Jackson’s Response to Secession in 1833
Jacksonian Democracy in 1833
Jackson’s Message on 3 December 1833
Jackson’s Veto Message on 4 December 1833
In January 1833 the Verplanck tariff bill to reduce the rates
was introduced in the U. S. House of Representatives.
Jackson sent a long message to the U. S. Congress on January 16
which included his Force Bill and passages from the Ordinance of Nullification.
In my annual message at the commencement of your
present session I adverted to the opposition to the revenue
laws in a particular quarter of the United States, which
threatened not merely to thwart their execution, but to
endanger the integrity of the Union; and although I then
expressed my reliance that it might be overcome by the
prudence of the officers of the United States and the
patriotism of the people, I stated that should the emergency
arise rendering the execution of the existing laws
impracticable from any cause whatever prompt notice
should be given to Congress, with the suggestion of such
views and measures as might be necessary to meet it.
Events which have occurred in the quarter
then alluded to, or which have come to my
knowledge subsequently, present this emergency.
Since the date of my last annual message I have
had officially transmitted to me by the governor of
South Carolina, which I now communicate to Congress,
a copy of the ordinance passed by the convention which
assembled at Columbia, in the State of South Carolina,
in November last, declaring certain acts of Congress
therein mentioned within the limits of that State to be
absolutely null and void, and making it the duty of the
legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to carry
the same into effect from and after the 1st February next.
The consequences to which this extraordinary defiance
of the just authority of the Government might too surely
lead were clearly foreseen, and it was impossible for
me to hesitate as to my own duty in such an emergency.
The ordinance had been passed, however, without
any certain knowledge of the recommendation which,
from a view of the interests of the nation at large, the
Executive had determined to submit to Congress, and
a hope was indulged that by frankly explaining his
sentiments and the nature of those duties which the
crisis would devolve upon him the authorities of
South Carolina might be induced to retrace their steps.
In this hope I determined to issue my
proclamation of the 10th of December last,
a copy of which I now lay before Congress.
I regret to inform you that these reasonable expectations
have not been realized, and that the several acts of the
legislature of South Carolina which I now lay before you,
and which have all and each of them finally passed after
a knowledge of the desire of the Administration to modify
the laws complained of, are too well calculated both in
their positive enactments and in the spirit of opposition
which they obviously encourage wholly to obstruct the
collection of the revenue within the limits of that State.
Up to this period neither the recommendation of the
Executive in regard to our financial policy and impost
system, nor the disposition manifested by Congress
promptly to act upon that subject, nor the unequivocal
expression of the public will in all parts of the Union
appears to have produced any relaxation in the
measures of opposition adopted by the State of
South Carolina; nor is there any reason to hope
that the ordinance and laws will be abandoned.
I have no knowledge that an attempt has been made,
or that it is in contemplation, to reassemble either the
convention or the legislature, and it will be perceived
that the interval before the 1st of February is too short to
admit of the preliminary steps necessary for that purpose.
It appears, moreover, that the State authorities are
actively organizing their military resources, and
providing the means and giving the most solemn
assurances of protection and support to all who
shall enlist in opposition to the revenue laws.
A recent proclamation of the present governor of South
Carolina has openly defied the authority of the Executive
of the Union, and general orders from the headquarters of
the State announced his determination to accept the services
of volunteers and his belief that should their country need
their services they will be found at the post of honor and
duty, ready to lay down their lives in her defense.
Under these orders the forces referred to are directed
to “hold themselves in readiness to take the field at
a moment's warning,” and in the city of Charleston,
within a collection district, and a port of entry, a
rendezvous has been opened for the purpose of
enlisting men for the magazine and municipal guard.
Thus South Carolina presents herself in the attitude
of hostile preparation, and ready even for military
violence if need be to enforce her laws for preventing
the collection of the duties within her limits.
Proceedings thus announced and matured must be
distinguished from menaces of unlawful resistance by
irregular bodies of people, who, acting under temporary
delusion, may be restrained by reflection and the influence
of public opinion from the commission of actual outrage.
In the present instance aggression may be regarded
as committed when it is officially authorized
and the means of enforcing it fully provided.
Under these circumstances there can be no
doubt that it is the determination of the authorities
of South Carolina fully to carry into effect their
ordinance and laws after the 1st of February.
It therefore becomes my duty to bring the subject
to the serious consideration of Congress, in order that
such measures as they in their wisdom may deem fit
shall be seasonably provided, and that it may be thereby
understood that while the Government is disposed to
remove all just cause of complaint as far as may be
practicable consistently with a proper regard to the interests
of the community at large, it is nevertheless determined
that the supremacy of the laws shall be maintained.
In making this communication it appears to me to be
proper not only that I should lay before you the acts and
proceedings of South Carolina, but that I should also fully
acquaint you with those steps which I have already caused
to be taken for the due collection of the revenue, and with
my views of the subject generally, that the suggestions
which the Constitution requires me to make in regard
to your future legislation may be better understood.
This subject having early attracted the anxious
attention of the Executive, as soon as it was probable
that the authorities of South Carolina seriously meditated
resistance to the faithful execution of the revenue
laws it was deemed advisable that the Secretary
of the Treasury should particularly instruct the officers
of the United States in that part of the Union as to the
nature of the duties prescribed by the existing laws.
Instructions were accordingly issued on the
6th of November to the collectors in that State,
pointing out their respective duties and enjoining
upon each a firm and vigilant but discreet performance
of them in the emergency then apprehended.
I herewith transmit copies of these
instructions and of the letter addressed to the
district attorney, requesting his cooperation.
These instructions were dictated in the hope that as the
opposition to the laws by the anomalous proceeding of
nullification was represented to be of a pacific nature,
to be pursued substantially according to the forms of the
Constitution and without resorting in any event to force or
violence, the measures of its advocates would be taken in
conformity with that profession, and on such supposition
the means afforded by the existing laws would have
been adequate to meet any emergency likely to arise.
It was, however, not possible altogether to suppress
apprehension of the excesses to which the excitement
prevailing in that quarter might lead, but it certainly
was not foreseen that the meditated obstruction to the
laws would so soon openly assume its present character.
Subsequently to the date of those instructions,
however, the ordinance of the convention was
passed, which, if complied with by the people
of the State, must effectually render inoperative
the present revenue laws within her limits.
That ordinance declares and ordains—
That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress
of the United States purporting to be laws for the
imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of
foreign commodities, and now having operation and
effect within the United States, and more especially “An act
in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports,”
approved on the 19th of May, 1828, and also an act entitled
“An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties
on imports,” approved on the 14th July, 1832, are
unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States,
and violate the true intent and meaning thereof, and are
null and void and no law, nor binding upon the State of
South Carolina, its officers and citizens; and all promises,
contracts, and obligations made or entered into, or to be
made or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties
imposed by the said acts, and all judicial proceedings
which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof,
are and shall be held utterly null and void.
It also ordains—
That it shall not be lawful for any of the constituted
authorities, whether of the State of South Carolina or of the
United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by
the said acts within the limits of the State, but that it shall be
the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures and pass
such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this
ordinance and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the
operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress
of the United States within the limits of the State from and
after the 1st of February next; and it shall be the duty of
all other constituted authorities and of all other persons
residing or being within the limits of the State, and they are
hereby required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to
this ordinance and such acts and measures of the legislature
as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto.
It further ordains—
That in no case of law or equity decided in the courts
of the State wherein shall be drawn in question the authority
of this ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the
legislature as may be passed for the purpose of giving
effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of
Congress imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or
allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor
shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for
that purpose; and the person or persons attempting to take
such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of court.
It likewise ordains—
That all persons holding any office of honor, profit, or trust,
civil or military, under the State shall, within such time
and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe,
take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce
this ordinance and such act or acts of the legislature as may
be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent
and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission
of any such person or persons so to do his or their office
or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up
as if such person or persons were dead or had resigned.
And no person hereafter elected to any office of honor,
profit, or trust, civil or military, shall, until the legislature
shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execution
of his office or be in any respect competent to discharge
the duties thereof until he shall in like manner have taken
a similar oath; and no juror shall be empaneled in any
of the courts of the State in any cause in which shall be
in question this ordinance or any act of the legislature
passed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in
addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath that
he will well and truly obey, execute, and enforce this
ordinance and such act or acts of the legislature as may
be passed to carry the same into operation and effect,
according to the true intent and meaning thereof.
The ordinance concludes:
And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may
be fully understood by the Government of the United States
and the people of the co-States that we are determined to
maintain this ordinance and declaration at every hazard,
do further declare that we will not submit to the application
of force on the part of the Federal Government to reduce
this State to obedience, but that we will consider the
passage by Congress of any act authorizing the employment
of a military or naval force against the State of South
Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens, or any act
abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or any of them,
or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of
vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act on the
part of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up
her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce
the acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than
through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with
the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and
that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves
absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve
their political connection with the people of the other States,
and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate
government and to do all other acts and things which
sovereign and independent states may of right do.
This solemn denunciation of the laws and authority of
the United States has been followed up by a series of acts
on the part of the authorities of that State which manifest
a determination to render inevitable a resort to those
measures of self-defense which the paramount duty of the
Federal Government requires, but upon the adoption of
which that State will proceed to execute the purpose it has
avowed in this ordinance of withdrawing from the Union.
On the 27th of November the legislature assembled
at Columbia, and on their meeting the governor laid
before them the ordinance of the convention.
In his message on that occasion he acquaints them that
“this ordinance has thus become a part of the fundamental
law of South Carolina;” that “the die has been at last cast,
and South Carolina has at length appealed to her ulterior
sovereignty as a member of this Confederacy and
has planted herself on her reserved rights.
The rightful exercise of this power is not
a question which we shall any longer argue.
It is sufficient that she has willed it, and that the act is done;
nor is its strict compatibility with our constitutional obligation
to all laws passed by the General Government within the
authorized grants of power to be drawn in question when
this interposition is exerted in a case in which the compact
has been palpably, deliberately, and dangerously violated.
That it brings up a conjuncture of deep and momentous
interest is neither to be concealed nor denied.
This crisis presents a class of duties
which is referable to yourselves.
You have been commanded by the people in their highest
sovereignty to take care that within the limits of this State
their will shall be obeyed.”
“The measure of legislation,” he says, “which you
have to employ at this crisis is the precise amount
of such enactments as may be necessary to render
it utterly impossible to collect within our limits the
duties imposed by the protective tariffs thus nullified.”
He proceeds:
That you should arm every citizen with a civil process
by which he may claim, if he pleases, a restitution of
his goods seized under the existing imposts on his giving
security to abide the issue of a suit at law, and at the
same time define what shall constitute treason against
the State, and by a bill of pains and penalties compel
obedience and punish disobedience to your own laws,
are points too obvious to require any discussion.
In one word, you must survey the whole ground.
You must look to and provide for all possible contingencies.
In your own limits your own courts of judicature
must not only be supreme, but you must look to
the ultimate issue of any conflict of jurisdiction and
power between them and the courts of the United States.
The governor also asks for power to grant clearances,
in violation of the laws of the Union; and to prepare for
the alternative which must happen unless the United States
shall passively surrender their authority, and the Executive,
disregarding his oath, refrain from executing the laws of
the Union, he recommends a thorough revision of the militia
system, and that the governor “be authorized to accept for
the defense of Charleston and its dependencies the services
of 2,000 volunteers, either by companies or files,” and
that they be formed into a legionary brigade consisting
of infantry, riflemen, cavalry, field and heavy artillery,
and that they be “armed and equipped from the public
arsenals completely for the field, and that appropriations be
made for supplying all deficiencies in our munitions of war.”
In addition to these volunteer drafts, he recommends that
the governor be authorized “to accept the services of
10,000 volunteers from the other divisions of the State,
to be organized and arranged in regiments and brigades,
the officers to be selected by the commander in chief,
and that this whole force be called the State guard.”
A request has been regularly made of the secretary
of state of South Carolina for authentic copies of the acts
which have been passed for the purpose of enforcing the
ordinance, but up to the date of the latest advices that
request had not been complied with, and on the present
occasion, therefore, reference can only be made to
those acts as published in the newspapers of the State.
The acts to which it is deemed proper to
invite the particular attention of Congress are:
First. “An act to carry into effect, in part, an ordinance
to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States
purporting to be laws laying duties on the importation of
foreign commodities,” passed in convention of this State,
at Columbia on the 24th November 1832.
This act provides that any goods seized or detained under
pretense of securing the duties, or for the nonpayment of
duties, or under any process, order, or decree, or other
pretext contrary to the intent and meaning of the ordinance
may be recovered by the owner or consignee by “an act
of replevin;” that in case of refusing to deliver them, or
removing them so that the replevin cannot be executed,
the sheriff may seize the personal estate of the offender
to double the amount of the goods, and if any attempt shall
be made to retake or seize them it is the duty of the sheriff
to recapture them; and that any person who shall disobey
the process or remove the goods, or anyone who shall
attempt to retake or seize the goods under pretense
of securing the duties, or for nonpayment of duties,
or under any process or decree contrary to the intent
of the ordinance, shall be fined and imprisoned, besides
being liable for any other offense involved in the act.
It also provides that any person arrested or imprisoned
on any judgment or decree obtained in any Federal court
for duties shall be entitled to the benefit secured by the
habeas corpus act of the State in cases of unlawful
arrest, and may maintain an action for damages,
and that if any estate shall be sold under such
judgment or decree the sale shall be held illegal.
It also provides that any jailer who receives
a person committed on any process or other
judicial proceedings to enforce the payment of
duties, and anyone who hires his house as a jail
to receive such persons, shall be fined and imprisoned.
And, finally, it provides that persons paying
duties may recover them back with interest.
The next is called “An act to provide for the security and
protection of the people of the State of South Carolina.”
This act provides that if the Government of the
United States or any officer thereof shall, by the
employment of naval or military force, attempt to
coerce the State of South Carolina into submission
to the acts of Congress declared by the ordinance
null and void, or to resist the enforcement of the
ordinance or of the laws passed in pursuance thereof,
or in case of any armed or forcible resistance thereto,
the governor is authorized to resist the same and to order
into service the whole or so much of the military force of
the State as he may deem necessary; and that in case of
any overt act of coercion or intention to commit the same,
manifested by an unusual assemblage of naval or military
forces in or near the State, or the occurrence of any
circumstances indicating that armed force is about to
be employed against the State or in resistance to its laws,
the governor is authorized to accept the services of such
volunteers and call into service such portions of the
militia as may be required to meet the emergency.
The act also provides for accepting the service of the
volunteers and organizing the militia, embracing all free
white males between the ages of 16 and 60, and for
the purchase of arms, ordnance, and ammunition.
It also declares that the power conferred on the governor
shall be applicable to all cases of insurrection or invasion,
or imminent danger thereof, and to cases where the laws of
the State shall be opposed and the execution thereof forcibly
resisted by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by
the power vested in the sheriffs and other civil officers, and
declares it to be the duty of the governor in every such case
to call forth such portions of the militia and volunteers as
may be necessary promptly to suppress such combinations
and cause the laws of the State to be executed.
No. 9 is “An act concerning the oath required
by the ordinance passed in convention at
Columbia on the 24th of November 1832.”
This act prescribes the form of the oath, which is,
to obey and execute the ordinance and all acts
passed by the legislature in pursuance thereof,
and directs the time and manner of taking it by
the officers of the State civil, judiciary, and military.
It is believed that other acts have been passed
embracing provisions for enforcing the ordinance,
but I have not yet been able to procure them.
