ciple, but that it was a peaceable remedy! This character which
was given to it, made you receive with too much confidence the
assertions that were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its
oppressive effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, that by the admission of
your leaders the unconstitutionality must be _palpable_, or it will
justify either resistance or nullification! What is the meaning of the
word _palpable_ in the sense in which it is here used?--that which is
apparent to every one, that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail
to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that
description? Let those among your leaders who once approved and
advocated the principles of protective duties, answer the question; and
let them choose whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of
perceiving that which must have been apparent to every man of common
understanding, or as imposing upon our confidence and endeavoring to
mislead you now. In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous
path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and you
will know how to appreciate the exaggerated language they address to
you. They are not champions of liberty emulating the fame of our
Revolutionary fathers, nor are you an oppressed people, contending, as
they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vassalage. You are free
members of a flourishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to
oppress you. You have, indeed, felt the unequal operation of laws which
may have been unwisely, not unconstitutionally passed; but that
inequality must necessarily be removed. At the very moment when you were
madly urged on to the unfortunate course you have begun, a change in
public opinion has commenced. The nearly approaching payment of the
public debt, and the consequent necessity of a diminution of duties, had
already caused a considerable reduction, and that, too, on some articles
of general consumption in your State. The importance of this change was
underrated, and you were authoritatively told that no further
alleviation of your burdens was to be expected, at the very time when
the condition of the country imperiously demanded such a modification of
the duties as should reduce them to a just and equitable scale. But, as
apprehensive of the effect of this change in allaying your discontents,
you were precipitated into a fearful state in which you now find
yourselves.

I have urged you to l