Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/358

Rh possibility, Hayne thought, would be extremely hazardous while the amendment of the constitution was pending before the public, and he knew that it would produce a schism in the party.

Yet anything short of this would be doing nothing, for it would be worse than useless to attempt to legislate with a partisan court ready to arrest your laws. As the legislature can do nothing effectual at present, except what it would not be expedient to do, or even to attempt, I think there is nothing to be gained by an extra call while it would be attended with some risk of dissensions among ourselves and injury to our cause from rash measures. The delay of a few months, if we can in the meantime secure the amendment to the constitution, will give us invincible strength. The moderation thus displayed, the decisive expression of public opinion at the polls, followed by the adoption of the constitutional amendment, settling the question of allegiance in South Carolina forever, will give us a moral power against which the judges cannot stand up.

The only risk involved in this course was that it would fall short of public expectation and thereby paralyze the energies of the party. This could be avoided, Hayne believed, by public meetings and addresses, a revival of the associations, and all the means previously found so successful. "If the governor," he added, "shall