A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
The Constitution, which his oath of office obliges him to support,
declares that the Executive "_shall take care that the laws be
faithfully executed_" and in providing that he shall from time to time
give to Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to
their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient, imposes the additional obligation of recommending to Congress
such more efficient provision for executing the laws as may from time to
time be found requisite.
The same instrument confers on Congress the power not merely to lay and
collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and
provide for the common defense and general welfare, but "to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into effect the
foregoing powers and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States or in any department or officer
thereof," and also to provide for calling forth the militia for
executing the laws of the Union. In all cases similar to the present the
duties of the Government become the measure of its powers, and whenever
it fails to exercise a power necessary and proper to the discharge of
the duty prescribed by the Constitution it violates the public trusts
not less than it would in transcending its proper limits. To refrain,
therefore, from the high and solemn duties thus enjoined, however
painful the performance may be, and thereby tacitly permit the rightful
authority of the Government to be contemned and its laws obstructed by a
single State, would neither comport with its own safety nor the rights
of the great body of the American people.
It being thus shown to be the duty of the Executive to execute the laws
by all constitutional means, it remains to consider the extent of those
already at his disposal and what it may be proper further to provide.
In the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury to the collectors
in South Carolina the provisions and regulations made by the act of
1799, and also the fines, penalties, and forfeitures for their
enforcement, are particularly detailed and explained. It may be well
apprehended, however, that these provisions may prove inadequate to meet
such an open, powerful, organized opposition as is to be commenced after
the 1st of February next.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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