University of Virginia Library

TO N. P. TRIST.

Dr. Sir I have received yours of the 19th, inclosing
some of the South Carolina papers. There
are in one of them some interesting views of the
doctrine of secession; one that had occurred to me,
and which for the first time I have seen in print;
namely that if one State can at will withdraw from
the others, the others can at will withdraw from her,
and turn her, nolentem, volentem, out of the union.
Until of late, there is not a State that would have

abhorred such a doctrine more than South Carolina,
or more dreaded an application of it to herself. The
same may be said of the doctrine of nullification,
which she now preaches as the only faith by which
the Union can be saved.

I partake of the wonder that the men you name
should view secession in the light mentioned. The
essential difference between a free Government
and Governments not free, is that the former is
founded in compact, the parties to which are mutually
and equally bound by it. Neither of them
therefore can have a greater right to break off from
the bargain, than the other or others have to hold
them to it. And certainly there is nothing in the
Virginia resolutions of—98, adverse to this principle,
which is that of common sense and common justice.
The fallacy which draws a different conclusion
from them lies in confounding a single party, with
the parties to the Constitutional compact of the
United States. The latter having made the compact
may do what they will with it. The former
as one only of the parties, owes fidelity to it, till released
by consent, or absolved by an intolerable
abuse of the power created. In the Virginia Resolutions
and Report the plural number, States, is in
every instance used where reference is made to the
authority which presided over the Government. As
I am now known to have drawn those documents, I
may say as I do with a distinct recollection, that the
distinction was intentional. It was in fact required
by the course of reasoning employed on the occasion.

The Kentucky resolutions being less guarded have
been more easily perverted. The pretext for the
liberty taken with those of Virginia is the word
respective, prefixed to the "rights" &c to be secured
within the States. Could the abuse of the expression
have been foreseen or suspected, the form of it would
doubtless have been varied. But what can be more
consistent with common sense, than that all having
the same rights &c, should unite in contending for
the security of them to each.

It is remarkable how closely the nullifiers who
make the name of Mr. Jefferson the pedestal for
their colossal heresy, shut their eyes and lips, whenever
his authority is ever so clearly and emphatically
against them. You have noticed what he says
in his letters to Monroe & Carrington Pages 43 & 203,
vol. 2,[146] with respect to the powers of the old Congress
to coerce delinquent States, and his reasons for preferring
for the purpose a naval to a military force;
and moreover that it was not necessary to find a
right to coerce in the Federal Articles, that being
inherent in the nature of a compact. It is high time
that the claim to secede at will should be put down
by the public opinion; and I shall be glad to see
the task commenced by one who understands the
subject.

I know nothing of what is passing at Richmond,
more than what is seen in the newspapers. You
were right in your foresight of the effect of the

passages in the late Proclamation. They have
proved a leaven for much fermentation there, and
created an alarm against the danger of consolidation,
balancing that of disunion. I wish with you the
Legislature may not seriously injure itself by assuming
the high character of mediator. They will certainly
do so if they forget that their real influence
will be in the inverse ratio of a boastful interposition
of it.

If you can fix, and will name the day of your
arrival at Orange Court House, we will have a horse
there for you; and if you have more baggage than can
be otherwise brought than on wheels, we will send
such a vehicle for it. Such is the state of the roads
produced by the wagons hurrying flour to market,
that it may be impossible to send our carriage which
would answer both purposes.