prosperity, and honor. Tell them that compared to disunion all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you; that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your country... Fellow-citizens of the United States, the threat of unhallowed. disunion, the names of those once respected by whom it is uttered, the array of military force to support it, denote the approach of a crisis in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments may depend. The conjuncture demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of action; and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to the origin and form of our Government and the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate and firm measures the necessity of a recourse to force; and if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States. . . In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand.

Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of December, [SEAL] A. D. 1832, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.

By the President:

EDW. LIVINGSTON,

Secretary of State.

ANDREW JACKSON.

124. THE FORCE BILL

The measure was designed to give Jackson additional powers that might be needed in enforcing the laws in South Carolina. Its passage was delayed so that it became a law on the same day, March 2, 1833, as the

Compromise Tariff of 1833, which went part way toward satisfying South Carolina's grievances. She thus saved her face in rescinding her ordinance nullifying the tariff; further she nullified the Force Bill, retaining the ordinance nullifying it on her state records down to her secession in 1860.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, vol. 4, pp. 632635.

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages of persons, it shall become impracticable, in the judgment of the President, to execute the revenue laws, and collect the duties on imports in the ordinary way,.. it shall and may be lawful for the President to direct that the custom-house... be... kept in any secure place within some port ... either upon land or on board any vessel; and, in that case, it shall be the duty of the collector to reside at such place, and there to detain all vessels and cargoes... until the duties imposed on said cargoes, by law, be paid in cash,.. and in such cases it shall be unlawful to take the vessel or cargo from the custody of the proper officer... unless by process from some court of the United States; and in case of any attempt otherwise to take such vessel or cargo by any force, or combination, or assemblage of persons too great to be overcome by the officers of the customs, it shall... be lawful for the President of the United States,.. to employ such part of the land or naval forces, or militia of the United States, as may be deemed necessary for the purpose of preventing the removal of such vessel or cargo, and protecting the officers of the customs in retaining the custody thereof.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That whenever the President of the United States shall be officially informed, by the authorities of any state, or by a judge of any... court of the United States, in the state, that, within the limits of such state, any law or laws of the United States, .. is obstructed by the employment of military force, or by any other unlawful means, too great to be overcome by the ordinary course of judicial proceeding, . . it shall be lawful for him, the President of the United States, forthwith to issue his proclamation, declaring such fact or information, and requiring all such military and other force forthwith to disperse; and if at any time after issuing such proclamation, any such opposition or obstruction shall be made, in the manner or by the means aforesaid, the President shall be, and hereby is, author

ized, promptly to employ such means to suppress the same, . . as... authorized and provided in the cases therein mentioned by the act of the twenty-eighth of February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose; " and also, by the act of the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and seven, entitled "An act authorizing the employment of the land and naval forces of the United States in cases of insurrection."

125. THE COMPROMISE TARIFF OF 1833

Passed March 2, 1833. See introduction to the Force Bill, No. 124. Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 4, pp. 629–31.

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirtythree, in all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports, by the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, entitled An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," or by any other act, shall exceed twenty per centum on the value thereof, one tenth part of such excess shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, another tenth part thereof shall be deducted; and from and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, one half of the reside [residue] of such excess shall be deducted; and from and after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the other half thereof shall be deducted...

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, or of any other act, as is inconsistent with this act, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall

be so construed as to prevent the... passage of any act, prior to the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, in the contingency either of excess or deficiency of revenue, altering the rates of duties on articles which, by the aforesaid act of fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, are subject to a less rate of duty than twenty per centum ad valorem, in such manner as not to exceed that rate, and so as to adjust the revenue to either of the said contingencies.

APPROVED, March 2, 1833.

126. THE SPECIE CIRCULAR

American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. 8, p. 910.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, July 11, 1836. IN consequence of complaints which have been made of frauds, speculations, and monopolies, in the purchase of the public lands, and the aid which is said to be given to effect these objects by excessive bank credits, and dangerous if not partial facilities, through bank drafts and bank deposites, and the general evil influence likely to result to the public interests, and especially the safety of the great amount of money in the Treasury, and the sound condition of the currency of the country, from the further exchange of the national domain in this manner, and chiefly for bank credits and paper money, the President of the United States has given directions, and you are hereby instructed, after the 15th day of August next, to receive in payment of the public lands nothing except what is directed by the existing laws, viz.: gold and silver, and in the proper cases, Virginia land scrip; provided that, till the 15th of December next, the same indulgences heretofore extended as to the kind of money received, may be continued for any quantity of land not exceeding 320 acres to each purchaser who is an actual settler, or bonafide resident in the State where the sales are made.

In order to insure the faithful execution of these instructions, all receivers are strictly prohibited from accepting for land sold, any draft, certificate, or other evidence of money or deposite, though for specie, unless signed by the Treasurer of the United States, in conformity to the act of April 24, 1820. And each of those officers is required to annex to his monthly returns to this department, the amount of gold and of silver respectively, as well as the bills received under the foregoing exception; and each deposite bank is required to annex to every certificate given upon a deposite of money, the proportions of it actually

paid in gold, in silver, and in bank-notes. All former instructions on these subjects, except as now modified, will be considered as remaining in full force.

The principal objects of the President, in adopting this measure, being to repress alleged frauds, and to withhold any countenance or facilities in the power of the government from the monopoly of the public lands in the hands of speculators and capitalists, to the injury of the actual settlers in the new States, and of emigrants in search of new homes, as well as to discourage the ruinous extension of bank issues and bank credits, by which those results are generally supposed to be promoted, your utmost vigilance is required, and relied on, to carry this order into complete execution.

LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury.

127. JACKSON'S VIEWS ON TEXAS

From his message to Congress of December 21, 1836.

Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 3, pp. 266-269.

NO steps have been taken by the Executive toward the acknowledgment of the independence of Texas,..

The acknowledgment of a new state as independent and entitled to a place in the family of nations is at all times an act of great delicacy and responsibility, but more especially so when such state has forcibly separated itself from another of which it had formed an integral part and which still claims dominion over it...

It has thus been made known to the world that the uniform policy and practice of the United States is to avoid all interference in disputes which merely relate to the internal government of other nations, and eventually to recognize the authority of the prevailing party, without reference to our particular interests and views or to the merits of the original controversy...

...

there are circumstances in the relations of the two countries which require us to act on this occasion with even more than our wonted caution. Texas was once claimed as a part of our property, and there are those among our citizens who, always reluctant to abandon that claim, can not but regard with solicitude the prospect of the reunion