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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
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writings of Mr. Madison we find that after all the arduous toils of a statesman and patriot, when treating upon the subject of the Union and the relative rights and powers of the States, he lends his great light to guide posterity in the pathway of regu- lated government. Being one of the authors of the Constitution, his exposition comes to us with double force. In a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, written September 16, 1831, he says: "I know not whence the idea could proceed that I con- curred in the doctrine that although a State could not nullify a law of the Union, it had a right to secede from the Union. Both spring from the same poisonous root." In his letter to Mr. N. P. Trist, written December 23, 1832, he says: "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." And in writing to Andrew Stevenson, February 4, 1833, he says: "I have received your communication of the 29th ultimo, and have read it with much pleasure. It repre- sents the doctrines of nullification and secession in lights that must confound, if failing to convince their patrons. We have done well in rescuing the proceedings of Vir- ginia in 1798-99, from the many misconstructions and misapplications of them. Of late, attempts are observed to shelter the heresy of secession under the case of ex- patriation, from which it essentially differs. The expa- triation-party moves only his person and his movable property, and does not incommode those whom he leaves. A seceding State mutilates the domain, and disturbs the whole system from which it separates itself. Pushed to the extent in which the right is sometimes asserted, it might break into fragments every single community." These views clearly show that this great expounder of the Constitution did not recognize the right of a single State to break the harmony of the nation, and destroy its unity by seced- ing at its pleasure. Nor was he less earnest in his desire to perpetuate the Union and guard against the heresy by which it might be endangered. In one of his celebrated State papers, written in September, 1829, he thus pictures in language at once solemn and truthful the consequences of disunion: "In all the views that may be taken on questions be- tween the State governments and General Government,
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