I transmit, however, a copy of Governor Hamilton’s
message to the legislature of South Carolina; of Governor
Hayne’s inaugural address to the same body, as also of
his proclamation, and a general order of the governor
and commander in chief, dated the 20th of December,
giving public notice that the services of volunteers
will be accepted under the act already referred to.
If these measures cannot be defeated and
overcome by the power conferred by the Constitution
on the Federal Government, the Constitution must be
considered as incompetent to its own defense, the
supremacy of the laws is at an end, and the rights
and liberties of the citizens can no longer receive
protection from the Government of the Union.
They not only abrogate the acts of Congress commonly
called the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, but they prostrate
and sweep away at once and without exception every act
and every part of every act imposing any amount
whatever of duty on any foreign merchandise, and
virtually every existing act which has ever been passed
authorizing the collection of the revenue, including the
act of 1816 and also the collection law of 1799, the
constitutionality of which has never been questioned.
It is not only those duties which are charged to have
been imposed for the protection of manufactures that
are thereby repealed, but all others, though laid for
the purpose of revenue merely, and upon articles
in no degree suspected of being objects of protection.
The whole revenue system of the United States in
South Carolina is obstructed and overthrown, and the
Government is absolutely prohibited from collecting any
part of the public revenue within the limits of that State.
Henceforth, not only the citizens of South Carolina and of the
United States, but the subjects of foreign states may import
any description or quantity of merchandise into the ports of
South Carolina without the payment of any duty whatsoever.
That State is thus relieved from the payment of any part
of the public burdens, and duties and imposts are not only
rendered not uniform throughout the United States,
but a direct and ruinous preference is given to
the ports of that State over those of all the other
States of the Union, in manifest violation of
the positive provisions of the Constitution.
In point of duration, also, those aggressions upon
the authority of Congress which by the ordinance are
made part of the fundamental law of South Carolina
are absolute, indefinite, and without limitation.
They neither prescribe the period when they shall cease
nor indicate any conditions upon which those who have
thus undertaken to arrest the operation of the laws are
to retrace their steps and rescind their measures.
They offer to the United States no alternative
but unconditional submission.
If the scope of the ordinance is to be received
as the scale of concession, their demands can be
satisfied only by a repeal of the whole system of
revenue laws and by abstaining from the collection
of any duties and imposts whatsoever.
It is true that in the address to the people of the
United States by the convention of South Carolina,
after announcing “the fixed and final determination
of the State in relation to the protecting system,”
they say “that it remains for us to submit a plan of taxation
in which we would be willing to acquiesce in a liberal spirit
of concession, provided we are met in due time and in a
becoming spirit by the States interested in manufactures.”
In the opinion of the convention, an equitable plan
would be that “the whole list of protected articles
should be imported free of all duty, and that the
revenue derived from import duties should be raised
exclusively from the unprotected articles, or that
whenever a duty is imposed upon protected articles
imported an excise duty of the same rate shall be imposed
upon all similar articles manufactured in the United States.”
The address proceeds to state, however, that “they are
willing to make a large offering to preserve the Union, and
with a distinct declaration that it is a concession on our part,
we will consent that the same rate of duty may be imposed
upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the
unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than
is necessary to meet the demands of the Government for
constitutional purposes, and provided also that a duty
substantially uniform be imposed upon all foreign imports.”
It is also true that in his message to the legislature, when
urging the necessity of providing “means of securing their
safety by ample resources for repelling force by force,”
the governor of South Carolina observes that he “cannot
but think that on a calm and dispassionate review by
Congress and the functionaries of the General Government
of the true merits of this controversy the arbitration by a
call of a convention of all the States, which we sincerely
and anxiously seek and desire, will be accorded to us.”
From the diversity of terms indicated in these two
important documents, taken in connection with the
progress of recent events in that quarter, there is too
much reason to apprehend, without in any manner doubting
the intentions of those public functionaries, that neither the
terms proposed in the address of the convention nor those
alluded to in the message of the governor would appease
the excitement which has led to the present excesses.
It is obvious, however, that should the latter be insisted on,
they present an alternative which the General Government
of itself can by no possibility grant, since by an express
provision of the Constitution Congress can call a convention
for the purpose of proposing amendments only “on the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the States.”
And it is not perceived that the terms presented
in the address are more practicable than
those referred to in the message.
It will not escape attention that the conditions on which
it is said in the address of the convention they “would be
willing to acquiesce” form no part of the ordinance.
While this ordinance bears all the solemnity of a
fundamental law, is to be authoritative upon all
within the limits of South Carolina, and is absolute
and unconditional in its terms, the address conveys
only the sentiments of the convention, in no binding
or practical form; one is the act of the State,
the other only the expression of the opinions
of the members of the convention.
To limit the effect of that solemn act by any terms or
conditions whatever, they should have been embodied in it,
and made of import no less authoritative than the act itself.
By the positive enactments of the ordinance the execution
of the laws of the Union is absolutely prohibited, and
the address offers no other prospect of their being
again restored, even in the modified form proposed,
than what depends upon the improbable contingency
that amid changing events and increasing excitement
the sentiments of the present members of the convention
and of their successors will remain the same.
It is to be regretted, however, that these conditions,
even if they had been offered in the same binding form,
are so undefined, depend upon so many contingencies,
and are so directly opposed to the known opinions
and interests of the great body of the American people
as to be almost hopeless of attainment.
The majority of the States and of the people will
certainly not consent that the protecting duties
shall be wholly abrogated, never to be reenacted
at any future time or in any possible contingency.
As little practicable is it to provide that “the same
rate of duty shall be imposed upon the protected
articles that shall be imposed upon the unprotected,”
which, moreover, would be severely oppressive to the
poor, and in time of war would add greatly to its rigors.
And though there can be no objection to the principle,
properly understood, that no more revenue shall be
raised than is necessary for the constitutional purposes
of the Government, which principle has been already
recommended by the Executive as the true basis of taxation,
yet it is very certain that South Carolina alone cannot be
permitted to decide what these constitutional purposes are.
The period which constitutes the due time in
which the terms proposed in the address are
to be accepted would seem to present scarcely
less difficulty than the terms themselves.
Though the revenue laws are already declared to be void
in South Carolina, as well as the bonds taken under them
and the judicial proceedings for carrying them into effect,
yet as the full action and operation of the ordinance are to
be suspended until the 1st of February the interval may
be assumed as the time within which it is expected that
the most complicated portion of the national legislation,
a system of long standing and affecting great interests
in the community, is to be rescinded and abolished.
If this be required, it is clear that a compliance is impossible.
In the uncertainty, then, that exists as to the duration
of the ordinance and of the enactments for enforcing it,
it becomes imperiously the duty of the Executive
of the United States, acting with a proper regard
to all the great interests committed to his care,
to treat those acts as absolute and unlimited.
They are so as far as his agency is concerned.
He cannot either embrace or lead to
the performance of the conditions.
He has already discharged the only part in his power
by the recommendation in his annual message.
The rest is with Congress and the people,
and until they have acted, his duty will require
him to look to the existing state of things and
act under them according to his high obligations.
By these various proceedings, therefore, the State
of South Carolina has forced the General Government,
unavoidably, to decide the new and dangerous alternative
of permitting a State to obstruct the execution of the
laws within its limits or seeing it attempt to execute
a threat of withdrawing from the Union.
That portion of the people at present exercising
the authority of the State solemnly assert their
right to do either and as solemnly announce
their determination to do one or the other.
In my opinion, both purposes are to be
regarded as revolutionary in their character
and tendency, and subversive of the supremacy
of the laws and of the integrity of the Union.
The result of each is the same, since a State in which,
by an usurpation of power, the constitutional authority
of the Federal Government is openly defied and set aside
wants only the form to be independent of the Union.
The right of the people of a single State to absolve
themselves at will and without the consent of the
other States from their most solemn obligations,
and hazard the liberties and happiness of the millions
composing this Union, cannot be acknowledged.
Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant both to the
principles upon which the General Government is constituted
and to the objects which it is expressly formed to attain.
Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the
constitutional power of the Government, or which may
be inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, the
Constitution itself has prescribed the modes of redress.
It is the acknowledged attribute of free institutions
that under them the empire of reason and law
is substituted for the power of the sword.
To no other source can appeals for supposed wrongs be
made consistently with the obligations of South Carolina;
to no other can such appeals be made with safety
at any time; and to their decisions, when
constitutionally pronounced, it becomes the duty
no less of the public authorities than of the people
in every case to yield a patriotic submission.
That a State or any other great portion of the people,
suffering under long and intolerable oppression and having
tried all constitutional remedies without the hope of redress,
may have a natural right, when their happiness can be
no otherwise secured, and when they can do so without
greater injury to others, to absolve themselves from their
obligations to the Government and appeal to the last resort,
needs not on the present occasion be denied.
The existence of this right, however, must depend
upon the causes which may justify its exercise.
It is the ultima ratio, which presupposes that the
proper appeals to all other means of redress have
been made in good faith, and which can never be
rightfully resorted to unless it be unavoidable.
It is not the right of the State, but of the individual,
and of all the individuals in the State.
It is the right of mankind generally to secure by all means
in their power the blessings of liberty and happiness;
but when for these purposes any body of men have
voluntarily associated themselves under a particular form
of government, no portion of them can dissolve the
association without acknowledging the correlative right
in the remainder to decide whether that dissolution can
be permitted consistently with the general happiness.
In this view it is a right dependent
upon the power to enforce it.
Such a right, though may be admitted to preexist and
cannot be wholly surrendered, is necessarily subjected
to limitations in all free governments, and in compacts of
all kinds freely and voluntarily entered into, and in which
the interest and welfare of the individual become identified
with those of the community of which he is a member.
In compacts between individuals, however deeply
they may affect their relations, these principles
are acknowledged to create a sacred obligation;
and in compacts of civil government, involving
the liberties and happiness of millions of mankind,
the obligation cannot be less.
Without adverting to the particular theories to which
the federal compact has given rise, both as to its formation
and the parties to it, and without inquiring whether it be
merely federal or social or national, it is sufficient that
it must be admitted to be a compact and to possess the
obligations incident to a compact; to be “a compact by which
power is created on the one hand and obedience exacted
on the other; a compact freely, voluntarily, and solemnly
entered into by the several States and ratified by the people
thereof, respectively; a compact by which the several
States and the people thereof, respectively, have bound
themselves to each other and to the Federal Government,
and by which the Federal Government is bound to the
several States and to every citizen of the United States.”
To this compact, in whatever mode it may have been done,
the people of South Carolina have freely
and voluntarily given their assent, and to
the whole and every part of it they are, upon
every principle of good faith, inviolably bound.
Under this obligation they are bound and should be required
to contribute their portion of the public expense, and
to submit to all laws made by the common consent,
in pursuance of the Constitution, for the common defense
and general welfare, until they can be changed in the
mode which the compact has provided for the attainment
of those great ends of the Government and of the Union.
Nothing less than causes which would justify revolutionary
remedy can absolve the people from this obligation,
and for nothing less can the Government permit it
to be done without violating its own obligations,
by which, under the compact, it is bound to the
other States and to every citizen of the United States.
These deductions plainly flow from the nature of the
federal compact, which is one of limitations,
not only upon the powers originally possessed
by the parties thereto, but also upon those conferred
on the Government and every department thereof.
It will be freely conceded that by the principles
of our system all power is vested in the people,
but to be exercised in the mode and subject to the
checks which the people themselves have prescribed.
These checks are undoubtedly only different
modifications of the same great popular principle
which lies at the foundation of the whole, but are not
on that account to be less regarded or less obligatory.
Upon the power of Congress, the veto of the Executive
and the authority of the judiciary, which is to extend
to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution
and laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof,
are the obvious checks, and the sound action of public
opinion, with the ultimate power of amendment, are the
salutary and only limitation upon the powers of the whole.
However it may be alleged that a violation of the
compact by the measures of the Government can affect
the obligations of the parties, it cannot even be pretended
that such violation can be predicated of those measures until
all the constitutional remedies shall have been fully tried.
If the Federal Government exercise powers not warranted
by the Constitution, and immediately affecting individuals,
it will scarcely be denied that the proper
remedy is a recourse to the judiciary.
Such undoubtedly is the remedy for those who deem
the acts of Congress laying duties and imposts,
and providing for their collection to be unconstitutional.
The whole operation of such laws is upon
the individuals importing the merchandise.
A State is absolutely prohibited from laying imposts
or duties on imports or exports without the consent
of Congress, and cannot become a party under
these laws without importing in her own name or
wrongfully interposing her authority against them.
By thus interposing, however, she cannot rightfully
obstruct the operation of the laws upon individuals.
For their disobedience to or violation
of the laws the ordinary remedies through
the judicial tribunals would remain.
And in a case where an individual should be
prosecuted for any offense against the laws,
he could not set up in justification of his act
a law of the State, which, being unconstitutional,
would therefore be regarded as null and void.
The law of a State cannot authorize the commission
of a crime against the United States or any other act
which, according to the supreme law of the Union,
would be otherwise unlawful; and it is equally clear
that if there be any case in which a State, as such,
is affected by the law beyond the scope of judicial power,
the remedy consists in appeals to the people,
either to effect a change in the representation
or to procure relief by an amendment of the Constitution.
But the measures of the Government are to be
recognized as valid, and consequently supreme,
until these remedies shall have been effectually tried,
and any attempt to subvert those measures or to render
the laws subordinate to State authority, and afterwards
to resort to constitutional redress, is worse than evasive.
It would not be a proper resistance to “a government of
unlimited powers,” as has been sometimes pretended,
but unlawful opposition to the very limitations on
which the harmonious action of the Government
and all its parts absolutely depends.
South Carolina has appealed to none of these remedies,
but in effect has defied them all.
While threatening to separate from the Union, if any
attempt be made to enforce the revenue laws otherwise
than through the civil tribunals of the country, she has
not only not appealed in her own name to those tribunals
which the Constitution has provided for all cases in law
or equity arising under the Constitution and laws of the
United States, but has endeavored to frustrate their
proper action on her citizens by drawing the cognizance
of cases under the revenue laws to her own tribunals,
specially prepared and fitted for the purpose of enforcing
the acts passed by the State to obstruct those laws,
and both the judges and jurors of which will be bound by
the import of oaths previously taken to treat the Constitution
and laws of the United States in this respect as a nullity.
Nor has the State made the proper appeal to public opinion
and to the remedy of amendment; for without waiting to
learn whether the other States will consent to a convention,
or if they do, will construe or amend the Constitution to suit
her views, she has of her own authority altered the import
of that instrument and given immediate effect to the change.
In fine, she has set her own will and authority above the
laws, has made herself arbiter in her own cause,
and has passed at once over all intermediate steps to
measures of avowed resistance, which, unless they
be submitted to, can be enforced only by the sword.
In deciding upon the course which a high sense of duty
to all the people of the United States imposes upon the
authorities of the Union in this emergency, it cannot
be overlooked that there is no sufficient cause for
the acts of South Carolina, or for her thus placing in
jeopardy the happiness of so many millions of people.
Misrule and oppression, to warrant the disruption
of the free institutions of the Union of these States,
should be great and lasting, defying all other remedy.
For causes of minor character the Government could
not submit to such a catastrophe without a violation
of its most sacred obligations to the other States of the
Union who have submitted their destiny to its hands.
There is in the present instance no such cause,
either in the degree of misrule or oppression complained of
or in the hopelessness of redress by constitutional means.
The long sanction they have received from the proper
authorities and from the people, not less than the
unexampled growth and increasing prosperity of
so many millions of freemen, attest that no such
oppression as would justify, or even palliate,
such a resort can be justly imputed either to the present
policy or past measures of the Federal Government.
