she has justifiable cause, and I approve of her act. I
conferred with her people before that act was taken, counseled
them then that, if the state of things which they apprehended
should exist when their Convention met, they should take the
action which they have now adopted.

"I hope none who hear me will confound this expression of mine
with the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the
Union, and to disregard its constitutional obligations by the
nullification of the law. Such is not my theory. Nullification
and secession, so often confounded, are, indeed, antagonistic
principles. Nullification is a remedy which it is sought to
apply within the Union, and against the agent of the States. It
is only to be justified when the agent has violated his
constitutional obligations, and a State, assuming to judge for
itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, and appeals
to the other States of the Union for a decision; but, when the
States themselves and when the people of the States have so
acted as to convince us that they will not regard our
constitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises
the doctrine of secession in its practical application.

"A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and who has often
been arraigned for a want of fealty to the Union, advocated the
doctrine of nullification because it preserved the Union. It was
because of his deep-seated attachment to the Union--his
determination to find some remedy for existing ills short of a
severance of the ties which bound South Carolina to the other
States--that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of
nullification, which he proclaimed to be peaceful, to be within
the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, but only to
be a means of bringing the agent before the tribunal of the
States for their judgment.

"Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be
justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There
was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again
when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and
the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent
any one from denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus
may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent
whomsoever.

"I, therefore, sa