ed to the Secretary at War, containing his refusal to make such designation, be recorded in the public records of this State, as an example to persons who may hold places of distinguished trust in this Free and Independent Republic.
Resolved, That the persons holding Executive offices under this State, are restrained by the duties which they owe this State, from affording any official aid or co-operation in the execution of the Acts aforesaid—and that his Excellency the Governor be requested, as Commander-in-Chief of the Military force of this State, to cause these resolutions to be published in General Orders, and that the Secretary of this state be, and he is hereby ordered, to transmit copies of the same to the several Sheriffs and Town Clerks.
Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to communicate the foregoing Resolutions to the President of the United States, with an assurance that this assembly regrets that they are thus obliged, under a sense of paramount public duty, to assert the unquestionable rights of this State, to abstain from any agency in the exception of measures which are unconstitutional and despotic.
2d. By Convention—In exact accordance with the above Resolutions of the Legislature, were the proceedings of the Hartford Convention, which met during the war—for that body not only refused to aid in the prosecution of the war, but actually (though secretly) made arrangements to resist the United States.
See Appendix. Note D.
CHAPTER VI.
OHIO NULLIFICATION.
The proceedings of the Ohio Legislature in 1820, against the Bank of the United States, to prevent its establishment in that state avow and sustain the doctrines of nullification, as well by their able report, and their firm and energetic Resolutions, as by an act of outlawry passed against the Bank and its officers.
First—By the Resolution affirming and approving the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98 and '99, in these words:
"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That in respect to the powers of the Governments of the several States which compose the American Union, and the powers of the Federal Government, this General Assembly do recognize and approve the doctrines asserted by the Legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky, in their resolutions of November and December 1798, and January 1800—and do consider that their principles have been recognized and adopted by a majority of the American people."
On this subject, the Report which precedes the Resolutions, contains the following words:
"The States and the People recognized and affirmed the Doctrines of Kentucky and Virginia, by effecting a total change in the administration of the Federal Government. In the pardon of Callender, convicted under the Sedition Law, and in the remittance of his fine, the new administration unequivocally recognized the decision and the authority of the States and of the people. Thus has the question whether the Federal Courts are the sole expositors of the Constitution of the United States in the last resort, or whether the States, "as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge," have an equal right to interpret that Constitution for themselves, where their sovereign rights are involved, but decided against the pretension of the Federal Judges, by the people themselves the true source of legitimate power."
Second—By the resolutions against the Jurisdiction of the United States Court in the case of the Bank, and all cases involving political rights; and against the powers of the General Government, establishing the Bank, in these words:
"Resolved further, That this General Assembly do protest against the doctrines of the Federal Circuit Court, sitting in this State, avowed and maintained in their proceedings against the officers of the State, upon account of their official Acts, as being in direct violation of the 11th amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Resolved further, That this General Assembly do assert and will maintain by all legal and constitutional means, the right of the State to tax the business and property of any private corporation of trade incorporated by the Congress of the United States, and located to transact its corporate business within any State.
Resolved further, That the Bank of the United States is a private corporation of trade, the capital and business of which may be legally taxed in any State where they may be found."
"Resolved further, That this General Assembly do protest against the doctrine that the political rights of the separate States that compose the American Union, and their powers as Sovereign States, may be settled and determined in the Supreme Court of the United States, so as to conclude and bind them in cases contrived between individuals, and where they are, no one of them, parties direct.
"Resolved further, That the Governor transmit to the Governors of the several States a copy of the foregoing report and resolutions to be laid before their respective Legislatures, with a request from this Assembly that the Legislature of each State may express their opinion upon the matters therein contained.
"Resolved, That members of the Senate, and members of the House of Representatives, be appointed to prepare and bring in Bills, pursuant to the recommendation of the foregoing report.
The report referred to, in these resolutions, and which is a most masterly one, of near forty pages in extent, (nearly approaching in ability to those of Madison and Jefferson), contains the following remarks on the subject of the penalty, laid in the shape of an enormous tax, upon the erection and operations of the United States Bank.
"It is urged by man, that the tax levied and collected is enormous in amount, and therefore unequal and unjust. It is readily admitted that this allegation is not entirely unfounded, and all must agree that it does not comport with the character of a State to afford any colour to accuse her of injustice. Even in the assertion of a right, it is highly derogatory for a State to act oppressively—and all injustice is oppression. It cannot be doubted, however, that the tax was levied as a penalty—and that it was not supposed the Bank would venture to incur it. It was an act of temerity in them to do so, and although, in this view, the tax was justly, and in the opinion of the committe, legally collected—yet, under all the circumstances
