e. Its future stability depends upon the firm
support and due exercise of its legitimate powers in all their
branches. A tendency to disunion, to anarchy among the members
rather than to tyranny in the head, has been heretofore the
melancholy fate of all the federal governments of ancient and
modern Europe. Our Union and national Constitution were formed, as
we have hitherto been led to believe, under better auspices and
with improved wisdom. But there was a deadly principle of disease
inherent in the system. The assumption by any member of the Union
of the right to question and resist, or annul, as its own judgment
should dictate, either the laws of Congress, or the treaties, or
the decisions of the federal courts, or the mandates of the
executive power, duly made and promulgated as the Constitution
prescribes, was a most dangerous assumption of power, leading to
collision and the destruction of the system. And if, contrary to
all our expectations, we should hereafter fail in the grand
experiment of a confederate government extending over some of the
fairest portions of this continent, and destined to act, at the
same time, with efficiency and harmony, we should most grievously
disappoint the hopes of mankind, and blast for ever the fruits of
the Revolution.

"But, happily for us, the refutation of such dangerous pretensions,
on the occasion referred to, was signal and complete. The false
images and delusive theories which had perplexed the thoughts and
disturbed the judgments of men, were then dissipated in like manner
as spectres disappear at the rising of the sun. The inestimable
value of the Union, and the true principles of the Constitution,
were explained by clear and accurate reasonings, and enforced by
pathetic and eloquent illustrations. The result was the more
auspicious, as the heretical doctrines which were then fairly
reasoned down had been advanced by a very respectable portion of
the Union, and urged on the floor of the Senate by the polished
mind, manly zeal, and honored name of a distinguished member from
the South.

"The consequences of that discussion have been extremely
beneficial. It turned the attention of the public to the great
doctrines of national rights and national union. Constitutional law
ceased to remain