The same mode of collecting duties, and for the same
general objects, which began with the foundation of the
Government, and which has conducted the country
through its subsequent steps to its present enviable
condition of happiness and renown, has not been changed.
Taxation and representation, the great principle of the
American Revolution, have continually gone hand in hand,
and at all times and in every instance no tax of any kind
has been imposed without their participation, and,
in some instances which have been complained of,
with the express assent of a part of the representatives
of South Carolina in the councils of the Government.
Up to the present period no revenue has been raised
beyond the necessary wants of the country and the
authorized expenditures of the Government;
and as soon as the burden of the public debt is removed,
those charged with the administration have promptly
recommended a corresponding reduction of revenue.
That this system thus pursued has resulted in
no such oppression upon South Carolina needs
no other proof than the solemn and official
declaration of the late chief magistrate of
that State in his address to the legislature.
In that he says that—
The occurrences of the past year, in connection with our
domestic concerns, are to be reviewed with a sentiment of
fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer of Human Events;
that tributes of grateful acknowledgment are due for the
various and multiplied blessings He has been pleased
to bestow on our people; that abundant harvests in
every quarter of the State have crowned the exertions
of agricultural labor; that health almost beyond former
precedent has blessed our homes, and that there is not less
reason for thankfulness in surveying our social condition.
It would indeed be difficult to imagine oppression
where in the social condition of a people there was
equal cause of thankfulness as for abundant
harvests and varied and multiplied blessings
with which a kind providence had favored them.
Independently of these considerations, it will not
escape observation that South Carolina still claims
to be a component part of the Union, to participate
in the national councils and to share in the public
benefits without contributing to the public burdens,
thus asserting the dangerous anomaly of continuing
in an association without acknowledging any other
obligation to its laws than what depends upon her own will.
In this posture of affairs the duty of
the Government seems to be plain.
It inculcates a recognition of that State as a member
of the Union and subject to its authority, a vindication
of the just power of the Constitution, the preservation
of the integrity of the Union, and the execution
of the laws by all constitutional means.
The Constitution, which his oath of office obliges him
to support, declares that the Executive “shall take care that
the laws be faithfully executed,” and in providing that
he shall from time to time give to Congress information
of the state of the Union, and recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient, imposes the additional
obligation of recommending to Congress such
more efficient provision for executing the laws
as may from time to time be found requisite.
The same instrument confers on Congress the power
not merely to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common
defense and general welfare, but “to make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into effect the
foregoing powers and all other powers vested by the
Constitution in the Government of the United States or in
any department or officer thereof,” and also to provide for
calling forth the militia for executing the laws of the Union.
In all cases similar to the present the duties of the
Government become the measure of its powers,
and whenever it fails to exercise a power necessary
and proper to the discharge of the duty prescribed
by the Constitution it violates the public trusts
not less than it would in transcending its proper limits.
To refrain, therefore, from the high and solemn duties
thus enjoined, however painful the performance may be,
and thereby tacitly permit the rightful authority of the
Government to be contemned and its laws obstructed by
a single State, would neither comport with its own safety
nor the rights of the great body of the American people.
It being thus shown to be the duty of the Executive
to execute the laws by all constitutional means,
it remains to consider the extent of those already at his
disposal and what it may be proper further to provide.
In the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury
to the collectors in South Carolina the provisions and
regulations made by the act of 1799, and also
the fines, penalties, and forfeitures for their
enforcement, are particularly detailed and explained.
It may be well apprehended, however, that these
provisions may prove inadequate to meet such an
open, powerful, organized opposition as is to
be commenced after the 1st of February next.
Subsequently to the date of these instructions and to the
passage of the ordinance, information has been received
from sources entitled to be relied on that owing to the
popular excitement in the State and the effect of the
ordinance declaring the execution of the revenue laws
unlawful a sufficient number of persons in whom confidence
might be placed could not be induced to accept the office of
inspector to oppose with any probability of success the force
which will no doubt be used when an attempt is made to
remove vessels and their cargoes from the custody of
the officers of the customs, and, indeed, that it would be
impracticable for the collector, with the aid of any number
of inspectors whom he may be authorized to employ,
to preserve the custody against such an attempt.
The removal of the custom-house from Charleston to
Castle Pinckney was deemed a measure of necessary
precaution, and though the authority to give that direction
is not questioned, it is nevertheless apparent that a
similar precaution cannot be observed in regard to the
ports of Georgetown and Beaufort, each of which
under the present laws remains a port of entry and
exposed to the obstructions meditated in that quarter.
In considering the best means of avoiding or
of preventing the apprehended obstruction to the
collection of the revenue, and the consequences
which may ensue, it would appear to be proper
and necessary to enable the officers of the customs
to preserve the custody of vessels and their cargoes,
which by the existing laws they are required to take until
the duties to which they are liable shall be paid or secured.
The mode by which it is contemplated to deprive them
of that custody is the process of replevin and that of
capias in withernam, in the nature of a distress
from the State tribunals organized by the ordinance.
Against the proceeding in the nature of a distress
it is not perceived that the collector can interpose any
resistance whatever, and against the process of
replevin authorized by the law of the State he,
having no common-law power, can only oppose such
inspectors as he is by statute authorized and may find it
practicable to employ, and these, from the information
already adverted to, are shown to be wholly inadequate.
The respect which that process deserves
must therefore be considered.
If the authorities of South Carolina had not obstructed
the legitimate action of the courts of the United States,
or if they had permitted the State tribunals to administer
the law according to their oath under the Constitution
and the regulations of the laws of the Union, the General
Government might have been content to look to them
for maintaining the custody and to encounter the other
inconveniences arising out of the recent proceedings.
Even in that case, however, the process of replevin from
the courts of the State would be irregular and unauthorized.
It has been decided by the Supreme Court of the
United States that the courts of the United States have
exclusive jurisdiction of all seizures made on land or water
for a breach of the laws of the United States, and any
intervention of a State authority which, by taking the thing
seized out of the hands of the United States officer,
might obstruct the exercise of this jurisdiction is unlawful;
that in such case the court of the United States having
cognizance of the seizure may enforce a redelivery
of the thing by attachment or other summary process;
that the question under such a seizure whether
a forfeiture has been actually incurred belongs
exclusively to the courts of the United States,
and it depends on the final decree whether the seizure
is to be deemed rightful or tortuous; and that not until the
seizure be finally judged wrongful and without probable
cause by the courts of the United States can the party
proceed at common law for damages in the State courts.
But by making it “unlawful for any of the constituted
authorities, whether of the United States or of the State, to
enforce the laws for the payment of duties, and declaring
that all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in
affirmance of the contracts made with purpose to secure the
duties imposed by the said acts are and shall be held utterly
null and void,” she has in effect abrogated the judicial
tribunals within her limits in this respect, has virtually denied
the United States access to the courts established by their
own laws, and declared it unlawful for the judges to
discharge those duties which they are sworn to perform.
In lieu of these she has substituted those State tribunals
already adverted to, the judges whereof are not merely
forbidden to allow an appeal or permit a copy of their
record, but are previously sworn to disregard the laws of
the Union and enforce those only of South Carolina, and thus
deprived of the function essential to the judicial character
of inquiring into the validity of the law and the right of the
matter, become merely ministerial instruments in aid
of the concerted obstruction of the laws of the Union.
Neither the process nor authority of these
tribunals thus constituted can be respected
consistently with the supremacy of the laws
or the rights and security of the citizen.
If they be submitted to, the protection due from the
Government to its officers and citizens is withheld,
and there is at once an end not only to the laws,
but to the Union itself.
Against such a force as the sheriff may,
and which by the replevin law of South Carolina
it is his duty to exercise, it cannot be expected
that a collector can retain his custody
with the aid of the inspectors.
In such case, it is true, it would be competent to institute
suits in the United States courts against those engaged
in the unlawful proceeding, or the property might be seized
for a violation of the revenue laws, and, being libeled in the
proper courts, an order might be made for its redelivery,
which would be committed to the marshal for execution.
But in that case the fourth section of the act, in broad
and unqualified terms, makes it the duty of the sheriff
to prevent such recapture or seizure, or to redeliver the
goods, as the case may be,” “even under any process,
order or decrees or other pretext contrary to the
true intent and meaning of the ordinance aforesaid.”
It is thus made the duty of the sheriff to oppose
the process of the courts of the United States,
and for that purpose, if need be,
to employ the whole power of the county.
And the act expressly reserves to him all power which,
independently of its provisions, he could have used.
In this reservation it obviously contemplates a resort
to other means than those particularly mentioned.
It is not to be disguised that the power which it is thus
enjoined upon the sheriff to employ is nothing less than the
posse comitatus in all the rigor of the ancient common law.
This power, though it may be used against unlawful
resistance to judicial process, is in its character forcible,
and analogous to that conferred upon
the marshals by the act of 1795.
It is, in fact, the embodying of the whole mass of the
population under the command of a single individual
to accomplish by their forcible aid what could not
be effected peaceably and by the ordinary means.
It may properly be said to be a relic of those ages
in which the laws could be defended rather by physical
than moral force, and in its origin was conferred upon the
sheriffs of England to enable them to defend their county
against any of the King’s enemies when they came into
the land, as well as for the purpose of executing process.
In early and less civilized times it was intended
to include “the aid and attendance of all knights
and others who were bound to have harness.”
It includes the right of going with arms and military
equipment, and embraces larger classes and greater
masses of population than can be compelled by the
laws of most of the States to perform militia duty.
If the principles of the common law are recognized in
South Carolina (and from this act it would seem they are),
the power of summoning the posse comitatus will compel,
under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, every man
over the age of 15, and able to travel, to turn out
at the call of the sheriff, and with such weapons
as may be necessary; and it may justify beating,
and even killing such as may resist.
The use of the posse comitatus is therefore a direct
application of force, and cannot be otherwise regarded than
as the employment of the whole militia force of the county,
and in an equally efficient form under a different name.
No proceeding which resorts to this power to the
extent contemplated by the act can
be properly denominated peaceable.
The act of South Carolina, however,
does not rely altogether upon this forcible remedy.
For even attempting to resist or disobey, though by the aid
only of the ordinary officers of the customs, the process of
replevin, the collector and all concerned are subjected to
a further proceeding in the nature of a distress of their
personal effects, and are moreover made guilty of a
misdemeanor, and liable to be punished by a fine of not less
than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 and to imprisonment
not exceeding two years and not less than six months;
and for even attempting to execute the order of the court
for retaking the property the marshal and all assisting
would be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine
of not less than $3,000 nor more than $10,000 and to
imprisonment not exceeding two years nor less than one;
and in case the goods should be retaken under such process
it is made the absolute duty of the sheriff to retake them.
It is not to be supposed that in the face of these penalties,
aided by the powerful force of the county, which would
doubtless be brought to sustain the State officers, either that
the collector would retain the custody in the first instance or
that the marshal could summon sufficient aid to retake the
property pursuant to the order or other process of the court.
It is, moreover, obvious that in this conflict between the
powers of the officers of the United States and of the State
(unless the latter be passively submitted to) the destruction
to which the property of the officers of the customs
would be exposed, the commission of actual violence,
and the loss of lives would be scarcely avoidable.
Under these circumstances and the provisions
of the acts of South Carolina the execution of the laws
is rendered impracticable even through the
ordinary judicial tribunals of the United States.
There would certainly be fewer difficulties and less
opportunity of actual collision between the officers of the
United States and of the State, and the collection of the
revenue would be more effectually secured—if, indeed,
it can be done in any other way—by placing the
custom-house beyond the immediate power of the county.
For this purpose it might be proper to provide that
whenever by any unlawful combination or obstruction
in any State or in any port it should become impracticable
faithfully to collect the duties, the President of the
United States should be authorized to alter and abolish
such of the districts and ports of entry as should be
necessary, and to establish the custom-house at some
secure place within some port or harbor of such State;
and in such cases it should be the duty of the collector
to reside at such place, and to detain all vessels and
cargoes until the duties imposed by law should be
properly secured or paid in cash, deducting interest;
that in such cases it should be unlawful to take the
vessel and cargo from the custody of the proper
officer of the customs unless by process from the
ordinary judicial tribunals of the United States,
and that in case of an attempt otherwise to take
the property by a force too great to be overcome
by the officers of the customs it should be lawful
to protect the possession of the officers by the
employment of the land and naval forces and militia,
under provisions similar to those authorized by the
eleventh section of the act of the 9th of January, 1809.
This provision, however, would not shield the officers
and citizens of the United States, acting under the laws,
from suits and prosecutions in the tribunals of the State
which might thereafter be brought against them,
nor would it protect their property from the proceeding
by distress, and it may well be apprehended that it
would be insufficient to insure a proper respect to the
process of the constitutional tribunals in prosecutions
for offenses against the United States and to protect
the authorities of the United States, whether judicial
or ministerial, in the performance of their duties.
It would, moreover, be inadequate to extend the
protection due from the Government to that portion
of the people of South Carolina against outrage
and oppression of any kind who may manifest their
attachment and yield obedience to the laws of the Union.
It may therefore be desirable to revive, with some
modifications better adapted to the occasion, the
sixth section of the act of the 3rd March 1815,
which expired on the 4th March 1817 by the limitation
of that of 27th April 1816, and to provide that
in any case where suit shall be brought against any
individual in the courts of the State for any act done
under the laws of the United States he should be
authorized to remove the said cause by petition into
the circuit court of the United States without any
copy of the record, and that the court should proceed
to hear and determine the same as if it had been originally
instituted therein; and that in all cases of injuries to the
persons or property of individuals for disobedience to the
ordinance and laws of South Carolina in pursuance thereof
redress may be sought in the courts of the United States.
It may be expedient also by modifying the resolution of
the 3rd March 1791 to authorize the marshals to make
the necessary provision for the safe-keeping of prisoners
committed under the authority of the United States.
Provisions less than these, consisting as they do for the
most part rather of a revival of the policy of former acts
called for by the existing emergency than of the introduction
of any unusual or rigorous enactments, would not cause
the laws of the Union to be properly respected or enforced.
It is believed these would prove adequate unless the
military forces of the State of South Carolina authorized
by the late act of the legislature should be actually
embodied and called out in aid of their proceedings
and of the provisions of the ordinance generally.
Even in that case, however, it is believed that no more
will be necessary than a few modifications of its terms to
adapt the act of 1795 to the present emergency, as by that
act the provisions of the law of 1792 were accommodated to
the crisis then existing, and by conferring authority upon the
President to give it operation during the session of Congress,
and without the ceremony of a proclamation, whenever it
shall be officially made known to him by the authority of
any State, or by the courts of the United States, that within
the limits of such State the laws of the United States will be
openly opposed and their execution obstructed by the
actual employment of military force, or by any unlawful
means whatsoever too great to be otherwise overcome.
In closing this communication, I should do injustice
to my own feelings not to express my confident reliance
upon the disposition of each department of the
Government to perform its duty and to cooperate
in all measures necessary in the present emergency.
The crisis undoubtedly invokes the fidelity of the patriot
and the sagacity of the statesman, not more in
removing such portion of the public burden as may
be necessary than in preserving the good order of
society and in the maintenance of well-regulated liberty.
While a forbearing spirit may, and I trust will,
be exercised toward the errors of our brethren
in a particular quarter, duty to the rest of the Union
demands that open and organized resistance
to the laws should not be executed with impunity.
The rich inheritance bequeathed by our fathers
has devolved upon us the sacred obligation of
preserving it by the same virtues which conducted
them through the eventful scenes of the Revolution
and ultimately crowned their struggle with
the noblest model of civil institutions.
They bequeathed to us a Government of laws
and a Federal Union founded upon the
great principle of popular representation.
