ice and oppression by resorting to their
ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the compact which they had
formed and to provide new guards for their future security._

"South Carolina!--Georgia, too, will be out in January.--Alabama as well,
Mississippi and Louisiana.--Go on!"

_Nor have we any doubt of the right of any State, there being no
common umpire between coequal sovereign States, to judge for itself
on its own responsibility, as to the mode and manner of redress.

The States, each for itself, exercised this sovereign power when
they dissolved their connection with the British Empire.

They exercised the same power when nine of the States seceded from
the Confederation and adopted the present Constitution, though two
States at first rejected it.

The Articles of Confederation stipulated that those articles should
be inviolably observed by every State, and that the Union should be
perpetual, and that no alteration should be made unless agreed to by
Congress and confirmed by every State.

Notwithstanding this solemn compact, a portion of the States did,
without the consent of the others, form a new compact; and there is
nothing to show, or by which it can be shown, that this right has
been, or can be, diminished so long as the States continue
sovereign._

"The right's the right of self-government--and it's inherent and
inalienable!--We fought for it--when didn't we fight for it? When we cease
to fight for it, then chaos and night!--Go on, go on!"

_The Confederation was assented to by the Legislature for each
State; the Constitution by the people of each State, for such State
alone. One is as binding as the other, and no more so.

The Constitution, it is true, established a government, and it
operates directly on the individual; the Confederation was a league
operating primarily on the States. But each was adopted by the State
for itself; in the one case by the Legislature acting for the State;
in the other by the people, not as individuals composing one nation,
but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they
respectively belong.

The foundation, therefore, on which it was established, was FEDERAL,
and the State, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by
which she ratified for herself, may for herself abrogate and annul.

The operation of its