q [ See the report of its
committee to the Convention which proclaimed the nullification of the tariff in
South Carolina.]
If the changes which I have described were gradual, so
that each generation at least might have time to disappear with the order of
things under which it had lived, the danger would be less; but the progress of
society in America is precipitate, and almost revolutionary. The same citizen
may have lived to see his State take the lead in the Union, and afterwards
become powerless in the federal assemblies; and an Anglo-American republic has
been known to grow as rapidly as a man passing from birth and infancy to
maturity in the course of thirty years. It must not be imagined, however, that
the States which lose their preponderance, also lose their population or their
riches: no stop is put to their prosperity, and they even go on to increase
more rapidly than any kingdom in Europe. *r But they believe themselves to be
impoverished because their wealth does not augment as rapidly as that of their
neighbors; any they think that their power is lost, because they suddenly come
into collision with a power greater than their own: *s thus they are more hurt
in their feelings and their passions than in their interests. But this is amply
sufficient to endanger the maintenance of the Union. If kings and peoples had
only had their true interests in view ever since the beginning of the world,
the name of war would scarcely be known among mankind.
r [ The population of a country
assuredly constitutes the first element of its wealth. In the ten years
(1820-1830) during which Virginia lost two of its representatives in Congress,
its population increased in the proportion of 13.7 per cent.; that of Carolina
in the proportion of fifteen per cent.; and that of Georgia, 15.5 per cent.
(See the "American Almanac," 1832, p. 162) But the population of
Russia, which increases more rapidly than that of any other European country,
only augments in ten years at the rate of 9.5 per cent.; in France, at the rate
of seven per cent.; and in Europe in general, at the rate of 4.7 per cent. (See
"Malte Brun," vol. vi. p. 95)]
s [ It must be admitted,
however, that the depreciation which has taken place in the value of tobacco,
during the last fifty years, has notably diminished the opulence of the
Southern planters: but this circumstance is as independent of the will of their
Northern brethren as it is of their own.]
Thus the prosperity of the United States is the source of
the most serious dangers that threaten them, since it tends to create in some
of the confederate States that over-excitement which accompanies a rapid
increase of fortune; and to awaken in others those feelings of envy, mistrust,
and regret which usually attend upon the loss of it. The Americans contemplate
this extraordinary and hasty progress with exultation; but they would be wiser
to consider it with sorrow and alarm. The Americans of the United States must
inevitably become one of the greatest nations in the world; their offset will
cover almost the whole of North America; the continent which they inhabit is
their dominion, and it cannot escape them. What urges them to take possession
of it so soon? Riches, power, and renown cannot fail to be theirs at some
future time, but they rush upon their fortune as if but a moment remained for
them to make it their own.
I think that I have demonstrated that the existence of
the present confederation depends entirely on the continued assent of all the
confederates; and, starting from this principle, I have inquired into the
causes which may induce the several States to separate from the others. The
Union may, however, perish in two different ways: one of the confederate States
may choose to retire from the compact, and so forcibly to sever the federal
tie; and it is to this supposition that most of the remarks that I have made
apply: or the authority of the Federal Government may be progressively
entrenched on by the simultaneous tendency of the united republics to resume
their independence. The central power, successively stripped of all its
prerogatives, and reduced to impotence by tacit consent, would become
incompetent to fulfil its purpose; and the second Union would perish, like the
first, by a sort of senile inaptitude. The gradual weakening of the federal
tie, which may finally lead to the dissolution of the Union, is a distinct
circumstance, that may produce a variety of minor consequences before it
operates so violent a change. The confederation might still subsist, although
its Government were reduced to such a degree of inanition as to paralyze the
nation, to cause internal anarchy, and to check the general prosperity of the
country.
After having investigated the causes which may induce the
Anglo-Americans to disunite, it is important to inquire whether, if the Union
continues to subsist, their Government will extend or contract its sphere of
action, and whether it will become more energetic or more weak.