After a successful experiment of forty-four years,
at a moment when the Government and the Union
are the objects of the hopes of the friends of civil liberty
throughout the world, and in the midst of public and
individual prosperity unexampled in history,
we are called to decide whether these laws possess
any force and that Union the means of self-preservation.
The decision of this question by an enlightened
and patriotic people cannot be doubtful.
For myself, fellow-citizens, devoutly relying upon that kind
Providence which has hitherto watched over our destinies,
and actuated by a profound reverence for those institutions
I have so much cause to love, and for the American people,
whose partiality honored me with their highest trust,
I have determined to spare no effort to discharge
the duty which in this conjuncture is devolved upon me.
That a similar spirit will actuate the representatives of the
American people is not to be questioned; and I fervently
pray that the Great Ruler of Nations may so guide your
deliberations and our joint measures as that they may
prove salutary examples not only to the present but to
future times, and solemnly proclaim that the Constitution
and the laws are supreme and the Union indissoluble.
His “Message to the Senate and House Regarding South Carolina’s Nullification Ordinance”
explained how he would respond if South Carolina tried to secede from the Union.
The legislatures of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and most of the northern states passed
resolutions confirming this proclamation condemning nullification,
and no other state legislature supported South Carolina.
Jackson ordered Unionist militia of volunteers and federal troops
to go to Charleston harbor with General Winfield Scott.
The President also asked Congress to call up federal troops,
and Calhoun opposed the Force Bill which the Globe called “a collection bill.”
On January 21 the nullifiers met and postponed the implementation
until the tariff was acted on by Congress.
President Jackson argued that the federal government had the constitutional authority
to regulate trade and that the states had formed a government, not a league.
Biddle had 30,000 copies of Jackson’s veto message printed.
In the following senatorial debate Henry Clay and Thomas Benton became
so angry at each other that they nearly had to be restrained.
Webster, who had recently asked Biddle for a loan of $12,000,
and other
National Republicans accused the Democrat Jackson
of setting the poor class against the rich.
They noted that the United States Supreme Court
had unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Bank.
Yet some capitalists such as those on Wall Street in New York
opposed the U. S. Bank in Philadelphia as did many “wildcat” bankers in the West.
Jackson wanted to remove deposits from the United States Bank
which had $79 million in assets and only $37 million in liabilities.
Given that solvency Treasury Secretary McLane refused to remove
the federal government’s $10 million in deposits.
William Gouge supported Jacksonian democracy and hard money by publishing
in February 1833 his Short History of Paper Money and Banking which was also
serialized in the Evening Post and the Globe and with a cheap edition in 1835.
He wrote,
Against corporations of every kind,
the objection may be brought
that whatever power is given to them
is so much taken from either the government or the people.
As the object of charters is to give
to members of companies powers
which they would not possess in their individual capacity,
the very existence of moneyed corporations
is incompatible with equality of rights.2
Gouge observed that banks over-issue notes, causing speculative fever and rising prices.
Credit expands causing inflation.
When banks call in loans, people start runs on banks that lead to panic and collapse.
Then many become bankrupt while a few speculators take over
the earnings and savings of the less frugal and industrious.
Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury would hire Gouge as an advisor in early 1835.
Senator Calhoun called the “Bloody” Force Bill a declaration of war
against South Carolina and a violation of the Constitution.
After he and his supporters walked out, the Senate passed the Force Bill 32-1
with only John Tyler voting no; the House approved the bill 148-48 on 1 March 1833.
The next day Jackson signed the Force Bill and the Compromise Tariff.
Congress also passed Clay’s Distribution Bill that shared federal revenues
from public land sales with states for internal construction, public schools,
and African colonization; but Jackson used his pocket veto,
preferring with Benton to please westerners by selling public land at low prices.
On February 9 Clay had offered a protectionist tariff that reduced the tax rate
from 50% in 1833 gradually to 38% in 1841 and to 20% in mid-1842.
This compromise passed the House on February 26
and the Senate with Calhoun’s support on March 1.
That day Congress adjourned, and Jackson signed the Force Bill and the tariff on March 2.
This ended the crisis for a time, though the South Carolina legislature
did act to nullify Jackson’s Force Bill on March 18.
While states’ rights were prominent, in February 1833 the U. .S Supreme Court still
led by Marshall in Barron v. Baltimore unanimously decided the city using
the “takings”
clause of the 5th amendment had damaged a private wharf
and so had to pay the owner $4,500.
This time Marshall did not favor the federal government,
and it would be a precedent until the 14th amendment gained influence.
On 4 March 1833 President Andrew Jackson
gave this speech at his second inauguration:
Fellow-Citizens:
The will of the American people, expressed through
their unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pass
through the solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself
the duties of President of the United States for another term.
For their approbation of my public conduct through a
period which has not been without its difficulties,
and for this renewed expression of their confidence
in my good intentions, I am at a loss for terms
adequate to the expression of my gratitude.
It shall be displayed to the extent of my humble abilities
in continued efforts so to administer the Government
as to preserve their liberty and promote their happiness.
So many events have occurred within the last
four years which have necessarily called forth—
sometimes under circumstances the most delicate
and painful—my views of the principles and policy
which ought to be pursued by the General Government
that I need on this occasion but allude to a few leading
considerations connected with some of them.
The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon
after the formation of our present Constitution, and
very generally pursued by successive Administrations,
has been crowned with almost complete success, and has
elevated our character among the nations of the earth.
To do justice to all and to submit to wrong from none has
been during my Administration its governing maxim, and
so happy have been its results that we are not only at peace
with all the world, but have few causes of controversy,
and those of minor importance, remaining unadjusted.
In the domestic policy of this Government there are
two objects which especially deserve the attention of the
people and their representatives, and which have been and
will continue to be the subjects of my increasing solicitude.
They are the preservation of the rights of the
several States and the integrity of the Union.
These great objects are necessarily connected,
and can only be attained by an enlightened exercise
of the powers of each within its appropriate sphere in
conformity with the public will constitutionally expressed.
To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready
and patriotic submission to the laws constitutionally
enacted and thereby promote and strengthen a proper
confidence in those institutions of the several States
and of the United States which the people themselves
have ordained for their own government.
My experience in public concerns and the observation
of a life somewhat advanced confirm the opinions
long since imbibed by me, that the destruction of
our State governments or the annihilation of their
control over the local concerns of the people
would lead directly to revolution and anarchy,
and finally to despotism and military domination.
In proportion, therefore, as the General Government
encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same
proportion does it impair its own power and detract
from its ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation.
Solemnly impressed with these considerations,
my countrymen will ever find me ready to
exercise my constitutional powers in arresting
measures which may directly or indirectly
encroach upon the rights of the States or tend to
consolidate all political power in the General Government.
But of equal and, indeed of incalculable, importance is
the union of these States, and the sacred duty of all to
contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the
General Government in the exercise of its just powers.
You have been wisely admonished to “accustom yourselves
to think and speak of the Union as of the palladium of your
political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation
with Jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may
suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be
abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first
dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of
our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred
ties which now link together the various parts.”
Without union our independence and liberty
would never have been achieved;
without union they never can be maintained.
Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number,
of separate communities, we shall see our internal trade
burdened with numberless restraints and exactions;
communication between distant points and sections
obstructed or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge
with blood the fields they now till in peace; the mass of our
people borne down and impoverished by taxes to support
armies and navies, and military leaders at the head of their
victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges.
The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace,
plenty, and happiness, must inevitably
follow a dissolution of the Union.
In supporting it, therefore, we support all that
is dear to the freeman and the philanthropist.
The time at which I stand before you is full of interest.
The eyes of all nations are fixed on our Republic.
The event of the existing crisis will be decisive
in the opinion of mankind of the practicability
of our federal system of government.
Great is the stake placed in our hands;
great is the responsibility which must
rest upon the people of the United States.
Let us realize the importance of the attitude
in which we stand before the world.
Let us exercise forbearance and firmness.
Let us extricate our country from the dangers
which surround it and learn wisdom
from the lessons they inculcate.
Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations,
and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am
about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to
maintain the just powers of the Constitution and to transmit
unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal Union.
At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by my
official acts the necessity of exercising by the General
Government those powers only that are clearly delegated;
to encourage simplicity and economy in the expenditures
of the Government; to raise no more money from the
people than may be requisite for these objects, and in
a manner that will best promote the interests of all
classes of the community and of all portions of the Union.
Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society
“individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve
the rest,” it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as
to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country a spirit
of liberal concession and compromise, and by reconciling
our fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which they
must unavoidably make for the preservation of a greater
good, to recommend our invaluable Government and Union
to the confidence and affections of the American people.
Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that
Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and
who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our
Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule all
my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my
fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of
all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people.3
James K. Polk of Tennessee had become Chairman of the powerful
Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives on 3 March 1833.
He proposed a bill to sell government shares, but the House of Representatives rejected it.
Blair told Jackson that Biddle was using money to break down the government
by spreading around money to people without character or money.
Jackson replied that he would remove the deposits,
and Kendall promised to defend the measure in the Globe.
On 29 May 1833 President Jackson moved Treasury Secretary Louis McLane
to the State Department, and he appointed William J. Duane to run the Treasury;
but he also declined to remove from states’ deposits he considered safe.
Kendall reported to Jackson that many state banks would take the money.
At a Cabinet meeting on 18 September 1833 Jackson had a 12-page document
read to his Cabinet that included this passage:
That allegations of the aristocratical tendencies of our
institutions, and of their progress are often thrown out
to promote selfish and sinister ends is quite probable:
but it is not the less undeniable that such is the inherent
vice of every political system, and too much vigilance
and self-denial cannot be exercised to restrain the
sinister aspirations of wealth, and to check the
growth of an authority so unfriendly to liberal
Government and the just rights of the people.
Reason suggests and experience confirms the
position that nothing has a stronger tendency
to engender an aristocratical spirit, or to sustain it
when it has once acquired a foothold in the community,
than extensive moneyed incorporations with
their appendages of exclusive privileges.
The divine right of kings and the prerogative authority
of rulers have fallen before the intelligence of the age.
Standing armies and military chieftains can no longer
uphold tyranny against the resistance of public opinion.
The mass of the people have more to fear
from combinations of the wealthy and professional classes—
from an aristocracy which through the influence of riches
and talents, insidiously employed, sometimes succeeds
in preventing political institutions, however well adjusted,
from securing the freedom of the citizen.4
He was concerned that the U. S. Bank had concentrated too much power.
On September 20 Blair reported in the Globe that the government would stop depositing
its funds in the U. S. Bank in October. Jackson explained that
this would block the renewal of the U. S. Bank’s charter.
On September 23 Jackson dismissed Duane, who had refused to resign,
and the
President appointed the U. S. Attorney General Roger Taney interim Treasury Secretary.
Taney transferred $2.3 million in deposits to state banks run by friends
in the Democratic Party that opponents called “pet banks.”
The ratio of paper money to specie had risen from 3 to 1 in 1828 to 8.5 to 1 in 1833.
In November the Girard Bank of Philadelphia and the Manhattan Bank of New York
each presented drafts for $500,000, and withdrawals caused
a run of $350,000 on the Savannah branch of the US Bank.
Taney on December 4 justified to Congress removing deposits from the Bank.
Biddle had reduced U. S. Bank loans by about $4 million,
and he ordered over $9 million in reductions by January 1834.
The US Senate led by National Republicans Clay and Webster
and the nullifier Calhoun met in December.
Taney’s report blamed Biddle and was opposed in the Senate
which refused to confirm Taney as Treasury Secretary.
Clay persuaded the Senate to reject the report and to ask for Jackson’s paper
that had been read to his cabinet, but Jackson refused to cooperate.
On December 26 Clay proposed resolutions to censure President Jackson
for destroying the American republic, and he spoke on it over three days.
Senators Calhoun and Webster also made speeches in favor
of the censure denouncing executive despotism.
Missouri Senator Benton was called “Old Bullion,”
and he supported Jackson as did Van Buren’s friend John Forsythe of Georgia.
In the fall of 1833 the number of deposit banks went from 7 to 22,
and by January 1834 they had $9 million in federal deposits
while those in the U. S. Bank dropped to $4 million.
In Jackson’s second inaugural address on March 4 he emphasized the
importance of the Union for achieving and maintaining independence and liberty.
During his first term they built 300 miles of railroad and 50,000 tons of steamships
as nearly 200 new banks provided cash for investments.
Cotton production increased more than 30% with 400,000 more spindles.
About 130,000 immigrants arrived, increasing New York City’s population by 100,000.
Removing the Chickasaws and Choctaws from Mississippi enabled 100,000 planters
with slaves to exploit fresher land for growing cotton.
About 7,000 Choctaws stayed in Mississippi.
On May 6 a former navy officer Robert Randolph
tweaked Jackson’s nose which bled,
and Jackson was prevented from using his cane.
Years later after he was tried, Jackson asked that Randolph be pardoned.
On June 6 Jackson left for a 4-week tour of the mid-Atlantic states
and New England similar to Monroe’s route in 1818.
His three days in New York City cost their taxpayers $9,000.
He attended a parade in Boston on June 21.
On the first three days of April American settlers met at San Felipe de Austin in Texas.
They agreed to make Texas independent of Mexico, and they drafted
a document based on the United States Constitution.
Stephen Austin did not agree to secession but
promised to go to Mexico City with their proposals.
In the spring American diplomats complained that tariff dutie
in Cuba and Puerto Rico were offensive, and they threatened retaliation.
This would not work even though the U. S. did get tonnage duties
from Spain reduced in 1832 and claims with Spain settled in 1834.
Vice President Van Buren’s law partner Benjamin Butler
became United States Attorney General on 15 November 1833.
Francis Blair often corresponded with Jackson,
and his son James tried to help organize Jackson’s papers.
Adams wrote that James Blair severely beat the editor Duff Green
on 24 December 1833 and paid a $300 fine for having done so.
When the US Congress met in early December,
eight southern Senators opposed the Jacksonian Democrats.
In his 5th Annual Message to Congress on December 3
Jackson claimed prosperity at home and abroad.
On your assembling to perform the high trusts
which the people of the United States have
confided to you, of legislating for their common
welfare, it gives me pleasure to congratulate you
upon the happy condition of our beloved country.
By the favor of Divine Providence health is again
restored to us, peace reigns within our borders,
abundance crowns the labors of our fields,
commerce and domestic industry flourish and
increase, and individual happiness rewards the
private virtue and enterprise of our citizens.
Our condition abroad is no less honorable
than it is prosperous at home.
Seeking nothing that is not right and determined
to submit to nothing that is wrong, but desiring
honest friendships and liberal intercourse with
all nations, the United States have gained throughout
the world the confidence and respect which are due to
a policy so just and so congenial to the character of the
American people and to the spirit of their institutions.
In bringing to your notice the particular state of
our foreign affairs, it affords me high gratification
to inform you that they are in a condition which
promises the continuance of friendship with all nations.
With Great Britain the interesting question of
our North East boundary remains still undecided.
A negotiation, however, upon that subject has
been renewed since the close of the last Congress,
and a proposition has been submitted to the
British Government with the view of establishing,
in conformity with the resolution of the Senate,
the line designated by the treaty of 1783.
Though no definitive answer has been received,
it may be daily looked for, and I entertain a hope
that the overture may ultimately lead to a
satisfactory adjustment of this important matter.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that a
negotiation which, by desire of the House of
Representatives, was opened some years ago
with the British Government, for the erection of
light houses on the Bahamas, has been successful.
Those works, when completed, together with
those which the United States have constructed
on the western side of the Gulf of Florida, will contribute
essentially to the safety of navigation in that sea.
