  | CHAPTER I. | | PAGE | | Webster and Hayne | 1 | | Insistance of the South on the right of secession—Belief in this of English and of some Northern writers—The doctrine of Webster’s speech on nullification approved throughout the country except in South Carolina—Hayne’s doctrine and speech—Webster’s reply to Hayne’s attack on the Eastern States—Statement of Webster’s argument in reply to Hayne and Calhoun—Jackson’s vigorous opposition to nullification, and his proclamation. | | CHAPTER II. | | The Nationality of the Constitution | 24 | | The question is whether a national government or a confederacy of nations was made by the adoption of the Constitution—The doctrine of nullification and secession considered—The State governments and the National government have limited powers—The foundation of our government was necessarily a compact—The compact was for a national government—The failure of the government of the Confederacy of the revolution—The Constitution had the sanction of the Confederacy, of the State government and of the people—Preamble of Constitution declares its perpetuity—Supremacy of the Constitution over State judiciaries and laws—All really sovereign powers given to United States—Restriction of State powers—Powers of States only local—People of States or parts of States making war against the United States guilty of treason—Originally States, like counties, were suable by the Constitution—By amendments to the Constitution the United States can assume any power over the States—Other provisions giving the general government great power over States—Restriction of States to prevent their making resistance—Constitution established a government over individuals not States—Authority of the judiciary. | | CHAPTER III. | | The Constitutional Convention Intended Nationality | 51 | | Convention called to amend the articles of Confederacy—First resolution passed: the government should be supreme and national—The national plan offered by the Virginia delegation preferred and considered—The New Jersey plan of a confederacy of the States with coercive power to compel obedience—Hamilton’s plan—The Virginia plan again adopted. The United States adopted as the title—Resolutions passed that there should be two branches of the legislature, the first to be chosen by the people—Long controversy as to representation in Senate, settled by an equal representation of the States, the vote to be per capita—This compromise of representation in Senate does not affect the supremacy of the granted powers—Resolution of Elbridge Gerry referring the plan of a national government to the committee of detail unanimously passed—Government called national in many of the referred votes—Committee of detail report votes passed; the preamble declaring the government to be for posterity—Article against treason again debated and passed unanimously—Constitution committed to committee of style and arrangement—New draft considered at length, adopted, and signed by delegates—Diversity of opinion as to durability, no suggestion that a State had a right to leave the Union—Yates and Lansing left convention because the Constitution made a national government—Satisfaction with it of Southern States—Washington’s service—Franklin’s happy speech at close—George Mason did not sign, though efficient in making it—Constitution submitted by State legislatures in each State to a convention of the people—Its acceptance considered in long sessions of the conventions held in the several States—Everywhere announced as a national government—Ratified as national in Massachusetts and Virginia—Unanimous opinion of convention of New York of its perpetuity—Amendments of Constitution, passed to quiet apprehension as to its excessive powers—Early laws show a liberal construction of the powers of the government—The right of individuals to sue States taken away, but jurisdiction over States and disputes between States retained—Insurrection in Pennsylvania against excise law suppressed—Opinion of Washington as to power of government—Alien and sedition laws passed. | | CHAPTER IV. | | Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions | 88 | | Jefferson reputed author of Kentucky resolutions—Slight notice taken of Kentucky resolutions—Resolutions are merely the opinion of the legislature passing them—Kentucky resolutions declare the States being united by compact, each has a right to pass on the validity of the laws and doings of government made by the compact—The compact of the Constitution is to leave to the United States judiciary the determination of the validity of all laws and cases. Right of contracting powers to compel performance by a party refusing to keep its contract—Further absurdity of Kentucky resolutions in denying the validity of all punitive laws passed by Congress except for offences mentioned in the Constitution—Virginia’s resolutions fundamentally different—Madison never sanctioned nullification—Resolutions of Virginia—They are: in case of usurpation it is the duty of the States, not a State, to interpose to redress the evil—This not an assertion that States could refuse obedience to the laws—Opposing declarations of other States—Kentucky replied to the resolutions of other States by protest, not by nullification—Virginia’s explanation to counter-resolutions of the other States drawn by Madison—The reply conciliatory—It affirms the Constitution is the compact to which the States are a party—It defines States as meaning people of the States—The right to resist in the last resort is a claim of right of revolution—The right to interpose exists only in usurpation of powers and for the sole purpose of arresting the usurpation—Admitted the judiciary is to decide on all questions submitted to it—The assumption of undelegated powers stated to be dangerous to liberty—Alien and sedition laws declared to be unconstitutional—These resolutions are merely opinions—No objection to sending them to other States—May possibly influence opinion even of the judiciary—The request of Virginia to other States to join her in constitutional ways to maintain their rights not objectionable—Resolutions asserted to be strongest proof of the attachment of Virginia to the Constitution and Union—The resolutions, perhaps partisan, but do not assert the doctrine of nullification—Resolutions before the explanation alarmed Washington and Henry who vigorously attacked them—Henry’s declaration that Virginia owed the same obedience to United States as one of her counties did to her. | | CHAPTER V. | | | Supremacy of Constitution Maintained | 116 | | Doctrines of Jefferson’s inaugural—Serious conflict in the Gideon Olmstead
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