Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/235

216 objections raised against nullification; it professed a belief that nullification would preserve and not desti:oy the Union, but admitted that Congress or the central government could give the controversy what issue it pleased. So much was simply a restatement of a position often presented. The real point was reached when the address announced that if appeals to reason proved unavailing to induce any of the people of the state—the Union men—to support the action of the convention, obedience would be commanded; it asserted that there was not and never had been any direct or immediate allegiance between the citizens of South Carolina and the federal government; that the relation between them was through the state and that the commands of the state were obligatory on her citizens.

An address to the people of the other states, named individually, prepared by George McDuffie, set forth the State Rights conception of the compact entered into between the sovereign states. It described the oppressiveness of the tariff and added that the people of South Carolina would not count the costs in vindicating their rights. They were willing to give much to preserve the Union, and, with a distinct declaration that it was