The Americans are evidently disposed to look upon their
future condition with alarm. They perceive that in most of the nations of the
world the exercise of the rights of sovereignty tends to fall under the control
of a few individuals, and they are dismayed by the idea that such will also be
the case in their own country. Even the statesmen feel, or affect to feel,
these fears; for, in America, centralization is by no means popular, and there
is no surer means of courting the majority than by inveighing against the
encroachments of the central power. The Americans do not perceive that the
countries in which this alarming tendency to centralization exists are
inhabited by a single people; whilst the fact of the Union being composed of
different confederate communities is sufficient to baffle all the inferences
which might be drawn from analogous circumstances. I confess that I am inclined
to consider the fears of a great number of Americans as purely imaginary; and
far from participating in their dread of the consolidation of power in the
hands of the Union, I think that the Federal Government is visibly losing
strength.
To prove this assertion I shall not have recourse to any
remote occurrences, but to circumstances which I have myself witnessed, and
which belong to our own time.
An attentive examination of what is going on in the
United States will easily convince us that two opposite tendencies exist in
that country, like two distinct currents flowing in contrary directions in the
same channel. The Union has now existed for forty-five years, and in the course
of that time a vast number of provincial prejudices, which were at first
hostile to its power, have died away. The patriotic feeling which attached each
of the Americans to his own native State is become less exclusive; and the
different parts of the Union have become more intimately connected the better
they have become acquainted with each other. The post, *t that great instrument
of intellectual intercourse, now reaches into the backwoods; and steamboats
have established daily means of communication between the different points of
the coast. An inland navigation of unexampled rapidity conveys commodities up
and down the rivers of the country. *u And to these facilities of nature and
art may be added those restless cravings, that busy-mindedness, and love of
pelf, which are constantly urging the American into active life, and bringing
him into contact with his fellow-citizens. He crosses the country in every
direction; he visits all the various populations of the land; and there is not
a province in France in which the natives are so well known to each other as
the 13,000,000 of men who cover the territory of the United States.
t [ In 1832, the district of
Michigan, which only contains 31,639 inhabitants, and is still an almost
unexplored wilderness, possessed 940 miles of mail-roads. The territory of
Arkansas, which is still more uncultivated, was already intersected by 1,938
miles of mail-roads. (See the report of the General Post Office, November 30,
1833.) The postage of newspapers alone in the whole Union amounted to
$254,796.]
u [ In the course of ten years, from 1821 to 1831, 271
steamboats have been launched upon the rivers which water the valley of the
Mississippi alone. In 1829 259 steamboats existed in the United States. (See
Legislative Documents, No. 140, p. 274.)]
But whilst the Americans intermingle, they grow in
resemblance of each other; the differences resulting from their climate, their
origin, and their institutions, diminish; and they all draw nearer and nearer
to the common type. Every year, thousands of men leave the North to settle in
different parts of the Union: they bring with them their faith, their opinions,
and their manners; and as they are more enlighthned than the men amongst whom
they are about to dwell, they soon rise to the head of affairs, and they adapt
society to their own advantage. This continual emigration of the North to the
South is peculiarly favorable to the fusion of all the different provincial
characters into one national character. The civilization of the North appears
to be the common standard, to which the whole nation will one day be
assimilated.
The commercial ties which unite the confederate States
are strengthened by the increasing manufactures of the Americans; and the union
which began to exist in their opinions, gradually forms a part of their habits:
the course of time has swept away the bugbear thoughts which haunted the
imaginations of the citizens in 1789. The federal power is not become
oppressive; it has not destroyed the independence of the States; it has not
subjected the confederates to monarchial institutions; and the Union has not
rendered the lesser States dependent upon the larger ones; but the confederation
has continued to increase in population, in wealth, and in power. I am
therefore convinced that the natural obstacles to the continuance of the
American Union are not so powerful at the present time as they were in 1789;
and that the enemies of the Union are not so numerous.
Nevertheless, a careful examination of the history of the
United States for the last forty-five years will readily convince us that the
federal power is declining; nor is it difficult to explain the causes of this
phenomenon. *v When the Constitution of 1789 was promulgated, the nation was a
prey to anarchy; the Union, which succeeded this confusion, excited much dread
and much animosity; but it was warmly supported because it satisfied an
imperious want. Thus, although it was more attacked than it is now, the federal
power soon reached the maximum of its authority, as is usually the case with a
government which triumphs after having braced its strength by the struggle. At
that time the interpretation of the Constitution seemed to extend, rather than
to repress, the federal sovereignty; and the Union offered, in several
respects, the appearance of a single and undivided people, directed in its
foreign and internal policy by a single Government. But to attain this point
the people had risen, to a certain extent, above itself.
v [ [Since 1861 the movement is
certainly in the opposite direction, and the federal power has largely
increased, and tends to further increase.]]
