Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/277

258 "to form a more perfect union" etc., etc., do ordain and establish this Constitution as the supreme law of the land. When we look into the instrument we can find no reserved right to nullify or secede; but we find a positive provision how it is to be altered or amended. These must be adopted or it must be changed by revolution. When this is attempted by a state, a perfect right remains in the other states and the people, if they have the power, to coerce them to obey the laws and preserve their moral obligations to the other. Let us remark one absurdity out of thousands that could be named. Congress have power to admit new states into the Union; under territorial governments these [are] bound by the laws of the Union; new states cannot force themselves into the Union; but the moment they are admitted, they have a right to secede and destroy the confederation and the Union with it. The Virginia doctrine brings me in mind of a bag of sand with both ends opened; the moment the least pressure is upon it, the sand flows out at each end. The absurdity is too great to be dwelt on. The people of Virginia are sound. The Union will be preserved and traitors punished, by a due execution of the laws, by the posse comitatus.

Letters of this character worried Van Buren. He feared that Jackson, too impulsive by nature, might lessen the chances of an amicable