le of a single State to absolve themselves at will
and without the consent of the other States from their most solemn
obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of the millions
composing this Union, can not be acknowledged. Such authority is
believed to be utterly repugnant both to the principles upon which the
General Government is constituted and to the objects which it is
expressly formed to attain.

Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the constitutional
power of the Government, or which may be inconvenient or oppressive in
their operation, the Constitution itself has prescribed the modes of
redress. It is the acknowledged attribute of free institutions that
under them the empire of reason and law is substituted for the power of
the sword. To no other source can appeals for supposed wrongs be made
consistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no other can
such appeals be made with safety at any time; and to their decisions,
when constitutionally pronounced, it becomes the duty no less of the
public authorities than of the people in every case to yield a patriotic
submission.

That a State or any other great portion of the people, suffering under
long and intolerable oppression and having tried all constitutional
remedies without the hope of redress, may have a natural right, when
their happiness can be no otherwise secured, and when they can do so
without greater injury to others, to absolve themselves from their
obligations to the Government and appeal to the last resort, needs not
on the present occasion be denied.

The existence of this right, however, must depend upon the causes which
may justify its exercise. It is the _ultima ratio_, which presupposes
that the proper appeals to all other means of redress have been made in
good faith, and which can never be rightfully resorted to unless it be
unavoidable. It is not the right of the State, but of the individual,
and of all the individuals in the State. It is the right of mankind
generally to secure by all means in their power the blessings of liberty
and happiness; but when for these purposes any body of men have
voluntarily associated themselves under a particular form of government,
no portion of them can dissolve the association without acknowledging
the correlative right in the remainder to decide whether that
dissolution can be permitted consistently with the general happiness. In
this view it is a right dependent upon th