again adopted. The United States adopted as the title—Resolutions passed that there should be two branches of the legislature, the first to be chosen by the people—Long controversy as to representation in Senate, settled by an equal representation of the States, the vote to be per capita—This compromise of representation in Senate does not affect the supremacy of the granted powers—Resolution of Elbridge Gerry referring the plan of a national government to the committee of detail unanimously passed—Government called national in many of the referred votes—Committee of detail report votes passed; the preamble declaring the government to be for posterity—Article against treason again debated and passed unanimously—Constitution committed to committee of style and arrangement—New draft considered at length, adopted, and signed by delegates—Diversity of opinion as to durability, no suggestion that a State had a right to leave the Union—Yates and Lansing left convention because the Constitution made a national government—Satisfaction with it of Southern States—Washington’s service—Franklin’s happy speech at close—George Mason did not sign, though efficient in making it—Constitution submitted by State legislatures in each State to a convention of the people—Its acceptance considered in long sessions of the conventions held in the several States—Everywhere announced as a national government—Ratified as national in Massachusetts and Virginia—Unanimous opinion of convention of New York of its perpetuity—Amendments of Constitution, passed to quiet apprehension as to its excessive powers—Early laws show a liberal construction of the powers of the government—The right of individuals to sue States taken away, but jurisdiction over States and disputes between States retained—Insurrection in Pennsylvania against excise law suppressed—Opinion of Washington as to power of government—Alien and sedition laws passed.

CHAPTER IV. Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions 88 Jefferson reputed author of Kentucky resolutions—Slight notice taken of Kentucky resolutions—Resolutions are merely the opinion of the legislature passing them—Kentucky resolutions declare the States being united by compact, each has a right to pass on the validity of the laws and doings of government made by the compact—The compact of the Constitution is to leave to the United States judiciary the determination of the validity of all laws and cases. Right of contracting powers to compel performance by a party refusing to keep its contract—Further absurdity of Kentucky resolutions in denying the validity of all punitive laws passed by Congress except for offences mentioned in the Constitution—Virginia’s resolutions fundamentally different—Madison never sanctioned nullification—Resolutions of Virginia—They are: in case of usurpation it is the duty of the States, not a State, to interpose to redress the evil—This not an assertion that States could refuse obedience to the laws—Opposing declarations of other States—Kentucky replied to the resolutions of other States by protest, not by nullification—Virginia’s explanation to counter-resolutions of the other States drawn by Madison—The reply conciliatory—It affirms the Constitution is the compact to which the States are a party—It defines States as meaning people of the States—The right to resist in the last resort is a claim of right of revolution—The right to interpose exists only in usurpation of powers and for the sole purpose of arresting the usurpation—Admitted the judiciary is to decide on all questions submitted to it—The assumption of undelegated powers stated to be dangerous to liberty—Alien and sedition laws declared to be unconstitutional—These resolutions are merely opinions—No objection to sending them to other States—May possibly influence opinion even of the judiciary—The request of Virginia to other States to join her in constitutional ways to maintain their rights not objectionable—Resolutions asserted to be strongest proof of the attachment of Virginia to the Constitution and Union—The resolutions, perhaps partisan, but do not assert the doctrine of nullification—Resolutions before the explanation alarmed Washington and Henry who vigorously attacked them—Henry’s declaration that Virginia owed the same obedience to United States as one of her counties did to her. CHAPTER V. Supremacy of Constitution Maintained 116 Doctrines of Jefferson’s inaugural—Serious conflict in the Gideon Olmstead case—Jefferson signed an act authorizing the use of the army and navy against a State—The United States jurisdiction enforced against Pennsylvania—Unanimous objection of legislature of Virginia to taking from the Supreme Court its exclusive jurisdiction in cases where States were concerned—Purchase of Louisiana by Jefferson—Josiah Quincy’s speech a threat of rebellion, not a claim of right of secession—Sayings and acts of Jefferson opposed to nullification and secession—Jefferson’s direction that the Federalist should be the permanent text-book of the University of Virginia—The submission of New England to the embargo—The Hartford convention passed no resolves asserting State rights; it proposed amendments to the Constitution—Supremacy of the government always maintained. CHAPTER VI. Calhoun, Jackson, and National Government 134 Calhoun in the beginning a leader and advocate of national views in the House of Representatives—Sectional division of States on the question of slavery—Missouri compromise—Calhoun’s change of opinion—The nullification of South Carolina—Calhoun’s “inexorable logic” considered—The doctrine of nullification not asserted from time of the Kentucky resolves until revived by South Carolina—Jackson’s proclamation—His firmness—His experience in political matters as lawyer, legislator, and judge—Congress passed a force bill to collect duties—Act reducing duties also passed—Strong resolutions of legislatures of the Southern States against nullification—Supremacy of the government maintained by judges appointed by all the political parties in every case and over all the States—Judgments of State courts constantly reversed until the time of the civil war—It is Congress, not the court, that makes the laws—Judge Story—History after the threatened nullification of South Carolina—Legislation and decision of Supreme Court extending slavery—The South’s preparation for disruption of the Union—Virginia opposed the government without passing an ordinance of secession—Military academies of Southern States—The government stronger than Hamilton thought—The exceeding excellence of the Constitution—New vigor of South Carolina as a free State.

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