General Jackson Upon Secession (1861)

General Jackson Upon Secession
Source: Pacific Commercial Advertiser. August 22, 1861. Fourth page, column 1. 

The following passages are taken from the Proclamation of Gen. Jackson, when in 1832 South Carolina threatened to annul the federal revenue laws as she now undertakes with other Cotton States to reject all federal laws and federal control, and set up a government on her own responsibility. They are peculiarly applicable to the present crisis. We can only hope that it will be met by the present executive with as strong a hand and as clear a head as those by which Old Hickory twenty-eight years ago brought back South Carolina to her allegiance to the Union:

The Constitution of the United States forms a government, not a league, and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot from that period possess and right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys that unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation; because it would be a solecism to contend that nay part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent upon a failure. 

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties to that compact may, when they feel aggrieved, depart from it; but it is precisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A compact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may by its terms have a sanction or penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with no other consequence than moral guilt; if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated or implied penalty. A league between independent nations, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one; or if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, it cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary, always has a sanction, express or implied; and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and expressly given. An attempt by force of arms to destroy a government is an offense, by whatever means the Constitutional compact may have been formed; and such government has the right, by law of self-defense, to pass acts for punishing the offender, unless that right is modified, restrained or resumed by the Constitutional act. In our system, although it is modified in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly given to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under this grant provision has been made for punishing acts which obstruct the due administration of the laws. * * *

Carolina is one off these proud States. Her arms have defended-her best blood has cemented this happy Union! And then add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this happy Union we will dissolve-this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface-this free intercourse we will interrupt-these fertile fields we will deluge with blood-the protection of that glorious flag we renounce-the very name of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men! for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings-for what would you exchange your share in the advantages and honor of the Union? For the dream of a separate independence-a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be your situation? Are you united at home-are you free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring Republics, every day suffering some new revolution, or contending with some new insurrection-do they excite your envy? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. The laws of the United [States] must be executed. I have no discretionary power on the subject-my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you-they could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; disunion, by armed force, is TREASON. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the head of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences-on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment-on your unhappy State all inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the Government of your country. It cannot accede to the mad project of disunion of which you would be the first victims-its first magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty-the consequence must be fearful for you, distressing to your fellow citizens here, and to the friends of good government throughout the world.

* * * I adjure you, as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its convention-bid its members to re-assemble, and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor-tell them that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all-declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country float over you- that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your country! -its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace, you may interrupt the course of its prosperity, you may cloud its reputation for stability-but its tranquility will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred, and remain an eternal blot of the memory of those who caused the disorder.