This Government, therefore, is a great and powerful Government, invested with all the attributes of sovereignty over the special subjects to which its authority extends.  Its framers never intended to implant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction, nor were they at its creation guilty of the absurdity of providing for its own dissolution.  It was not intended by its framers to be the baseless fabric of a vision, which at the touch of the enchanter would vanish into thin air, but a substantial and mighty fabric, capable of resisting the slow decay of time and of defying the storms of ages.  Indeed, well may the jealous patriots of that day have indulged fears that a Government of such high powers might violate the reserved rights of the States, and wisely did they adopt the rule of a strict construction of these powers to prevent the danger.  But they did not fear, nor had they any reason to imagine, that the Constitution would ever be so interpreted as to enable any State by her own act, and without the consent of her sister States, to discharge her people from all or any of their federal obligations.

It may be asked, then, Are the people of the States without redress against the tyranny and oppression of the Federal Government?  By no means.  The right of resistance on the part of the governed against the oppression of their governments can not be denied.  It exists independently of all constitutions, and has been exercised at all periods of the world’s history.  Under it old governments have been destroyed and new ones have taken their place.  It is embodied in strong and express language in our own Declaration of Independence.  But the distinction must ever be observed that this is revolution against an established government, and not a voluntary secession from it by virtue of an inherent constitutional right.  In short, let us look the danger fairly in the face.  Secession is neither more nor less than revolution.  It may or it may not be a justifiable revolution, but still it is revolution.

What, in the meantime, is the responsibility and true position of the Executive?  He is bound by solemn oath, before God and the country, “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and from this obligation he can not be absolved by any human power.  But what if the performance of this duty, in whole or in part, has been rendered impracticable by events over which he could have exercised no control?  Such at the present moment is the case throughout the State of South Carolina so far as the laws of the United States to secure the administration of justice by means of the Federal judiciary are concerned.  All the Federal officers within its limits through whose agency alone these laws can be carried into execution have already resigned.  We no longer have a district judge, a district attorney, or a marshal in South Carolina.  In fact, the whole machinery of the Federal Government necessary for the distribution of remedial justice among the people has been demolished, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace it.