an be
passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that
would operate with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law
makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description may be
abrogated by any State for that cause, then, indeed, is the federal
Constitution unworthy of the slightest efforts for its preservation. We
have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We have
received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation. We have
trusted to it as to the sheet-anchor of our safety, in the stormy times
of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe. We have looked to it with
sacred awe as the palladium of our liberties, and with all the
solemnities of religion have pledged to each other our lives and
fortunes here, and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in its defense and
support. Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in attaching this importance
to the Constitution of our country? Was our devotion paid to the
wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which this new doctrine would
make it? Did we pledge ourselves to the support of an airy nothing--a
bubble that must be blown away by the first breath of disaffection? Was
this self-destroying, visionary theory the work of the profound
statesmen, the exalted patriots, to whom the task of constitutional
reform was intrusted? Did the name of Washington sanction, did the
States deliberately ratify, such an anomaly in the history of
fundamental legislation? No. We were not mistaken. The letter of this
great instrument is free from this radical fault; its language directly
contradicts the imputation; its spirit, its evident intent, contradicts
it. No, we did not err. Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity
of giving power to make laws, and another power to resist them. The
sages, whose memory will always be reverenced, have given us a
practical, and, as they hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The
Father of his Country did not affix his revered name to so palpable an
absurdity. Nor did the States, when they severally ratified it, do so
under the impression that a veto on the laws of the United States was
reserved to them, or that they could exercise it by application. Search
the debates in all their conventions--examine the speeches of the most
zealous opposers of federal authority--look at the amendments that were
proposed. They are all silent--not a syllable uttered, not a vote given,
not a motion made, to