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Mr. President:
At the last session of Congress, it was avowed on all sides that the
public debt, as to all practical purposes, was in fact paid, the small surplus
remaining being nearly covered by the money in the Treasury and the
bonds for duties which had already accrued; but with the arrival of this
event our last hope was doomed to be disappointed. After a long session
of many months, and the most earnest effort on the part of South Carolina
and the other Southern States to obtain relief, all that could be effected
was a small reduction of such a character that, while it diminished the
amount of burden, it distributed that burden more unequally than even the
obnoxious Act of 1828; reversing the principle adopted by the Bill of 1816,
of laying higher duties on the unprotected than the protected articles, by
repealing almost entirely the duties laid upon the former, and imposing the
burden almost entirely on the latter. It was thus that, instead of relief--
instead of an equal distribution of burdens and benefits of the government,
on the payment of the debt, as had been fondly anticipated--the duties
were so arranged as to be, in fact, bounties on one side and taxation on the
other; thus placing the two great sections of the country in direct conflict
in reference to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that flood of political
corruption which threatens to sweep away our Constitution and our liberty.
This unequal and unjust arrangement was pronounced, both by the
administration, through its proper organ, the Secretary of the Treasury, and
by the opposition, to be a *permanent* adjustment; and it was thus that all
hope of relief through the action of the general government terminated;
and the crisis so long apprehended at length arrived, at which the State
was compelled to choose between absolute acquiescence in a ruinous
system of oppression, or a resort to her reserved powers--powers of which
she alone was the rightful judge, and which only, in this momentous
juncture, could save her. She determined on the latter
At the last session of Congress, it was avowed on all sides that the
public debt, as to all practical purposes, was in fact paid, the small surplus
remaining being nearly covered by the money in the Treasury and the
bonds for duties which had already accrued; but with the arrival of this
event our last hope was doomed to be disappointed. After a long session
of many months, and the most earnest effort on the part of South Carolina
and the other Southern States to obtain relief, all that could be effected
was a small reduction of such a character that, while it diminished the
amount of burden, it distributed that burden more unequally than even the
obnoxious Act of 1828; reversing the principle adopted by the Bill of 1816,
of laying higher duties on the unprotected than the protected articles, by
repealing almost entirely the duties laid upon the former, and imposing the
burden almost entirely on the latter. It was thus that, instead of relief--
instead of an equal distribution of burdens and benefits of the government,
on the payment of the debt, as had been fondly anticipated--the duties
were so arranged as to be, in fact, bounties on one side and taxation on the
other; thus placing the two great sections of the country in direct conflict
in reference to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that flood of political
corruption which threatens to sweep away our Constitution and our liberty.
This unequal and unjust arrangement was pronounced, both by the
administration, through its proper organ, the Secretary of the Treasury, and
by the opposition, to be a *permanent* adjustment; and it was thus that all
hope of relief through the action of the general government terminated;
and the crisis so long apprehended at length arrived, at which the State
was compelled to choose between absolute acquiescence in a ruinous
system of oppression, or a resort to her reserved powers--powers of which
she alone was the rightful judge, and which only, in this momentous
juncture, could save her. She determined on the latter
