Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States,
by not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering
their condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that
purpose; since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to
that branch those which belong to its department, and to the States have
reserved separately the residue which belong to them separately: and
thus by the organization of the two branches taken together, have
completely secured the first object of human association, the full
improvement of their condition, and reserved to themselves all the
faculties of multiplying their own blessings.
Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State
will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
could befall them; but not the greatest.
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