The Constitution had not destroyed the distinct
sovereignty of the States; and all communities, of whatever nature they may be,
are impelled by a secret propensity to assert their independence. This
propensity is still more decided in a country like America, in which every
village forms a sort of republic accustomed to conduct its own affairs. It
therefore cost the States an effort to submit to the federal supremacy; and all
efforts, however successful they may be, necessarily subside with the causes in
which they originated.
As the Federal Government consolidated its authority,
America resumed its rank amongst the nations, peace returned to its frontiers,
and public credit was restored; confusion was succeeded by a fixed state of
things, which was favorable to the full and free exercise of industrious
enterprise. It was this very prosperity which made the Americans forget the
cause to which it was attributable; and when once the danger was passed, the
energy and the patriotism which had enabled them to brave it disappeared from
amongst them. No sooner were they delivered from the cares which oppressed
them, than they easily returned to their ordinary habits, and gave themselves
up without resistance to their natural inclinations. When a powerful Government
no longer appeared to be necessary, they once more began to think it irksome.
The Union encouraged a general prosperity, and the States were not inclined to
abandon the Union; but they desired to render the action of the power which
represented that body as light as possible. The general principle of Union was
adopted, but in every minor detail there was an actual tendency to
independence. The principle of confederation was every day more easily
admitted, and more rarely applied; so that the Federal Government brought about
its own decline, whilst it was creating order and peace.
As soon as this tendency of public opinion began to be
manifested externally, the leaders of parties, who live by the passions of the
people, began to work it to their own advantage. The position of the Federal
Government then became exceedingly critical. Its enemies were in possession of
the popular favor; and they obtained the right of conducting its policy by
pledging themselves to lessen its influence. From that time forwards the
Government of the Union has invariably been obliged to recede, as often as it
has attempted to enter the lists with the governments of the States. And
whenever an interpretation of the terms of the Federal Constitution has been
called for, that interpretation has most frequently been opposed to the Union,
and favorable to the States.
The Constitution invested the Federal Government with the
right of providing for the interests of the nation; and it had been held that
no other authority was so fit to superintend the "internal
improvements" which affected the prosperity of the whole Union; such, for
instance, as the cutting of canals. But the States were alarmed at a power,
distinct from their own, which could thus dispose of a portion of their
territory; and they were afraid that the central Government would, by this
means, acquire a formidable extent of patronage within their own confines, and
exercise a degree of influence which they intended to reserve exclusively to
their own agents. The Democratic party, which has constantly been opposed to
the increase of the federal authority, then accused the Congress of usurpation,
and the Chief Magistrate of ambition. The central Government was intimidated by
the opposition; and it soon acknowledged its error, promising exactly to
confine its influence for the future within the circle which was prescribed to
it.
The Constitution confers upon the Union the right of
treating with foreign nations. The Indian tribes, which border upon the
frontiers of the United States, had usually been regarded in this light. As
long as these savages consented to retire before the civilized settlers, the
federal right was not contested: but as soon as an Indian tribe attempted to
fix its dwelling upon a given spot, the adjacent States claimed possession of
the lands and the rights of sovereignty over the natives. The central
Government soon recognized both these claims; and after it had concluded
treaties with the Indians as independent nations, it gave them up as subjects
to the legislative tyranny of the States. *w
w [ See in the Legislative Documents, already quoted in
speaking of the Indians, the letter of the President of the United States to
the Cherokees, his correspondence on this subject with his agents, and his
messages to Congress.]
