In Looking Back, I See Nothing To

The Error Is In The Assumption That The General Government Is A Party To The Constitutional Compact. The States ... Formed The Compact, Acting As Sovereign And Independent Communities.

The Very Essence Of A Free Government Consists In Considering Offices As Public Trusts, Bestowed For The Good Of The Country, And Not For The Benefit Of An Individual Or A Party.

I Never Know What South Carolina Thinks Of A Measure. I Never Consult Her. I Act To The Best Of My Judgment, And According To My Conscience. If She Approves, Well And Good. If She Does Not, Or Wishes Any One To Take My Place, I Am Ready To Vacate. We Are Even.

I Take Higher Ground. I Hold That In The Present State Of Civilization, Where Two Races Of Different Origin, And Distinguished By Color, And Other Physical Differences, As Well As Intellectual, Are Brought Together, The Relation Now Existing In The Slaveholding States Between The Two, Is, Instead Of An Evil, A Good—a Positive Good. . . . I Hold Then, That There Never Has Yet Existed A Wealthy And Civilized Society In Which One Portion Of The Community Did Not, In Point Of Fact, Live On The Labor Of The Other.

Government Has Within It A Tendency To Abuse Its Powers.