Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/552

 544 permitted or allowed for that purpose, and that any person attempting to take such appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of court:

"And, finally, the said ordinance declares, that the people of South-Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; and that they will consider the passage of any act by congress, abolishing or closing the ports of the said state, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the federal government to coerce the state, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise, than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South-Carolina in the Union: and that the people of the said state will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other states, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things, which sovereign and independent states may of right do:

"And whereas, the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South-Carolina a course of conduct, in direct violation of their duty, as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the Union,—that Union, which, coeval with our political existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them, than those of patriotism and a common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious independence,—that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate, which, perfected by our happy constitution, has brought us, by the favour of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations. To preserve this bond of our politcal existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honour and prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I,, President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this my , stating my views of the constitution and laws, applicable to the measures adopted by the convention of South-Carolina, and to the reasons they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the course, which duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences, that must inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of the convention.

"Strict duty would require of me nothing more, than the exercise of those powers, with which I am now, or may hereafter be, invested, for preserving the peace of the Union, and for the execution of the laws. But the imposing aspect, which opposition has assumed in this case, by clothing itself with state authority, and the deep interest, which the people of the United States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger measures, while there is a hope, that any thing will be yielded to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and will certainly justify, a full exposition to South-Carolina and the nation of the views I entertain