"That the several States composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that by a compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of Amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, _delegated to that Government certain definite powers_, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that _whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force_."[169] [169] Kentucky Resolutions of 1798: Jefferson's Writings, Vol. IX. p. 464. See also Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV., Appendix, p. 380. I have already amply shown to-day that Slavery is in no respect national,--that it is not within the sphere of national activity,--that it has no "positive" support in the Constitution,--and that any interpretation inconsistent with this principle would be abhorrent to the sentiments of its founders. Slavery is a local institution, peculiar to the States, and under the guardianship of State Rights. It is impossible, without violence to the spirit and letter of the Constitution, to claim for Congress any power to legislate either for its abolition in the States or its support anywhere. _Non-Intervention_ is the rule prescribed to the Nation. Regarding the question in its more general aspects only, and putting aside, for the moment, the perfect evidence from the records of the Convention, it is palpable that there is no _national fountain_ out of which the existing Slave Act can possibly spring.