This joint participation in establishments interesting to
humanity and beneficial to commerce is worthy of two
enlightened nations, and indicates feelings which cannot
fail to have a happy influence upon their political relations.
It is gratifying to the friends of both to perceive that the
intercourse between the two people is becoming daily
more extensive, and that sentiments of mutual good will
have grown up befitting their common origin and justifying
the hope that by wise counsels on each side not only
unsettled questions may be satisfactorily terminated,
but new causes of misunderstanding prevented.
Notwithstanding that I continue to receive the most
amicable assurances from the Government of France,
and that in all other respects the most friendly relations exist
between the United States and that Government, it is to be
regretted that the stipulations of the convention concluded
on 1831-07-04 remain in some important parts unfulfilled.
By the second article of that convention it was
stipulated that the sum payable to the United States
should be paid at Paris, in 6 annual installments,
into the hands of such person or persons as should
be authorized by the Government of the United States
to receive it, and by the same article the first
installment was payable on 1833-02-02.
By the act of Congress of 1832-07-13 it was made the
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause the several
installments, with the interest thereon, to be received from
the French Government and transferred to the United States
in such manner as he may deem best; and by the same act
of Congress the stipulations on the part of the United States
in the convention were in all respects fulfilled.
Not doubting that a treaty thus made and ratified by the two
Governments, and faithfully executed by the United States,
would be promptly complied with by the other party,
and desiring to avoid the risk and expense of intermediate
agencies, the Secretary of the Treasury deemed it
advisable to receive and transfer the first installment
by means of a draft upon the French minister of finance.
A draft for this purpose was accordingly drawn in
favor of the cashier of the Bank of the United States
for the amount accruing to the United States out of
the first installment, and the interest payable with it.
This bill was not drawn at Washington until 5 days
after the installment was payable at Paris, and was
accompanied by a special authority from the President
authorizing the cashier or his assigns to receive the amount.
The mode thus adopted of receiving the installment
was officially made known to the French Government
by the American chargé d’affaires at Paris, pursuant
to instructions from the Department of State.
The bill, however, though not presented for payment
until 1833-03-23, was not paid, and for the reason
assigned by the French minister of finance that no
appropriation had been made by the French Chambers.
It is not known to me that up to that period any
appropriation had been required of the Chambers,
and although a communication was subsequently
made to the Chambers by direction of the King,
recommending that the necessary provision should
be made for carrying the convention into effect,
it was at an advanced period of the session,
and the subject was finally postponed
until the next meeting of the Chambers.
Notwithstanding it has been supposed by the French
ministry that the financial stipulations of the treaty cannot
be carried into effect without an appropriation by the
Chambers, it appears to me to be not only consistent
with the character of France, but due to the character of
both Governments, as well as to the rights of our citizens,
to treat the convention, made and ratified in proper form,
as pledging the good faith of the French Government for
its execution, and as imposing upon each department
an obligation to fulfill it; and I have received assurances
through our chargé d’affaires at Paris and the French
minister plenipotentiary at Washington, and more
recently through the minister of the United States at Paris,
that the delay has not proceeded from any indisposition
on the part of the King and his ministers to fulfill their treaty,
and that measures will be presented at the next meeting
of the Chambers, and with a reasonable hope of success,
to obtain the necessary appropriation.
It is necessary to state, however, that the documents,
except certain lists of vessels captured, condemned,
or burnt at sea, proper to facilitate the examination and
liquidation of the reclamations comprised in the stipulations
of the convention, and which by the 6th article France
engaged to communicate to the United States by the
intermediary of the legation, though repeatedly applied
for by the American chargé d’affaires under instructions
from this Government, have not yet been communicated;
and this delay, it is apprehended, will necessarily prevent
the completion of the duties assigned to the commissioners
within the time at present prescribed by law.
The reasons for delaying to communicate these
documents have not been explicitly stated, and this
is the more to be regretted as it is not understood
that the interposition of the Chambers is in any
manner required for the delivery of those papers.
Under these circumstances, in a case so important to the
interests of our citizens and to the character of our country,
and under disappointments so unexpected, I deemed it my
duty, however I might respect the general assurances to
which I have adverted, no longer to delay the appointment
of a minister plenipotentiary to Paris, but to dispatch him
in season to communicate the result of his application to
the French Government at an early period of your session.
I accordingly appointed a distinguished citizen for this
purpose, who proceeded on his mission in August last and
was presented to the King early in the month of October.
He is particularly instructed as to all matters connected
with the present posture of affairs, and I indulge the hope
that with the representations he is instructed to make,
and from the disposition manifested by the King and his
ministers in their recent assurances to our minister at Paris,
the subject will be early considered, and satisfactorily
disposed of at the next meeting of the Chambers.
As this subject involves important interests and has
attracted a considerable share of the public attention,
I have deemed it proper to make this explicit
statement of its actual condition, and should I be
disappointed in the hope now entertained the subject
will be again brought to the notice of Congress
in such manner as the occasion may require.
The friendly relations which have always been
maintained between the United States and Russia have
been further extended and strengthened by the treaty of
navigation and commerce concluded on 1832-12-06, and
sanctioned by the Senate before the close of its last session.
The ratifications having been since exchanged,
the liberal provisions of the treaty are now in full force,
and under the encouragement which they have secured
a flourishing and increasing commerce, yielding its
benefits to the enterprise of both nations, affords to
each the just recompense of wise measures, and adds
new motives for that mutual friendship which the two
countries have hitherto cherished toward each other.
It affords me peculiar satisfaction to state that the
Government of Spain has at length yielded to the
justice of the claims which have been so long urged
in behalf of our citizens, and has expressed a
willingness to provide an indemnification as soon
as the proper amount can be agreed upon.
Upon this latter point it is probable an understanding
had taken place between the minister of the United States
and the Spanish Government before the decease of the
late King of Spain; and, unless that event may have
delayed its completion, there is reason to hope that
it may be in my power to announce to you early in
your present session the conclusion of a convention
upon terms not less favorable than those entered
into for similar objects with other nations.
That act of justice would well accord with
the character of Spain, and is due to the
United States from their ancient friend.
It could not fail to strengthen the sentiments of
amity and good will between the two nations
which it is so much the wish of the United States
to cherish and so truly the interest of both to maintain.
By the first section of an act of Congress passed
on 1832-07-13 the tonnage duty on Spanish ships
arriving from the ports of Spain previous to
1817-10-20, being 5 cents per ton.
That act was intended to give effect on our side
to an arrangement made with the Spanish
Government by which discriminating duties of
tonnage were to be abolished in the ports of the
United States and Spain on the vessels of the two nations.
Pursuant to that arrangement, which was carried into
effect on the part of Spain on 1832-05-20, by a royal
order dated 1832-04-29, American vessels in the ports
of Spain have paid 5 cents per ton, which rate of duty
is also paid in those ports by Spanish ships; but as
American vessels pay no tonnage duty in the ports of the
United States, the duty of 5 cents payable in our ports by
Spanish vessels under the act above mentioned is really a
discriminating duty, operating to the disadvantage of Spain.
Though no complaint has yet been made on the part
of Spain, we are not the less bound by the obligations
of good faith to remove the discrimination,
and I recommend that the act be amended accordingly.
As the royal order above alluded to includes the ports of
the Balearic and Canary islands as well as those of Spain,
it would seem that the provisions of the act of Congress
should be equally extensive, and that for the repayments
of such duties as may have been improperly received an
addition should be made to the sum appropriated at the
last session of Congress for refunding discriminating duties.
As the arrangement referred to, however,
did not embrace the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico,
discriminating duties to the prejudice of American
shipping continue to be levied there.
From the extent of the commerce carried on between
the United States and those islands, particularly the former,
this discrimination causes serious injury to one of those
great national interests which it has been considered an
essential part of our policy to cherish, and has given
rise to complaints on the part of our merchants.
Under instructions given to our minister at Madrid,
earnest representations have been made by him
to the Spanish Government upon this subject,
and there is reason to expect, from the friendly
disposition which is entertained toward this country,
that a beneficial change will be produced.
The disadvantage, however, to which our shipping is
subjected by the operation of these discriminating duties
requires that they be met by suitable countervailing duties
during your present session, power being at the same time
vested in the President to modify or discontinue them as
the discriminating duties on American vessels or their
cargoes may be modified or discontinued at those islands.
Intimations have been given to the Spanish Government
that the United States may be obliged to resort to such
measures as are of necessary self-defense, and there is no
reason to apprehend that it would be unfavorably received.
The proposed proceeding if adopted would not be permitted,
however, in any degree to induce a relaxation in the efforts
of our minister to effect a repeal of this irregularity by
friendly negotiation, and it might serve to give force to
his representations by showing the dangers to which
that valuable trade is exposed by the obstructions
and burdens which a system of discriminating
and countervailing duties necessarily produces.
The selection and preparation of the Florida
archives for the purpose of being delivered over
to the United States in conformity with the royal
order as mentioned in my last annual message,
though in progress, has not yet been completed.
This delay has been produced partly by causes which were
unavoidable, particularly the prevalence of the cholera at
Havana; but measures have been taken which it is believed
will expedite the delivery of those important records.
Congress was informed at the opening of the last
session that “owing, as was alleged, to embarrassments
in the finances of Portugal, consequent upon the civil war
in which that nation was engaged,” payment had
been made of only one installment of the amount
which the Portuguese Government had stipulated
to pay for indemnifying our citizens for property
illegally captured in the blockade of Terceira.
Since that time a postponement for two years with
interest of the 2 remaining installments was requested
by the Portuguese Government, and as a consideration it
offered to stipulate that rice of the United States should be
admitted into Portugal at the same duties as Brazilian rice.
Being satisfied that no better arrangement could be made,
my consent was given, and a royal order of the King of
Portugal was accordingly issued on 1833-02-04 for the
reduction of the duty on rice of the United States.
It would give me great pleasure if in speaking of that
country, in whose prosperity the United States are so much
interested, and with whom a long-subsisting, extensive,
and mutually advantageous commercial intercourse has
strengthened the relation of friendship, I could announce
to you the restoration of its internal tranquility.
Subsequently to the commencement of the last session
of Congress the final installment payable by Denmark
under the convention of 1830-03-28 was received.
The commissioners for examining the claims have since
terminated their labors, and their awards have been
paid at the Treasury as they have been called for.
The justice rendered to our citizens by that Government
is thus completed, and a pledge is thereby afforded for
the maintenance of that friendly intercourse becoming the
relations that the two nations mutually bear to each other.
It is satisfactory to inform you that the Danish
Government has recently issued an ordinance by which
the commerce with the island of St. Croix is placed
on a more liberal footing than heretofore.
This change cannot fail to prove beneficial to the trade
between the United States and that colony, and the
advantages likely to flow from it may lead to greater
relaxations in the colonial systems of other nations.
The ratifications of the convention with the King of
the two Sicilies have been duly exchanged, and the
commissioners appointed for examining the claims under it
have entered upon the duties assigned to them by law.
The friendship that the interests of the two nations
require of them being now established, it may be
hoped that each will enjoy the benefits which
a liberal commerce should yield to both.
A treaty of amity and commerce between the
United States and Belgium was concluded during
the last winter and received the sanction of the Senate,
but the exchange of the ratifications has been hitherto
delayed in consequence in the first instance of some
delay in the reception of the treaty at Brussels,
and subsequently of the absence of the Belgian
minister of foreign affairs at the important conferences
in which his Government is engaged at London.
That treaty does but embody those enlarged principles
of friendly policy which it is sincerely hoped will always
regulate the conduct of the two nations having such
strong motives to maintain amicable relations toward
each other and so sincerely desirous to cherish them.
With all the other European powers with whom the
United States have formed diplomatic relations and
with the Sublime Porte the best understanding prevails.
From all I continue to receive assurances of good will
toward the United States—assurances which it gives
me no less pleasure to reciprocate than to receive.
With all, the engagements which have been entered
into are fulfilled with good faith on both sides.
Measures have also been taken to enlarge
our friendly relations and extend our
commercial intercourse with other States.
The system we have pursued of aiming at no exclusive
advantages, of dealing with all on terms of fair and
equal reciprocity, and of adhering scrupulously to all
our engagements is well calculated to give success
to efforts intended to be mutually beneficial.
The wars of which the southern part of this continent
was so long the theater, and which were carried on
either by the mother country against the States which
had formerly been her colonies or by the States against
each other, having terminated, and their civil dissensions
having so far subsided as with few exceptions no longer
to disturb the public tranquility, it is earnestly hoped
those States will be able to employ themselves without
interruption in perfecting their institutions, cultivating
the arts of peace, and promoting by wise councils and
able exertions the public and private prosperity which
their patriotic struggles so well entitle them to enjoy.
With those States our relations have undergone
but little change during the present year.
No reunion having yet taken place between the
States which composed the Republic of Colombia,
our chargé d’affaires at Bogota has been accredited
to the Government of New Grenada, and we have,
therefore, no diplomatic relations with Venezuela and
Ecuador, except as they may be included in those
heretofore formed with the Colombian Republic.
It is understood that representatives from the three
states were about to assemble at Bogota to confer on
the subject of their mutual interests, particularly that of
their union, and if the result should render it necessary,
measures will be taken on our part to preserve with each
that friendship and those liberal commercial connections
which it has been the constant desire of the United States
to cultivate with their sister Republics of this hemisphere.
Until the important question of reunion shall be settled,
however, the different matters which have been under
discussion between the United States and the Republic
of Colombia, or either of the States which composed it,
are not likely to be brought to a satisfactory issue.
In consequence of the illness of the chargé d’affaires
appointed to Central America at the last session
of Congress, he was prevented from proceeding
on his mission until the month of October.
It is hoped, however, that he is by this time at his post,
and that the official intercourse, unfortunately so long
interrupted, has been thus renewed on the part of
the two nations so amicably and advantageously
connected by engagements founded on the most
enlarged principles of commercial reciprocity.
It is gratifying to state that since my last annual
message some of the most important claims of our
fellow citizens upon the Government of Brazil have
been satisfactorily adjusted, and a reliance is
placed on the friendly dispositions manifested
by it that justice will also be done in others.
No new causes of complaint have arisen,
and the trade between the two countries
flourishes under the encouragement secured
to it by the liberal provisions of the treaty.
It is cause of regret that, owing, probably, to the
civil dissensions which have occupied the attention
of the Mexican Government, the time fixed by the treaty
of limits with the United States for the meeting of the
commissioners to define the boundaries between the two
nations has been suffered to expire without the appointment
of any commissioners on the part of that Government.
While the true boundary remains in doubt by either
party it is difficult to give effect to those measures
which are necessary to the protection and quiet of
our numerous citizens residing near that frontier.
The subject is one of great solicitude to the United States,
and will not fail to receive my earnest attention.
The treaty concluded with Chile and approved
by the Senate at its last session was also ratified
by the Chilean Government, but with certain
additional and explanatory articles of a nature to
have required it to be again submitted to the Senate.
The time limited for the exchange of the ratification,
however, having since expired, the action of both
Governments on the treaty will again become necessary.
The negotiations commenced with the Argentine
Republic relative to the outrages committed on our
vessels engaged in the fisheries at the Falkland Islands
by persons acting under the color of its authority,
as well as the other matters in controversy between the
two Governments, have been suspended by the departure
of the Chilean of the United States from Buenos Aires.
It is understood, however, that a minister was
subsequently appointed by that Government to
renew the negotiation in the United States, but though
daily expected, he has not yet arrived in this country.
With Peru no treaty has yet been formed, and with
Bolivia no diplomatic intercourse has yet been established.
