I rejoice, Mr. Speaker, at the result of this appeal.  Not from any personal consideration, but from the respect paid to the essential rights of the people, in one of their representatives.  When I spoke of the separation of the States, as resulting from the violation of the Constitution contemplated in this bill, I spoke of it as a necessity, deeply to be deprecated; but as resulting from causes so certain and obvious as to be absolutely inevitable, when the effect of the principle is practically experienced.  It is to preserve, to guard the Constitution of my country, that I denounce this attempt.  I would rouse the attention of gentlemen from the apathy with which they seem beset.  These observations are not made in a corner; there is no low intrigue; no secret machination.  I am on the people’s own ground; to them I appeal concerning their own rights, their own liberties, their own intent, in adopting this Constitution.  The voice I have uttered, at which gentlemen startle with such agitation, is no unfriendly voice.  I intended it as a voice of warning.  By this people, and by the event, if this bill passes, I am willing to be judged, whether it be not a voice of wisdom.

The bill which is now proposed to be passed has this assumed principle for its basis; that the three branches of this national government, without recurrence to conventions of the people in the States, or to the Legislatures of the States, are authorized to admit new partners to a share of the political power, in countries out of the original limits of the United States.  Now, this assumed principle, I maintain to be altogether without any sanction in the Constitution.  I declare it to be a manifest and atrocious usurpation of power; of a nature, dissolving, according to undeniable principles of moral law, the obligations of our national compact; and leading to all the awful con-sequences which flow from such a state of things.  Concerning this assumed principle, which is the basis of this bill, this is the general position, on which I rest my argument; that if the authority, now proposed to be exercised, be delegated to the three branches of the government by virtue of the Constitution, it results either from its general nature, or from its particular provisions.  I shall consider distinctly both these sources, in relation to this pretended power.

Touching the general nature of the instrument called the Constitution of the United States there is no obscurity; it has no fabled descent, like the palladium of ancient Troy, from the heavens.  Its origin is not confused by the mists of time, or hidden by the darkness of passed, unexplored ages; it is the fabric of our day.  Some now living, had a share in its construction; all of us stood by, and saw the rising of the edifice.  There can be no doubt about its nature.  It is a political compact.  By whom?  And about what?  The preamble to the instrument will answer these questions.

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution, for the United States of America.”