nor under an edict of the State, was ineffectual.
Nullification was condemned by Jefferson and Madison, by Virginia and
Carolina, and the people of the Union; and must one State nullify and
not another? No, sir; all or none of the States must submit to the
supremacy of the Government of the Union; and if Carolina can
successfully resist that Government, will any other State submit to a
power which is thus insulted, disgraced, defied, and overthrown by the
edict of a single State, and which acts and exists only by its
permission? No, sir; one successful example of practical nullification
by a State destroys the Union; for it demonstrates that the Government
of the Union has no power to execute its laws, or preserve its
existence--_that it is not a government_, or that its powers are written
in sand, to be swept away by the first angry surge of passion that beats
over them. Such was the prediction of the despots of Europe, too soon to
be fulfilled if the fatal ordinance of Carolina is sustained, and the
flag of the Union struck down by the imperious mandate of a single
State. Let us, then, now teach those despots, who, pointing with
exultation to our dissensions, and anticipating our downfall, proclaim
that man is incapable of self-government, that the Union can and shall
be preserved, that we know that 'Union and Liberty are inseparable,'
that the name and privileges of American citizens are entwined with the
very ligaments of our hearts, that they are our birthright, the glorious
inheritance purchased by the blood of our forefathers, and never to be
surrendered by their sons; that we will all rally round the banner of
our country and sustain it, upon the ocean, on the land, in war and in
peace, against foreign or domestic enemies; or, if it must fall, it will
be upon the graves of Americans preferring death in its defence to life
without it, when the iron chains of despotism would bind them as slaves
to that soil which they would tread only as freemen.

It is said that the Government of the Union is but a league formed by
sovereign States. Did the States form it as governments? if so, which or
all of the departments of any State subscribed or ratified the compact?
or could the government of any State change the organic law, unless by a
power given them by the Constitution, or surrender the sovereign
attributes of power, and unite the people in a new government with other
confederates? No; the government cannot abolish or