It will be my endeavor to encourage those sentiments
of amity and that liberal commerce which belong
to the relations in which all the independent States
of this continent stand toward each other.
I deem it proper to recommend to your
notice the revision of our consular system.
This has become an important branch of the
public service, in as much as it is intimately
connected with the preservation of our national
character abroad, with the interest of our citizens
in foreign countries, with the regulation and care of
our commerce, and with the protection of our seamen.
At the close of the last session of Congress I communicated
a report from the Secretary of State upon the subject,
to which I now refer, as containing information which may
be useful in any inquiries that Congress may see fit to
institute with a view to a salutary reform of the system.
It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon
the prosperous condition of the finances of the country,
as will appear from the report which the Secretary
of the Treasury will in due time lay before you.
The receipts into the Treasury during the present
year will amount to more than $32,000,000.
The revenue derived from customs will,
it is believed, be more than $28,000,000,
and the public lands will yield about $3,0900,000.
The expenditures within the year for all objects,
including $2,572,240.99 on account of the public debt,
will not amount to $25,000,000, and a large
balance will remain in the Treasury after
satisfying all the appropriations chargeable
on the revenue for the present year.
The measures taken by the Secretary of the
Treasury will probably enable us to pay off in
the course of the present year the residue of the
exchanged 4.5% stock, redeemable on 1834-01-01.
It has therefore been included in the estimated expenditures
of this year, and forms a part of the sum above stated
to have been paid on account of the public debt.
The payment of this stock will reduce the whole debt
of the United States, funded and unfunded, to the sum
of $4,760,082.08, and as provision has already been
made for the 4.5% stocks above mentioned, and
charged in the expenses of the present year, the sum
last stated is all that now remains of the national debt;
and the revenue of the coming year, together with the
balance now in the Treasury, will be sufficient to discharge
it, after meeting the current expenses of the Government.
Under the power given to the commissioners of the
sinking fund, it will, I have no doubt, be purchased
on favorable terms within the year.
From this view of the state of the finances and
the public engagements yet to be fulfilled you will
perceive that if Providence permits me to meet you
at another session I shall have the high gratification of
announcing to you that the national debt is extinguished.
I cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure I feel
at the near approach of that desirable event.
The short period of time within which the
public debt will have been discharged is strong
evidence of the abundant resources of the country
and of the prudence and economy with which the
Government has heretofore been administered.
We have waged two wars since we became a nation,
with one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world,
both of them undertaken in defense of our dearest rights,
been successfully prosecuted and honorably terminated;
and many of those who partook in the first struggle
as well as in the second will have lived to see the
last item of the debt incurred in these necessary but
expensive conflicts faithfully and honestly discharged.
And we shall have the proud satisfaction of bequeathing
to the public servants who follow us in the administration
of the Government the rare blessing of a revenue
sufficiently abundant, raised without injustice or oppression
to our citizens, and unencumbered with any burdens but
what they themselves shall think proper to impose upon it.
The flourishing state of the finances ought not,
however, to encourage us to indulge in a
lavish expenditure of the public treasure.
The receipts of the present year do not furnish the test
by which we are to estimate the income of the next.
The changes made in our revenue system by the acts
of Congress of 1832 and 1833, and more especially
by the former, have swelled the receipts of the
present year far beyond the amount to be expected
in future years upon the reduced tariff of duties.
The shortened credits on revenue bonds and the cash
duties on woolens which were introduced by the act of 1832,
and took effect on 1832-03-04, have brought large sums
into the Treasury in 1833, which, according to the credits
formerly given, would not have been payable until 1834,
and would have formed a part of the income of that year.
These causes would of themselves produce a great
diminution of the receipts in the year 1834 as compared
with the present one, and they will be still more
diminished by the reduced rates of duties which
take place on 1834-01-01 on some of the most
important and productive articles.
Upon the best estimates that can be made the receipts
of the next year, with the aid of the unappropriated amount
now in the Treasury, will not be much more than sufficient
to meet the expenses of the year and pay the small
remnant of the national debt which yet remains unsatisfied.
I cannot, therefore, recommend to you
any alteration in the present tariff of duties.
The rate as now fixed by law on the various articles
was adopted at the last session of Congress, as a
matter of compromise, with unusual unanimity,
and unless it is found to produce more than the
necessities of the Government call for there would
seem to be no reason at this time to justify a change.
But while I forbear to recommend any further reduction
of the duties beyond that already provided for by the
existing laws, I must earnestly and respectfully press
upon Congress the importance of abstaining from
all appropriations which are not absolutely required
for the public interest and authorized by the
powers clearly delegated to the United States.
We are beginning a new era in our Government.
The national debt, which has so long been
a burden on the Treasury, will be finally
discharged in the course of the ensuing year.
No more memory will afterwards be needed
than what may be necessary to meet the
ordinary expenses of the Government.
Now, then, is the proper moment to fix our system
of expenditure on firm and durable principles,
and I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of
a rigid economy and an inflexible determination
not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities
of the Government and not to increase the wants of the
Government by unnecessary and profuse expenditures.
If a contrary course should be pursued, it may happen
that the revenue of 1834 will fall short of the demands
upon it, and after reducing the tariff in order to lighten
the burdens of the people, and providing for a still further
reduction to take effect hereafter, it would be much to
be deplored if at the end of another year we should find
ourselves obliged to retrace our steps and impose
additional taxes to meet unnecessary expenditures.
It is my duty on this occasion to call your attention
to the destruction of the public building occupied by
the Treasury Department, which happened
since the last adjournment of Congress.
A thorough inquiry into the causes of this loss
was directed and made at the time, the result
of which will be duly communicated to you.
I take pleasure, however, in stating here that by the
laudable exertions of the officers of the Department and
many of the citizens of the District but few papers were lost,
and none that will materially affect the public interest.
The public convenience requires that another
building should be erected as soon as practicable,
and in providing for it will be advisable to enlarge
in some manner the accommodations for the
public officers of the several Departments,
and to authorize the erection of suitable depositories
for the safe-keeping of the public documents and records.
Since the last adjournment of Congress the
Secretary of the Treasury has directed the money
of the United States to be deposited in certain State
banks designated by him, and he will immediately
lay before you his reasons for this direction.
I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken on
the subject, and some months before the removal I urged
upon the Department the propriety of taking that step.
The near approach of the day on which the charger
will expire, as well as the conduct of the bank,
appeared to me to call for this measure upon the
high considerations of public interest and public duty.
The extent of its misconduct, however, although known
to be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof.
It was not until late in the month of August that I received
from the Government directors an official report establishing
beyond question that this great and powerful institution
had been actively engaged in attempting to influence the
elections of the public officers by means of its money,
and that, in violation of the express provisions of its charter,
it had by a formal resolution placed its funds at the
disposition of its president to be employed in
sustaining the political power of the bank.
A copy of this resolution is contained in the report of the
Government directors before referred to, and how ever
the object may be disguised by cautious language,
no one can doubt that this money was in truth
intended for electioneering purposes, and the
particular uses to which it was proved to have been
applied abundantly show that it was so understood.
Not only was the evidence complete as to the
past application of the money and power of the
bank to electioneering purposes, but that the
resolution of the board of directors authorized
the same course to be pursued in future.
It being thus established by unquestionable proof that
the Bank of the United States was converted into a
permanent electioneering engine, it appeared to me
that the path of duty which the executive department
of the Government ought to pursue was not doubtful.
As by the terms of the bank charter no officer but the
Secretary of the Treasury could remove the deposits,
it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at once
exerted to deprive that great corporation of the support
and countenance of the Government in such a use
of its funds and such an exertion of its power.
In this point of the case the question is distinctly
presented whether the people of the United States
are to govern through representatives chosen by
their unbiased suffrages, or whether the money and
power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted
to influence their judgment and control their decisions.
It must now be determined whether the bank is to have
its candidates for all offices in the country, from the
highest to the lowest, or whether candidates on both
sides of political questions shall be brought forward
as heretofore and supported by the usual means.
At this time the efforts of the bank to control
public opinion through the distresses of some
and the fears of others, are equally apparent,
and, if possible, more objectionable.
By a curtailment of its accommodations more rapid
than any emergency requires, and even while
it retains specie to an almost unprecedented amount
in its vaults, it is attempting to produce great
embarrassment in one portion of the community, while
through presses known to have been sustained by its money
it attempts by unfounded alarms to create a panic in all.
These are the means by which it seems to expect that
it can force a restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary
consequence extort from Congress a renewal of its charter.
I am happy to know that through the good sense of our
people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed,
and that through the increased accommodations which the
State banks have been enabled to afford, no public distress
has followed the exertions of the bank, and it cannot be
doubted that the exercise of its power and the expenditure
of its money, as well as its efforts to spread groundless
alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve.
In my own sphere of duty I should feel myself called on
by the facts disclosed to order a scire facias against the
bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered rights
it has so palpably violated, were it not that the charter
itself will expire as soon as a decision would probably
be obtained from the court of last resort.
I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my
last annual message, and informed them that such
measures as were within the reach of the Secretary
of the Treasury had been taken to enable him to judge
whether the public deposits in the Bank of the United States
were entirely safe; but that as his single powers might
be inadequate to the object, I recommended the subject
to Congress as worthy of their serious investigation,
declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry into the
transactions of that institution, embracing the
branches as well as the principal bank, was called for
by the credit which was given throughout the country
to many serious charges impeaching their character,
and which, if true, might justly excite the apprehension that
they were no longer a safe depository for the public money.
The extent to which the examination thus recommended
was gone into is spread upon your journals,
and is too well known to require to be stated.
Such as was made resulted in a report from a
majority of the Committee of Ways and Means
touching certain specified points only, concluding
with a resolution that the Government deposits might
safely be continued in the Bank of the United States.
This resolution was adopted at the close of the session by
the vote of a majority of the House of Representatives.
Although I may not always be able to concur in the views
of the public interest or the duties of its agents which may
be taken by the other departments of the Government
or either of its branches, I am, not withstanding, wholly
incapable of receiving otherwise than with the most
sincere respect all opinions or suggestions proceeding
from such a source, and in respect to none am I more
inclined to do so than to the House of Representatives.
But it will be seen from the brief views at this time
taken of the subject by myself, as well as the more
ample ones presented by the Secretary of the Treasury,
that the change in the deposits which has been ordered
has been deemed to be called for by considerations
which are not affected by the proceedings referred to,
and which, if correctly viewed by that Department,
rendered its act a matter of imperious duty.
Coming as you do, for the most part, immediately
from the people and the States by election, and
possessing the fullest opportunity to know their
sentiments, the present Congress will be sincerely
solicitous to carry into full and fair effect the will
of their constituents in regard to this institution.
It will be for those in whose behalf we all act
to decide whether the executive department of
the Government, in the steps which it has taken
on this subject, has been found in the line of its duty.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of War,
with the documents annexed to it, exhibits the operations
of the War Department for the past year and the condition
of the various subjects entrusted to its administration.
It will be seen from them that the Army
maintains the character it has heretofore
acquired for efficiency and military knowledge.
Nothing has occurred since your last session to
require its services beyond the ordinary routine
duties which upon the sea-board and the in-land
frontier devolve upon it in a time of peace.
The system so wisely adopted and so long pursued of
constructing fortifications at exposed points and of
preparing and collecting the supplies necessary for the
military defense of the country, and thus providently
furnishing in peace the means of defense in war,
has been continued with the usual results.
I recommend to your consideration the various subjects
suggested in the report of the Secretary of War.
Their adoption would promote the public service
and meliorate the condition of the Army.
Our relations with the various Indian tribes have been
undisturbed since the termination of the difficulties growing
out of the hostile aggressions of the Sac and Fox Indians.
Several treaties have been formed for the relinquishment
of territory to the United States and for the migration
of the occupants of the region assigned for their
residence West of the Mississippi.
Should these treaties be ratified by the Senate,
provision will have been made for the removal of
almost all the tribes remaining East of that river
and for the termination of many difficult and embarrassing
questions arising out of their anomalous political condition.
It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the
Southern tribes, which in that event will present the
only remaining difficulties, will realize the necessity
of emigration, and will speedily resort to it.
My original convictions upon this subject have been
confirmed by the course of events for several years,
and experience is every day adding to their strength.
That those tribes cannot exist surrounded by our settlements
and in continual contact with our citizens is certain.
They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral
habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential
to any favorable change in their condition.
Established in the midst of another and a superior race,
and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority
or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield
to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.
Such has been their fate heretofore, and if it is to be
averted— and it is— it can only be done by a general
removal beyond our boundary and by the reorganization
of their political system upon principles adapted to
the new relations in which they will be placed.
The experiment which has been recently made
has so far proved successful.
The emigrants generally are represented to be
prosperous and contented, the country suitable
to their wants and habits, and the essential
articles of subsistence easily procured.
When the report of the commissioners now engaged in
investigating the condition and prospects of these Indians
and in devising a plan for their intercourse and government
is received, I trust ample means of information will be
in possession of the Government for adjusting all the
unsettled questions connected with this interesting subject.
The operations of the Navy during the year
and its present condition are fully exhibited
in the annual report from the Navy Department.
Suggestions are made by the Secretary of various
improvements, which deserve careful consideration,
and most of which, if adopted, bid fair to promote the
efficiency of this important branch of the public service.
Among these are the new organization of the Navy Board,
the revision of the pay to officers, and a change
in the period of time or in the manner of
making the annual appropriations, to which
I beg leave to call your particular attention.
The views which are presented on almost every portion
of our naval concerns, and especially on the amount of
force and the number of officers, and the general course
of policy appropriate in the present state of our country
for securing the great and useful purposes of naval
protection in peace and due preparation for the
contingencies of war, meet with my entire approbation.
It will be perceived from the report referred to that
the fiscal concerns of the establishment are in an
excellent condition, and it is hoped that Congress may
feel disposed to make promptly every suitable provision
desired either for preserving or improving the system.
The general Post Office Department has continued
upon the strength of its own resources to facilitate
the means of communication between the various
portions of the Union with increased activity.
The method, however, in which the accounts of the
transportation of the mail have always been kept appears
to have presented an imperfect view of its expenses.
It has recently been discovered that from the earliest
records of the Department the annual statements have
been calculated to exhibit an amount considerably
short of the actual expense incurred for that service.
These illusory statements, together with the expense of
carrying into effect the law of the last session of Congress
establishing new mail routes, and a disposition on the part
of the head of the Department to gratify the wishes of the
public in the extension of mail facilities, have induced him
to incur responsibilities for their improvement beyond what
the current resources of the Department would sustain.
As soon as he had discovered the imperfection of the
method he caused an investigation to be made of its
results and applied the proper remedy to correct the evil.
It became necessary for him to withdraw some of the
improvements which he had made to bring the expenses
of the Department within its own resources.
These expenses were incurred for the public good,
and the public have enjoyed their benefit.
They are now but partially suspended,
and that where they may be discontinued
with the least inconvenience to the country.
The progressive increase in the income from
postage has equaled the highest expectations,
and it affords demonstrative evidence of the growing
importance and great utility of this Department.
The details are exhibited in the accompanying
report of the Postmaster-General.
The many distressing accidents which have of late
occurred in that portion of our navigation carried on by the
use of steam power deserve the immediate and unremitting
attention of the constituted authorities of the country.
The fact that the number of those fatal disasters
is constantly increasing, notwithstanding the great
improvements which are everywhere made in the
machinery employed and in the rapid advances
which have been made in that branch of science,
shows very clearly that they are in a great degree
the result of criminal negligence on the part of those
by whom the vessels are navigated and to whose
care and attention the lives and property
of our citizens are so extensively entrusted.
