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XIX.

John C. Calhoun.

"The General Government is one of specific powers; and it can rightfully exercise only the powers expressly granted, and those that may be necessary and proper to carry them into effect."-Calhoun's Works, Vol. VI, p. 2.

XX.

Nullification Convention of 1832.

The Report of a Committee of twenty-one members, appointed by the Nullification Convention of South Carolina in 1832, contains the following passage: "Before the Federal Government had thus been called into being, the several States unquestionably possessed as full sovereignty, and were as independent of each other, as the most powerful nations of the world.-President Jackson's Message and accompanying documents, transmitted to Congress, January 16, 1833.

XXI.

Nashville Convention, 1850.

A Convention, in which the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee were represented, re-assembled at Nashville, Tennessee, in November, 1850, and adopted a Preamble and Resolutions, in which it is asserted that, when the Constitution of the United States was adopted, "the States of this Confederacy acceded to that compact, each State for itself, and ratified it as States ;" and that "if the non-slaveholding States, who are parties to that compact, disregard its provisions and endanger our peace and existence by united and deliberate action, we have a right,

as States, there being no common arbiter, to secede." Cluskey's Political Text-Book, p. 534.

XXII.

National Democratic Convention, 1856.

The National Democratic Convention of 1856 resolved: "That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, and in the Report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature in 1799; that it adopts those principles as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import."Cluskey's Political Text-Book, p. 127.

XXIII.

National Whig Convention, 1856.

The National Whig Convention of 1856 resolved: "That the Government of the United States was formed by the conjunction in political unity of wide-spread geographical sections, materially differing, not only in climate and products, but in social and domestic institutions." X * *

XXIV.

Daniel Webster.

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Daniel Webster said: "The Confederation was, in strictness, a compact; the States, as States, were parties to it.' -Webster's Works, Vol. III, p. 346. "The States are unquestionably sovereign, so far as their sovereignty is not affected by this supreme law" (the Constitution of the United States).-Webster's Works, Vol. III, p. 321.

XXV.

William H. Seward.

William H. Seward said: "The public lands were ceded by the several States and acquired by the United States of America before the Federal Constitution was adopted, and at a time when the United States of America was that mere confederacy of independent sovereign States that South Carolina, in 1832, insisted that it continued to be, notwithstanding the adoption of the Federal Constitution.-Seward's Works, Vol. II, p. 415.

XXVI.

Views of Chief Justice Taney.

In delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Dred Scott versus John F. A. Sandford, Mr. Chief Justice Taney said: "We must recur to the governments and institutions of the thirteen Colonies, when they separated from Great Britain and formed new sovereignties, and took their places in the family of independent nations.” 'What was "

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[in 1784] "called the United States, were thirteen separate, sovereign, independent States, which had entered into a league or confederation for their mutual protection and advantage, and the Congress of the United States was composed of the representatives of these separate sovereignties." "It was little more than a Congress of ambassadors, authorized to represent separate nations, in matters in which they had a common concern." "It must be borne in mind that the same States that formed the Confederation also formed and adopted the new Government, to which so large a portion of their former sovereign powers were surrendered." "The principle upon which our governments rest, and

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upon which alone they continue to exist, is the union of States, sovereign and independent within their own limits in their internal and domestic concerns, and bound together as one people by a General Government, possessing certain enumerated and restricted powers, delegated to it by the people of the several States, and exercising supreme authority within the scope of the powers granted to it, throughout the dominion of the United States."Howard's Reports, Vol. XIX, pp. 407, 434, 438, 447, 448.

XXVII.

Mr. Justice Catron.

Mr. Justice Catron, of the Supreme Court of the United States, said: "Before the new Constitution was adopted, she" (Virginia) "had as much right to treat and agree as any European government had."-Howard's Reports, Vol. XIX, p. 523.

XXVIII.

James Buchanan.

James Buchanan, when he was President of the United States, said: "The Federal Constitution is a grant from the States to Congress of certain specific powers."-Inaugural Address.

XXIX.

Jefferson Davis.

In a speech delivered in the Senate of the United States, on the 13th of August, 1850, Jefferson Davis said: "This, sir, is a Union of sovereign States, under a compact which delegated certain powers to the General Government and reserved all else to the States respectively, or to the people."

XXX.

Sharswood's Blackstone.

Professor Sharswood's Blackstone (Vol. I, p. 48, note), says: "The Declaration of Independence was the joint and several act of the Colonies, and its effect was to constitute each separate colony a free and independent State."

XXXI.

American Cyclopædia.

The New American Cyclopædia (Vol. XV, p. 735), says: "The several States of the Union, as far as their internal affairs are concerned, are sovereign and independent; while for the common interest of all they delegate a portion of their powers to a central government, whose edicts and laws, so long as they are not in conflict with the Constitution, are paramount to State authority. All powers not expressly granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.

XXXII.

Geographical Dictionary.

A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary of the World (1866, p. 1997), says: "The Government of the United States is a confederation of various States, delegating a portion of their power to a central government, whose edicts and laws, so far as granted constitutionally, are always paramount to State authority; but all powers not expressly conceded by that Constitution are tacitly reserved to the States."

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