294 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



eral government, and that each state as partr 

 to the compact, has an equal right to judge for 

 itself as well of infractions of the constitution, 

 as of the mode and measure of redress.".... 

 This cannot be true. The old confederation, 

 it is true, was formed by the state Legislatures, 

 but the present constitution of the United 

 States was derived from an higher authority. 

 The people of the United States formed the 

 federal constitution, and not the states, or their 

 Legislatures. And although each state is au- 

 thorised to propose amendments, yet there is 

 a wide difference between proposing amend- 

 ments to the constitution, and assuming, or 

 inviting a power to dictate or control the gen- 

 eral government. 



* I:j your second resolution you certainly mis- 

 construe and misapply an amendment, to the 

 Federal Constitution, v/hich, if your construc- 

 tion be true, does not surely warrant the con- 

 clusion that as a state you have a right to de- 

 clare anv act of the peneral j^overnment which 

 you shall deem unconstitutional null and void : 

 Indeed you actually do declare two acts of the 

 Congress of the United States null and void. 

 If, as a state, you have a right to declare two 

 acts of the Congress of the United States, un^ 

 constitutional and therefore void ; vou have an 

 equal right to declare ail their acts unconst4tu- 

 t-ional. Suppose each Legislature possess* the 

 power you contend for, eacii Legislature would 

 have the right to cause all the acts of Congress 

 to pass in view before them, and reject or ap- 

 prove at their discretion, and the consequences 

 would be, that the government of the Union,. 