That these evils may be greatly lessened,
if not substantially removed, by means of precautionary
and penal legislation seems to be highly probable.
So far, therefore, as the subject can be regarded as
within the constitutional purview of Congress I earnestly
recommend it to your prompt and serious consideration.
I would also call your attention to the views I have
heretofore expressed of the propriety of amending the
Constitution in relation to the mode of electing the
President and the Vice-President of the United States.
Regarding it as all important to the future quiet and harmony
of the people that every intermediate agency in the election
of these officers should be removed and that their eligibility
should be limited to one term of either 4 or 6 years, I cannot
too earnestly invite your consideration of the subject.
Trusting that your deliberations on all the topics of
general interest to which I have adverted, and such
others as your more extensive knowledge of the
wants of our beloved country may suggest, may be
crowned with success, I tender you in conclusion the
cooperation which it may be in my power to afford them.5
In foreign policy President Jackson adhered to his slogan
to seek only what is right and not to submit to anything that is wrong.
He described efforts to get the French to pay
the U. S. its debt from the Napoleonic Wars.
He hoped that his appointment of Edward Livingston
as the American minister to France would speed things along.
He reported that taxes, customs, and sale of public lands had increased
revenues to over $32 million, and with expenditures of $25 million they reduced
the national debt to $4,760,082 which he hoped would be eliminated in 1834.
In a new era without debt he urged the economic appropriation of funds.
He criticized the U. S. Bank for using its money for “electioneering”
and for the distress caused by its reducing its loans
while it retained unprecedented hard money.
Again he asked to eliminate the Electoral College so that the election of the President
would be more democratic, and he suggested a single term of four or six years.
The next day he explained his veto of the land bill because he believed it would
keep
land prices too high and because like Jefferson he opposed selling public land for revenue.
President Jackson sent this long “Veto Message”
to the United States Senate on 4 December 1833:
At the close of the last session of Congress I received
from that body a bill entitled “An act to appropriate for a
limited time the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of
the United States and for granting lands to certain States.”
The brief period then remaining before the rising
of Congress and the extreme pressure of official
duties unavoidable on such occasions did not leave
me sufficient time for that full consideration of the
subject which was due to its great importance.
Subsequent consideration and reflection have, however,
confirmed the objections to the bill which presented
themselves to my mind upon its first perusal, and
have satisfied me that it ought not to become a law.
I felt myself, therefore, constrained to withhold from it
my approval, and now return it to the Senate, in which it
originated, with the reasons on which my dissent is founded.
I am fully sensible of the importance, as it respects both
the harmony and union of the States, of making, as soon as
circumstances will allow of it, a proper and final disposition
of the whole subject of the public lands, and any measure
for that object providing for the reimbursement to the
United States of those expenses with which they are
justly chargeable that may be consistent with my views
of the Constitution, sound policy, and the rights of the
respective States will readily receive my cooperation.
This bill, however, is not of that character.
The arrangement it contemplates is not permanent,
but limited to five years only, and in its terms
appears to anticipate alterations within that time,
at the discretion of Congress; and it furnishes no
adequate security against those continued agitations of
the subject which it should be the principal object of any
measure for the disposition of the public lands to avert.
Neither the merits of the bill under consideration
nor the validity of the objections which I have felt it
to be my duty to make to its passage can be correctly
appreciated without a full understanding of the manner
in which the public lands upon which it is intended
to operate were acquired and the conditions upon
which they are now held by the United States.
I will therefore precede the statement of those objections
by a brief but distinct exposition of these points.
The waste lands within the United States constituted
one of the early obstacles to the organization of any
government for the protection of their common interests.
In October 1777 while Congress were framing the
Articles of Confederation, a proposition was made
to amend them to the following effect, viz:
That the United States in Congress assembled shall
have the sole and exclusive right and power to ascertain
and fix the western boundary of such States as claim
to the Mississippi or South Sea, and lay out the land
beyond the boundary so ascertained into separate and
independent States from time to time as the numbers
and circumstances of the people thereof may require.
It was, however, rejected, Maryland only voting for it,
and so difficult did the subject appear that the patriots
of that body agreed to waive it in the Articles of
Confederation and leave it for future settlement.
On the submission of the Articles to the several State
legislatures for ratification the most formidable objection
was found to be in this subject of the waste lands.
Maryland, Rhode Island, and New Jersey instructed
their delegates in Congress to move amendments
to them providing that the waste or Crown lands
should be considered the common property of
the United States, but they were rejected.
All the States except Maryland acceded to the Articles,
notwithstanding some of them did so with the
reservation that their claim to those lands as
common property was not thereby abandoned.
On the sole ground that no declaration to that effect
was contained in the Articles, Maryland withheld her
assent, and in May 1779 embodied her objections
in the form of instructions to her delegates, which
were entered upon the Journals of Congress.
The following extracts are from that document, viz:
Is it possible that those States who are ambitiously
grasping at territories to which in our judgment they
have not the least shadow of exclusive right will use
with greater moderation the increase of wealth and power
derived from those territories when acquired than what
they have displayed in their endeavors to acquire them?
We are convinced policy and justice require that a
country unsettled at the commencement of this war,
claimed by the British Crown and ceded to it by the
treaty of Paris, if wrested from the common enemy
by the blood and treasure of the thirteen States,
should be considered as a common property, subject
to be parceled out by Congress into free, convenient,
and independent governments, in such manner and at such
times as the wisdom of that assembly shall hereafter direct.
Virginia proceeded to open a land office for the sale
of her Western lands, which produced such excitement
as to induce Congress in October 1779 to interpose and
earnestly recommend to “the said State and all States
similarly circumstanced to forbear settling or issuing
warrants for such unappropriated lands, or granting
the same, during the continuance of the present war.”
In March 1780 the legislature of New York passed
an act tendering a cession to the United States of the
claims of that State to the Western territory, preceded
by a preamble to the following effect, viz:
Whereas nothing under Divine Providence can more
effectually contribute to the tranquility and safety of the
United States of America than a federal alliance on such
liberal principles as will give satisfaction to its respective
members; and whereas the Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union recommended by the honorable Congress
of the United States of America have not proved acceptable
to all the States, it having been conceived that a portion
of the waste and uncultivated territory within the limits
or claims of certain States ought to be appropriated as a
common fund for the expenses of the war, and the people
of the State of New York being on all occasions disposed
to manifest their regard for their sister States and their
earnest desire to promote the general interest and security,
and more especially to accelerate the federal alliance,
by removing as far as it depends upon them the
before-mentioned impediment to its final accomplishment.
This act of New York, the instructions of Maryland,
and a remonstrance of Virginia were referred to a
committee of Congress, who reported a preamble and
resolutions thereon, which were adopted on the 6th
September 1780; so much of which as is necessary
to elucidate the subject is to the following effect, viz:
That it appears advisable to press upon those States
which can remove the embarrassments respecting the
Western country a liberal surrender of a portion of their
territorial claims, since they cannot be preserved entire
without endangering the stability of the General
Confederacy; to remind them how indispensably necessary
it is to establish the Federal Union on a fixed and permanent
basis and on principles acceptable to all its respective
members; how essential to public credit and confidence,
to the support of our Army, to the vigor of our counsels
and success of our measures, to our tranquility at home,
our reputation abroad, to our very existence as a free,
sovereign, and independent people; that they are fully
persuaded the wisdom of the several legislatures will
lead them to a full and impartial consideration of a
subject so interesting to the United States, and so
necessary to the happy establishment of the Federal Union;
that they are confirmed in these expectations by a review
of the before-mentioned act of the legislature of New York,
submitted to their consideration.
Resolved, That copies of the several papers referred to
the committee be transmitted, with a copy of the report,
to the legislatures of the several States, and that it be
earnestly recommended to those States who have claims
to the Western country to pass such laws and give their
delegates in Congress such powers as may effectually
remove the only obstacle to a final ratification of the
Articles of Confederation, and that the legislature of
Maryland be earnestly requested to authorize their
delegates in Congress to subscribe the said Articles.
Following up this policy, Congress proceeded, on the
10th October 1780 to pass a resolution pledging the
United States to the several States as to the manner in
which any lands that might be ceded by them should be
disposed of, the material parts of which are as follows, viz:
Resolved, That the unappropriated lands which may be
ceded or relinquished to the United States by any particular
State pursuant to the recommendation of Congress of the
6th day of September last shall be disposed of for the
common benefit of the United States and be settled and
formed into distinct republican States, which shall become
members of the Federal Union and have the same rights
of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other
States; that the said lands shall be granted or settled at
such times and under such regulations as shall hereafter
be agreed on by the United States in Congress
assembled, or nine or more of them.
In February, 1781, the legislature of Maryland
passed an act authorizing their delegates in
Congress to sign the Articles of Confederation.
The following are extracts from the preamble
and body of the act, viz:
Whereas it has been said that the common enemy is
encouraged by this State not acceding to the Confederation
to hope that the union of the sister States may be dissolved,
and therefore prosecutes the war in expectation of an event
so disgraceful to America, and our friends and illustrious ally
are impressed with an idea that the common cause would
be promoted by our formally acceding to the Confederation.
The act of which this is the preamble authorizes the
delegates of that State to sign the Articles, and proceeds
to declare “that by acceding to the said Confederation this
State does not relinquish, nor intend to relinquish,
any right or interest she has with the other united
or confederated States to the back country,” etc.
On the 1st of March 1781 the delegates of Maryland
signed the Articles of Confederation, and the
Federal Union under that compact was complete.
The conflicting claims to the Western lands,
however, were not disposed of, and continued
to give great trouble to Congress.
Repeated and urgent calls were made by Congress upon
the States claiming them to make liberal cessions to the
United States, and it was not until long after the present
Constitution was formed that the grants were completed.
The deed of cession from New York was executed
on the 1st of March 1781, the day the Articles of
Confederation were ratified, and it was accepted
by Congress on the 29th October 1782.
One of the conditions of this cession thus tendered
and accepted was that the lands ceded to the
United States “shall be and inure for the use and
benefit of such of the United States as shall become
members of the federal alliance of the said States,
and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.”
The Virginia deed of cession was executed
and accepted on the 1st day of March 1784.
One of the conditions of this cession is as follows, viz:
That all the lands within the territory as ceded to the
United States, and not reserved for or appropriated to any
of the before-mentioned purposes or disposed of in bounties
to the officers and soldiers of the American Army, shall be
considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of
such of the United States as have become or shall become
members of the confederation or federal alliance of the said
States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective
proportions in the general charge and expenditure,
and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that
purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.
Within the years 1785, 1786, and 1787
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina
ceded their claims upon similar conditions.
The Federal Government went into operation under
the existing Constitution on the 4th of March, 1789.
The following is the only provision of that Constitution which
has a direct bearing on the subject of the public lands, viz:
The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or
other property belonging to the United States, and nothing
in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice
any claims of the United States or of any particular State.
Thus the Constitution left all the compacts before
made in full force, and the rights of all parties
remained the same under the new Government
as they were under the Confederation.
The deed of cession of North Carolina was
executed in December 1789 and accepted
by an act of Congress approved April 2, 1790.
The third condition of this cession
was in the following words, viz:
That all the lands intended to be ceded by virtue of this
act to the United States of America, and not appropriated
as before mentioned, shall be considered as a common
fund for the use and benefit of the United States of America,
North Carolina inclusive, according to their respective and
usual proportions of the general charge and expenditure,
and shall be faithfully disposed of for that purpose,
and for no other use or purpose whatever.
The cession of Georgia was completed on the
16th June 1802, and in its leading condition is
precisely like that of Virginia and North Carolina.
This grant completed the title of the United States
to all those lands generally called public lands
lying within the original limits of the Confederacy.
Those which have been acquired by the purchase of
Louisiana and Florida, having been paid for out of the
common treasure of the United States, are as much the
property of the General Government, to be disposed of for
the common benefit, as those ceded by the several States.
By the facts here collected from the early history of
our Republic it appears that the subject of the public
lands entered into the elements of its institutions.
It was only upon the condition that those lands should
be considered as common property, to be disposed of
for the benefit of the United States, that some of the
States agreed to come into a “perpetual union.”
The States claiming those lands acceded to
those views and transferred their claims to the
United States upon certain specific conditions,
and on those conditions the grants were accepted.
These solemn compacts, invited by Congress in
a resolution declaring the purposes to which the
proceeds of these lands should be applied,
originating before the Constitution and forming
the basis on which it was made, bound the United States
to a particular course of policy in relation to them by ties
as strong as can be invented to secure the faith of nations.
As early as May 1785, Congress in execution of these
compacts, passed an ordinance providing for the sales
of lands in the Western territory and directing the
proceeds to be paid into the Treasury of the United States.
With the same object other ordinances were adopted
prior to the organization of the present Government,
In further execution of these compacts the Congress
of the United States under the present Constitution,
as early as the 4th of August 1790, in “An act
making provision for the debt of the United States,”
enacted as follows, viz:
That the proceeds of sales which shall be made of lands
in the Western territory now belonging or that may
hereafter belong to the United States shall be and are
hereby appropriated toward sinking or discharging the
debts for the payment whereof the United States now are
or by virtue of this act may beholden, and shall be applied
solely to that use until the said debt shall be fully satisfied.
To secure to the Government of the United States forever
the power to execute these compacts in good faith the
Congress of the Confederation, as early as July 13, 1787
in an ordinance for the government of the territory
of the United States northwest of the river Ohio,
prescribed to the people inhabiting the Western
territory certain conditions which were declared to be
“articles of compact between the original States and
the people and States in the said territory,” which should
“forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent.”
In one of these articles it is declared that—
The legislatures of those districts or new States shall
never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by
the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any
regulations Congress may find necessary for securing
the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers.
This condition has been exacted from the people
of all the new territories, and to put its obligation
beyond dispute each new State carved out of the public
domain has been required explicitly to recognize it as one
of the conditions of admission into the Union.
Some of them have declared through their conventions
in separate acts that their people “forever disclaim all right
and title to the waste and unappropriated lands lying within
this State, and that the same shall be and remain at the
sole and entire disposition of the United States.”
With such care have the United States reserved to
themselves, in all their acts down to this day,
in legislating for the Territories and admitting States into
the Union, the unshackled power to execute in good faith
the compacts of cession made with the original States.
From these facts and proceedings
it plainly and certainly results—
1. That one of the fundamental principles on which
the Confederation of the United States was originally
based was that the waste lands of the West within their
limits should be the common property of the United States.
2. That those lands were ceded to the United States
by the States which claimed them, and the cessions
were accepted on the express condition that they
should be disposed of for the common benefit of
the States, according to their respective proportions
in the general charge and expenditure,
and for no other purpose whatsoever.
3. That in execution of these solemn compacts the
Congress of the United States did, under the Confederation,
proceed to sell these lands and put the avails into the
common Treasury, and under the new Constitution did
repeatedly pledge them for the payment of the public debt
of the United States, by which pledge each State was
expected to profit in proportion to the general charge
to be made upon it for that object.
These are the first principles of this whole subject,
which I think cannot be contested by anyone who
examines the proceedings of the Revolutionary Congress,
the cessions of the several States,
and the acts of Congress under the new Constitution.
Keeping them deeply impressed upon the mind, let us
proceed to examine how far the objects of the cessions
have been completed, and see whether those compacts
are not still obligatory upon the United States.
The debt for which these lands were pledged by
Congress may be considered as paid,
and they are consequently released from that lien.
But that pledge formed no part of the compacts
with the States, or of the conditions
upon which the cessions were made.
It was a contract between new parties—
between the United States and their creditors.
