f office,
and subject to its responsibility to them; just as the people of a State
trust their own State governments with a similar power. Secondly, they
have reposed their trust in the efficacy of frequent elections, and in
their own power to remove their own servants and agents whenever they
see cause. Thirdly, they have reposed trust in the judicial power,
which, in order that it might be trustworthy, they have made as
respectable, as disinterested, and as independent as was practicable.
Fourthly, they have seen fit to rely, in case of necessity or high
expediency, on their known and admitted power to alter or amend the
Constitution peaceably and quietly, whenever experience shall point out
defects or imperfections. And, finally, the people of the United States
have at no time, in no way, directly or indirectly, authorized any State
legislature to construe or interpret their high instrument of
government; much less to interfere by their own power to arrest its
course and operation.

I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have
been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of having detained you and
the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous
deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and
important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and
I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous
sentiments. I cannot, even now, persuade myself to relinquish it,
without expressing once more my deep conviction that, since it respects
nothing less than the union of the states, it is of most vital and
essential importance to public happiness.

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto to have kept steadily in view the
prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our
Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our
consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are
chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That
Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe
school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered
finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign
influences, these great interests immediately awoke as from the dead,
and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has
teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although
our territory has str