ly any law which the State may deem unconstitutional,
but to abolish the Constitution itself as the law of the State. Now, by
this Constitution, Carolina granted certain powers to the General
Government: may she constitutionally alter or revoke the grant, in a
manner repugnant to the provisions of that Constitution? That instrument
points out the mode in which it may be changed or abrogated, and by
which the several States may assume all or any of the powers granted to
the General Government, namely, by the conjoint action of three fourths
of the States. What, then, are the powers reserved to the State? The
ninth article of the Constitution of the Union declares that 'the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the
people.' Then the powers delegated to the United States were not
reserved to the States or to the people. What is the meaning of the
clause 'or to the people,' as contradistinguished from 'the States'?
Does it mean that any of this mass of undefined powers, but embracing
all not granted to the General Government, was reserved to the people of
the United States in the aggregate? Then there would exist, and does now
exist, a consolidated despotism. No, it was to the _people_ of each
State the reservation was made. Then it follows, as a necessary
consequence, that none of the powers granted to the General Government
were reserved either to the States or the people of any State. That is,
so far as the people of any one State had granted, by their own separate
constitution, to the State government any powers not delegated to the
General Government, the government of the State might exercise these
powers, and so far as any of these undelegated powers were not granted
to the State government, by the people of the State, they were reserved
to the people of each State. Now, one of the powers reserved to the
people of each State is to change their form of State government, and
resume the powers granted by it. But we have seen that neither the
government or people of a State could resume 'the powers delegated to
the United States,' because it was not one of the rights reserved to
either. What! I am asked, cannot the people of a State abolish their
form of government? Yes, in two modes: one in accordance with the
Constitution, and the other by a revolution. Could the people of
Carolina or Mississippi change or abolish