Some of the States which had been founded upon the coast
of the Atlantic, extended indefinitely to the West, into wild regions where no
European had ever penetrated. The States whose confines were irrevocably fixed,
looked with a jealous eye upon the unbounded regions which the future would
enable their neighbors to explore. The latter then agreed, with a view to
conciliate the others, and to facilitate the act of union, to lay down their
own boundaries, and to abandon all the territory which lay beyond those limits
to the confederation at large. *x Thenceforward the Federal Government became
the owner of all the uncultivated lands which lie beyond the borders of the
thirteen States first confederated. It was invested with the right of
parcelling and selling them, and the sums derived from this source were exclusively
reserved to the public treasure of the Union, in order to furnish supplies for
purchasing tracts of country from the Indians, for opening roads to the remote
settlements, and for accelerating the increase of civilization as much as
possible. New States have, however, been formed in the course of time, in the
midst of those wilds which were formerly ceded by the inhabitants of the shores
of the Atlantic. Congress has gone on to sell, for the profit of the nation at
large, the uncultivated lands which those new States contained. But the latter
at length asserted that, as they were now fully constituted, they ought to
enjoy the exclusive right of converting the produce of these sales to their own
use. As their remonstrances became more and more threatening, Congress thought
fit to deprive the Union of a portion of the privileges which it had hitherto
enjoyed; and at the end of 1832 it passed a law by which the greatest part of
the revenue derived from the sale of lands was made over to the new western
republics, although the lands themselves were not ceded to them. *y
x [ The first act of session was
made by the State of New York in 1780; Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
South and North Carolina, followed this example at different times, and lastly,
the act of cession of Georgia was made as recently as 1802.]
y [ It is true that the
President refused his assent to this law; but he completely adopted it in
principle. (See Message of December 8, 1833.)]
The slightest observation in the United States enables
one to appreciate the advantages which the country derives from the bank. These
advantages are of several kinds, but one of them is peculiarly striking to the
stranger. The banknotes of the United States are taken upon the borders of the
desert for the same value as at Philadelphia, where the bank conducts its
operations. *z
z [ The present Bank of the
United States was established in 1816, with a capital of $35,000,000; its
charter expires in 1836. Last year Congress passed a law to renew it, but the
President put his veto upon the bill. The struggle is still going on with great
violence on either side, and the speedy fall of the bank may easily be
foreseen. [It was soon afterwards extinguished by General Jackson.]]
The Bank of the United States is nevertheless the object
of great animosity. Its directors have proclaimed their hostility to the
President: and they are accused, not without some show of probability, of
having abused their influence to thwart his election. The President therefore
attacks the establishment which they represent with all the warmth of personal
enmity; and he is encouraged in the pursuit of his revenge by the conviction
that he is supported by the secret propensities of the majority. The bank may
be regarded as the great monetary tie of the Union, just as Congress is the
great legislative tie; and the same passions which tend to render the States
independent of the central power, contribute to the overthrow of the bank.
The Bank of the United States always holds a great number
of the notes issued by the provincial banks, which it can at any time oblige
them to convert into cash. It has itself nothing to fear from a similar demand,
as the extent of its resources enables it to meet all claims. But the existence
of the provincial banks is thus threatened, and their operations are
restricted, since they are only able to issue a quantity of notes duly
proportioned to their capital. They submit with impatience to this salutary
control. The newspapers which they have bought over, and the President, whose
interest renders him their instrument, attack the bank with the greatest
vehemence. They rouse the local passions and the blind democratic instinct of
the country to aid their cause; and they assert that the bank directors form a
permanent aristocratic body, whose influence must ultimately be felt in the
Government, and must affect those principles of equality upon which society
rests in America.
The contest between the bank and its opponents is only an
incident in the great struggle which is going on in America between the
provinces and the central power; between the spirit of democratic independence
and the spirit of gradation and subordination. I do not mean that the enemies
of the bank are identically the same individuals who, on other points, attack
the Federal Government; but I assert that the attacks directed against the bank
of the United States originate in the same propensities which militate against
the Federal Government; and that the very numerous opponents of the former
afford a deplorable symptom of the decreasing support of the latter.
The Union has never displayed so much weakness as in the
celebrated question of the tariff. *a The wars of the French Revolution and of
1812 had created manufacturing establishments in the North of the Union, by
cutting off all free communication between America and Europe. When peace was
concluded, and the channel of intercourse reopened by which the produce of
Europe was transmitted to the New World, the Americans thought fit to establish
a system of import duties, for the twofold purpose of protecting their
incipient manufactures and of paying off the amount of the debt contracted
during the war. The Southern States, which have no manufactures to encourage,
and which are exclusively agricultural, soon complained of this measure. Such
were the simple facts, and I do not pretend to examine in this place whether
their complaints were well founded or unjust.
a [ See principally for the details of this affair, the
Legislative Documents, 22d Congress, 2d Session, No. 30.]
