Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/311

292 In answer to the mediation of Virginia, a report was adopted which reviewed the whole situation and justified South Carolina's adherence to the Virginia resolutions of 1798. Great care was taken not to offend Virginia, and a keen appreciation of the Virginia motives in mediation was expressed.

As to the force bill, the convention declared that the principles which the act sought to establish were calculated to "destroy our constitutional frame of government, to subvert the public liberty, and to bring about the utter ruin and debasement of the southern states of this confederacy." The general purpose of the whole act, though not expressed in the terms of it, was perfectly well known to have been to counteract and render ineffective an ordinance of South Carolina adopted in her sovereign capacity for the protection of her reserved rights. Believing in the constitutionality of these reserved rights of the state, the convention declared the force bill unconstitutional on nine distinct counts.

The feature of the work of the convention which was destined to furnish occasion for discord during the next two years was its declaration: