Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/93

Rh President Jackson, in his message of December, 1835, sternly denounced the agitation carried on by the abolitionists, and suggested the passage of a law “prohibiting under severe penalties the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection.” This was far from satisfying Calhoun. He insisted that such a law would be unconstitutional, for the general government, including Congress, had not the right to determine what publications should be considered incendiary or not incendiary in the several states. This would concede the power of Congress to permit the circulation in the Southern States of such publications as it pleased, and thus Congress would be virtually clothed with the power of abolishing slavery in the states. The states themselves had to take care of their internal peace and security, and therefore to determine what was, and what was not, calculated to disturb that peace. The general government was simply bound to respect the measures thought necessary by the slave-holding states for their protection, and to coöperate in their execution as much as should be necessary. In other words, the Slave States had to make the law, and it was the duty of the general government to help in enforcing it. If the general government failed to perform this duty, the Slave States must look to themselves for their protection as independent communities. This was Calhoun's reasoning.

Accordingly he offered a bill providing that it