Upon payment of the debt the compacts remain
in full force, and the obligation of the United States
to dispose of the lands for the common benefit
is neither destroyed nor impaired.
As they cannot now be executed in that mode,
the only legitimate question which can arise is,
In what other way are these lands to be hereafter
disposed of for the common benefit of the several States,
“according to their respective and usual proportion
in the general charge and expenditure?”
The cessions of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia
in express terms, and all the rest impliedly, not only
provide thus specifically the proportion according to
which each State shall profit by the proceeds of the
land sales, but they proceed to declare that they
shall be “faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that
purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.”
This is the fundamental law of the land at this moment,
growing out of compacts which are older than the
Constitution, and formed the corner stone
on which the Union itself was erected.
In the practice of the Government the proceeds
of the public lands have not been set apart as a
separate fund for the payment of the public debt,
but have been and are now paid into the Treasury,
where they constitute a part of the aggregate of
revenue upon which the Government draws as well for
its current expenditures as for payment of the public debt.
In this manner they have heretofore and do now
lessen the general charge upon the people of the several
States in the exact proportions stipulated in the compacts.
These general charges have been composed not only of
the public debt and the usual expenditures attending the
civil and military administrations of the Government,
but of the amounts paid to the States with which these
compacts were formed, the amounts paid the Indians
for their right of possession, the amounts paid for the
purchase of Louisiana and Florida, and the amounts paid
surveyors, registers, receivers, clerks, etc., employed in
preparing for market and selling the Western domain.
From the origin of the land system down to the
30th September 1832, the amount expended for all
these purposes has been about $49,701,280,
and the amount received from the sales, deducting
payments on account of roads, etc., about $38,386,624.
The revenue arising from the public lands,
therefore, has not been sufficient to meet
the general charges on the Treasury which
have grown out of them by about $11,314,656.
Yet in having been applied to lessen those charges
the conditions of the compacts have been thus far fulfilled,
and each State has profited according to its usual
proportion in the general charge and expenditure.
The annual proceeds of land sales have increased
and the charges have diminished, so that at a
reduced price those lands would now defray all
current charges growing out of them and save
the Treasury from further advances on their account.
Their original intent and object, therefore, would be
accomplished as fully as it has hitherto been by
reducing the price and hereafter, as heretofore,
bringing the proceeds into the Treasury.
Indeed, as this is the only mode in which the objects of the
original compact can be attained, it may be considered for
all practical purposes that it is one of their requirements.
The bill before me begins with an entire
subversion of every one of the compacts by
which the United States became possessed of
their Western domain, and treats the subject
as if they never had existence and as if the
United States were the original and unconditional
owners of all the public lands.
The first section directs—
That from and after the 31st day of December 1832,
there shall be allowed and paid to each of the States of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi,
and Louisiana, over and above what each of the said States
is entitled to by the terms of the compacts entered into
between them respectively upon their admission into the
Union and the United States, the sum of 12 1/2 percent
upon the net amount of the sales of the public lands which
subsequent to the day aforesaid shall be made within the
several limits of the said States, which said sum of 12 ½
percent shall be applied to some object or objects of
internal improvement or education within the said States
under the direction of their several legislatures.
This 12 1/2 per cent is to be taken out of the net
proceeds of the land sales before any apportionment is
made, and the same seven States which are first to receive
this proportion are also to receive their due proportion of
the residue according to the ratio of general distribution.
Now, waiving all considerations of equity or policy
in regard to this provision, what more need be said to
demonstrate its objectionable character than that it is
in direct and undisguised violation of the pledge given by
Congress to the States before a single cession was made,
that it abrogates the condition upon which some of the
States came into the Union, and that it sets at naught
the terms of cession spread upon the face of every
grant under which the title to that portion of the
public land is held by the Federal Government?
In the apportionment of the remaining seven-eighths
of the proceeds this bill, in a manner equally undisguised,
violates the conditions upon which the United States
acquired title to the ceded lands.
Abandoning altogether the ratio of distribution
according to the general charge and expenditure
provided by the compacts, it adopts that
of the Federal representative population.
Virginia and other States which ceded their lands upon
the express condition that they should receive a benefit
from their sales in proportion to their part of the
general charge are by the bill allowed only a portion
of seven-eighths of their proceeds, and that not in the
proportion of general charge and expenditure, but in
the ratio of their Federal representative population.
The Constitution of the United States did not delegate
to Congress the power to abrogate these compacts.
On the contrary, by declaring that nothing in it “shall be
so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States
or of any particular State,” it virtually provides that these
compacts and the rights they secure shall remain untouched
by the legislative power, which shall only make all
“needful rules and regulations” for carrying them into effect.
All beyond this would seem to be an
assumption of undelegated power.
These ancient compacts are invaluable monuments
of an age of virtue, patriotism, and disinterestedness.
They exhibit the price that great States which had won
liberty were willing to pay for that union without
which they plainly saw it could not be preserved.
It was not for territory or state power that our
Revolutionary fathers took up arms; it was for
individual liberty and the right of self-government.
The expulsion from the continent of British armies
and British power was to them a barren conquest
if through the collisions of the redeemed States the
individual rights for which they fought should become
the prey of petty military tyrannies established at home.
To avert such consequences and throw around liberty
the shield of union, States whose relative strength at the
time gave them a preponderating power magnanimously
sacrificed domains which would have made them the
rivals of empires, only stipulating that they should be
disposed of for the common benefit of themselves
and the other confederated States.
This enlightened policy produced union
and has secured liberty.
It has made our waste lands to swarm with a busy people
and added many powerful States to our Confederation.
As well for the fruits which these noble works
of our ancestors have produced as for the
devotedness in which they originated,
we should hesitate before we demolish them.
But there are other principles asserted in the bill
which would have impelled me to withhold my
signature had I not seen in it a violation of the
compacts by which the United States acquired
title to a large portion of the public lands.
It reasserts the principle contained in the bill
authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville,
Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Company,
from which I was compelled to withhold my consent
for reasons contained in my message of the
27th May 1830, to the House of Representatives.
The leading principle then asserted was that
Congress possesses no constitutional power to
appropriate any part of the moneys of the United States
for objects of a local character within the States.
That principle I cannot be mistaken in supposing
has received the unequivocal sanction of the
American people, and all subsequent reflection
has but satisfied me more thoroughly that the interests
of our people and the purity of our Government,
if not its existence, depend on its observance.
The public lands are the common property of the
United States, and the moneys arising from
their sales are a part of the public revenue.
This bill proposes to raise from and appropriate a portion
of this public revenue to certain States, providing expressly
that it shall “be applied to objects of internal improvement
or education within those States,” and then proceeds
to appropriate the balance to all the States, with the
declaration that it shall be applied “to such purposes as the
legislatures of the said respective States shall deem proper.”
The former appropriation is expressly for internal
improvements or education, without qualification
as to the kind of improvements, and therefore in
express violation of the principle maintained in my
objections to the turnpike-road bill above referred to.
The latter appropriation is more broad, and gives the
money to be applied to any local purpose whatsoever.
It will not be denied that under the provisions of the bill
a portion of the money might have been applied to making
the very road to which the bill of 1830 had reference, and
must of course come within the scope of the same principle.
If the money of the United States cannot be
applied to local purposes through its own agents,
as little can it be permitted to be thus expended
through the agency of the State governments.
It has been supposed that with all the reductions in our
revenue which could be speedily effected by Congress
without injury to the substantial interests of the country
there might be for some years to come a surplus of moneys
in the Treasury, and that there was in principle no objection
to returning them to the people by whom they were paid.
As the literal accomplishment of such an object is obviously
impracticable, it was thought admissible, as the nearest
approximation to it, to hand them over to the State
governments, the more immediate representatives
of the people, to be by them applied to the benefit
of those to whom they properly belonged.
The principle and the object were to return to the people
an unavoidable surplus of revenue which might have
been paid by them under a system which could not
at once be abandoned, but even this resource,
which at one time seemed to be almost the only
alternative to save the General Government from
grasping unlimited power over internal improvements,
was suggested with doubts of its constitutionality.
But this bill assumes a new principle.
Its object is not to return to the people an unavoidable
surplus of revenue paid in by them, but to create
a surplus for distribution among the States.
It seizes the entire proceeds of one source of revenue
and sets them apart as a surplus, making it necessary
to raise the moneys for supporting the Government
and meeting the general charges from other sources.
It even throws the entire land system upon the
customs for its support, and makes the public
lands a perpetual charge upon the Treasury.
It does not return to the people moneys accidentally
or unavoidably paid by them to the Government, by
which they are not wanted, but compels the people to pay
moneys into the Treasury for the mere purpose of creating
a surplus for distribution to their State governments.
If this principle be once admitted, it is not difficult
to perceive to what consequences it may lead.
Already this bill, by throwing the land system on
the revenues from imports for support, virtually
distributes among the States a part of those revenues.
The proportion may be increased from time to time,
without any departure from the principle now asserted,
until the State governments shall derive all the funds
necessary for their support from the Treasury of the
United States, or, if a sufficient supply should be obtained
by some States and not by others, the deficient States
might complain; and to put an end to all further difficulty
Congress, without assuming any new principle, need go
but one step further and put the salaries of all the State
governors, judges, and other officers, with a sufficient
sum for other expenses, in their general appropriation bill.
It appears to me that a more direct
road to consolidation cannot be devised.
Money is power, and in that Government which
pays all the public officers of the States will
all political power be substantially concentrated.
The State governments, if governments they might be
called, would lose all their independence and dignity; the
economy which now distinguishes them would be converted
into a profusion, limited only by the extent of the supply.
Being the dependents of the General Government,
and looking to its Treasury as the source of all their
emoluments, the State officers, under whatever names
they might pass and by whatever forms their duties might
be prescribed, would in effect be the mere stipendiaries
and instruments of the central power.
I am quite sure that the intelligent people of our
several States will be satisfied on a little reflection
that it is neither wise nor safe to release the members
of their local legislatures from the responsibility of
levying the taxes necessary to support their State
governments and vest it in Congress, over most
of whose members they have no control.
They will not think it expedient that Congress shall be the
tax-gatherer and paymaster of all their State governments,
thus amalgamating all their officers into one mass
of common interest and common feeling.
It is too obvious that such a course would subvert our
well-balanced system of government, and ultimately deprive
us of all the blessings now derived from our happy Union.
However willing I might be that any unavoidable surplus
in the Treasury should be returned to the people through
their State governments, I cannot assent to the principle that
a surplus may be created for the purpose of distribution.
Viewing this bill as in effect assuming the right not only to
create a surplus for that purpose, but to divide the contents
of the Treasury among the States without limitation,
from whatever source they may be derived, and
asserting the power to raise and appropriate money
for the support of every State government and institution,
as well as for making every local improvement,
however trivial, I cannot give it my assent.
It is difficult to perceive what advantages would accrue
to the old States or the new from the system of distribution
which this bill proposes if it were otherwise unobjectionable.
It requires no argument to prove that if $3,000,000 a year,
or any other sum, shall be taken out of the Treasury by
this bill for distribution it must be replaced by the same sum
collected from the people through some other means.
The old States will receive annually a sum of money
from the Treasury, but they will pay in a larger sum,
together with the expenses of collection and distribution.
It is only their proportion of seven-eighths of the
proceeds of land sales which they are to receive,
but they must pay their due proportion of the whole.
Disguise it as we may, the bill proposes to them
a dead loss in the ratio of eight to seven,
in addition to expenses and other incidental losses.
This assertion is not the less true
because it may not at first be palpable.
Their receipts will be in large sums,
but their payments in small ones.
The governments of the States will receive seven dollars,
for which the people of the States will pay eight.
The large sums received will be palpable to the senses;
the small sums paid it requires thought to identify.
But a little consideration will satisfy the people
that the effect is the same as if seven hundred dollars
were given them from the public Treasury, for which
they were at the same time required to pay in taxes,
direct or indirect, eight hundred.
I deceive myself greatly if the new States would find their
interests promoted by such a system as this bill proposes.
Their true policy consists in the rapid settling and
improvement of the waste lands within their limits.
As a means of hastening those events, they have
long been looking to a reduction in the price of
public lands upon the final payment of the national debt.
The effect of the proposed system
would be to prevent that reduction.
It is true the bill reserves to Congress the power to
reduce the price, but the effect of its details as now
arranged would probably be forever to prevent its exercise.
With the just men who inhabit the new States
it is a sufficient reason to reject this system
that it is in violation of the fundamental laws
of the Republic and its Constitution.
But if it were a mere question of interest
or expediency they would still reject it.
They would not sell their bright prospect of increasing
wealth and growing power at such a price.
They would not place a sum of money to be paid
into their treasuries in competition with the settlement
of their waste lands and the increase of their population.
They would not consider a small or a large annual sum
to be paid to their governments and immediately
expended as an equivalent for that enduring wealth which
is composed of flocks and herds and cultivated farms.
No temptation will allure them from that object of
abiding interest, the settlement of their waste lands,
and the increase of a hardy race of free citizens,
their glory in peace and their defense in war.
On the whole, I adhere to the opinion, expressed
by me in my annual message of 1832, that it is our
true policy that the public lands shall cease as soon as
practicable to be a source of revenue, except for the
payment of those general charges which grow out
of the acquisition of the lands, their survey and sale.
Although these expenses have not been met by the
proceeds of sales heretofore, it is quite certain they will be
hereafter, even after a considerable reduction in the price.
By meeting in the Treasury so much of the general charge
as arises from that source they will hereafter, as they have
been heretofore, be disposed of for the common benefit of
the United States, according to the compacts of cession.
I do not doubt that it is the real interest of each and all
the States in the Union, and particularly of the new States,
that the price of these lands shall be reduced and graduated,
and that after they have been offered for a certain number
of years the refuse remaining unsold shall be abandoned
to the States and the machinery
of our land system entirely withdrawn.
It cannot be supposed the compacts intended that the
United States should retain forever a title to lands within
the States which are of no value, and no doubt is
entertained that the general interest would be best
promoted by surrendering such lands to the States.
This plan for disposing of the public lands impairs no
principle, violates no compact, and deranges no system.
Already has the price of those lands been reduced from
$2 per acre to $1.25, and upon the will of Congress
it depends whether there shall be a further reduction.
While the burdens of the East are diminishing by the
reduction of the duties upon imports, it seems
but equal justice that the chief burden of the West
should be lightened in an equal degree at least.
It would be just to the old States and the new,
conciliate every interest, disarm the subject of all
its dangers, and add another guaranty
to the perpetuity of our happy Union.
Sensible, however, of the difficulties which surround
this important subject, I can only add to my regrets
at finding myself again compelled to disagree with the
legislative power the sincere declaration that any plan
which shall promise a final and satisfactory disposition
of the question and be compatible with the Constitution
and public faith shall have my hearty concurrence.6
Notes
1. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume II,
ed. James D. Richardson, p. 610-632.
2. The Annals of America, Volume 6, p. 34.
3. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume III, p. 3-5.
4. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson Volume V 1833-1838, p. 193.
5. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume III, p. 19-35.
6. Ibid., p. 56-69.
Andrew Jackson to 1812
Andrew Jackson & Wars 1813-15
Andrew Jackson & Indian Wars 1816-20
Andrew Jackson 1821-24
Andrew Jackson 1825-28
President Jackson in 1829
President Jackson & Indians 1829-36
President Jackson in 1830
President Jackson in 1831
Jackson’s Veto & Banks in 1832
President Jackson in 1833
President Jackson in 1834
President Jackson in 1835
President Jackson in 1836
Andrew Jackson 1837-45
Andrew Jackson Summary & Evaluation
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all the chapters are free in this website.