now by
South Carolina, and how and by what State it will next be exercised, or
what vital power it may next strike from the Constitution, it is
impossible to predict; but, if permitted in one State, it will be
exercised by all, till not a vestige remains of the Constitution of the
Union. Suppose the Tariff repealed by Congress, nullification may annul
the repealing law. Louisiana may, in the exercise of her right of
ultimate judgment, declare that the repealing law is unconstitutional,
upon the pretext that it destroys rights vested by the first law and
violates the plighted faith of the Government, insist on the collection
of duties under the first law, pass her ordinance, array her State
officers against those of the Union, and thus destroy the commerce of
Mississippi, and of all the Western States, or compel the collection of
the present duties. Or she may say that, if Congress possesses no power
to lay duties which will operate an incidental protection, Louisiana
possesses the reserved right of imposing duties for that purpose; that
each State possessed it before it became a member of the Union; that
duties for revenue only can be collected by the General Government, and
that the residuary power to lay duties for protection is one of the
powers of a sovereign State; that she will exercise it, and impose
protecting duties on imports, and thus we shall have various and
conflicting State tariffs from Maine to Louisiana (the very object which
the Constitution was designed to prevent); but if Louisiana alone adopt
the measure, the commerce of the West is prostrate at her feet.

It is in the name of liberty and to protect minorities, that
nullification professes to act; while in its first ordinance it sweeps
away the dearest rights of a large minority of the people of Carolina,
and binds the freedom of conscience in adamantine chains. It deprives
American citizens of that last and hitherto sacred refuge from
oppression, a trial by an impartial jury, and requires the very judges
upon the bench and jurors within the box to be sworn to condemn the
unhappy man whose only crime was this: that he claimed the Government of
the Union as his birthright, and acknowledged the duty of obedience to
its laws. Such are the opening scenes of nullification; and, if not
arrested, where or how will the drama close? In all the horrors of civil
war. Turn your eyes upon the scenes of the French Revolution, and behold
them about to be reacted