“Therefore, since any State before she can prove her right to dissolve the Union, must show her authority to undo what has been done, no State is at liberty to _secede_ on the ground that the other States have done nothing but _accede_. She must show that she has a right to _reverse_ what has been _ordained_, to _unsettle_ and _overthrow_ what has been _established_, to _reject_ what the people have _adopted_, and to _break up_ what they have _ratified_, because these are the terms which express the transactions which have actually taken place. In other words, she must show her right to make a revolution.” Between Webster’s debate with Hayne, and that with Calhoun three years afterwards, South Carolina had called a convention of its people and passed resolutions declaring the United States tariff laws null and void, and made laws of her own, forbidding and preventing the collection of duties in the State, with threats of secession if an attempt to collect them were made. Measures had also been taken to make a forcible resistance--munitions of war collected and the militia organized and drilled. Fortunately for the country at that crisis Andrew Jackson, the President, was a Southerner and owner of many slaves and true to the Union. He was a man of indomitable will, believed in implicitly and trusted and enthusiastically followed by the great mass of the people. Any policy of his commanded success. He did not hesitate as to his course, he at once issued a proclamation, and sent a message to Congress asking for powers to enforce the tariff laws of the United States and if necessary to remove the custom-houses to safe places. In his proclamation he declared that the Constitution of the United States forms a government, not a league; that it is a government that acts on the people individually and not on the States, and whether it be formed by compact between the States or in any other manner its character is the same. “The States retained all the power of the government,” he said, “they did not grant: but each State, having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a single nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation.” As a South Carolinian--Jackson supposed he was born in South Carolina, though his biographer, Parton, says it was in North Carolina, near the line--he earnestly pleaded with his fellow-citizens not to resist the laws of the United States.[8] He had previously at a dinner in celebration of Jefferson’s birthday, when nullification sentiments had been advanced, given as his toast: “Our Federal Union: it must be preserved.” [8] Jackson’s proclamation, Elliot’s _Debates_, 582. Elliot’s _Debates_ were published by authority of Congress, Calhoun highly praising them. See his letter in the beginning of vol. i.