inevitable destruction of the liberties of the people and of the Union itself. South Carolina has never claimed (as is asserted by the President,) the right of "repealing at pleasure, all the |