As early as the year 1820, South Carolina declared, in a
petition to Congress, that the tariff was "unconstitutional, oppressive,
and unjust." And the States of Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama,
and Mississippi subsequently remonstrated against it with more or less vigor.
But Congress, far from lending an ear to these complaints, raised the scale of
tariff duties in the years 1824 and 1828, and recognized anew the principle on
which it was founded. A doctrine was then proclaimed, or rather revived, in the
South, which took the name of Nullification.
I have shown in the proper place that the object of the
Federal Constitution was not to form a league, but to create a national
government. The Americans of the United States form a sole and undivided
people, in all the cases which are specified by that Constitution; and upon
these points the will of the nation is expressed, as it is in all
constitutional nations, by the voice of the majority. When the majority has
pronounced its decision, it is the duty of the minority to submit. Such is the
sound legal doctrine, and the only one which agrees with the text of the
Constitution, and the known intention of those who framed it.
The partisans of Nullification in the South maintain, on
the contrary, that the intention of the Americans in uniting was not to reduce
themselves to the condition of one and the same people; that they meant to
constitute a league of independent States; and that each State, consequently
retains its entire sovereignty, if not de facto, at least de jure; and has the
right of putting its own construction upon the laws of Congress, and of
suspending their execution within the limits of its own territory, if they are
held to be unconstitutional and unjust.
The entire doctrine of Nullification is comprised in a
sentence uttered by Vice-President Calhoun, the head of that party in the
South, before the Senate of the United States, in the year 1833: could:
"The Constitution is a compact to which the States were parties in their
sovereign capacity; now, whenever a compact is entered into by parties which
acknowledge no tribunal above their authority to decide in the last resort,
each of them has a right to judge for itself in relation to the nature, extent,
and obligations of the instrument." It is evident that a similar doctrine
destroys the very basis of the Federal Constitution, and brings back all the
evils of the old confederation, from which the Americans were supposed to have had
a safe deliverance.
When South Carolina perceived that Congress turned a deaf
ear to its remonstrances, it threatened to apply the doctrine of nullification
to the federal tariff bill. Congress persisted in its former system; and at
length the storm broke out. In the course of 1832 the citizens of South
Carolina, *b named a national Convention, to consult upon the extraordinary
measures which they were called upon to take; and on November 24th of the same
year this Convention promulgated a law, under the form of a decree, which
annulled the federal law of the tariff, forbade the levy of the imposts which
that law commands, and refused to recognize the appeal which might be made to
the federal courts of law. *c This decree was only to be put in execution in
the ensuing month of February, and it was intimated, that if Congress modified
the tariff before that period, South Carolina might be induced to proceed no
further with her menaces; and a vague desire was afterwards expressed of
submitting the question to an extraordinary assembly of all the confederate
States.
b [ That is to say, the majority of the people; for the
opposite party, called the Union party, always formed a very strong and active
minority. Carolina may contain about 47,000 electors; 30,000 were in favor of
nullification, and 17,000 opposed to it.]
c [ This decree was preceded by a report of the committee
by which it was framed, containing the explanation of the motives and object of
the law. The following passage occurs in it, p. 34:—"When the rights
reserved by the Constitution to the different States are deliberately violated,
it is the duty and the right of those States to interfere, in order to check
the progress of the evil; to resist usurpation, and to maintain, within their
respective limits, those powers and privileges which belong to them as
independent sovereign States. If they were destitute of this right, they would
not be sovereign. South Carolina declares that she acknowledges no tribunal
upon earth above her authority. She has indeed entered into a solemn compact of
union with the other States; but she demands, and will exercise, the right of
putting her own construction upon it; and when this compact is violated by her
sister States, and by the Government which they have created, she is determined
to avail herself of the unquestionable right of judging what is the extent of
the infraction, and what are the measures best fitted to obtain justice."]
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