ence while she remains in it? We should be led to sustain her, by every consideration of justice, because she is oppressed; by every consideration of generosity, because she is the weaker party; by every consideration of prudence and wisdom, because we must stand or fall along with her.
I can scarcely permit myself, sir, to ask you what we ought to think of the part which General Jackson is acting in this eventful drama? He knows that any modification of the Tariff Laws, will, of itself, whether it raise or reduce the duties, defeat all the measures of South Carolina at once. The Ordinance relates only to the existing laws. He knows this, and he also knows that his influence can cause those laws to be modified in four-and-twenty- hours.—What motive is there, then—what reason can there be, for this alarming and perilous recourse to force? He stands before the people of this country as a President of the United States, making war upon the people, without necessity; as a Southern man, strengthening the arm of Northern power, against Southern interests; as a son of South Carolina, turning his wrath against his native State, and encouraging a civil war among her people, for the gratification of a false pride, or vindictive feeling!! History does not present a worse picture, of the worst forms of human character. You, Mr. Ritchie, have long ago said, that his election would be "a curse upon the country." I know not, sir, how you will better soften the reproaches which attach to your manifest tergiversation and inconsistency, than by throwing yourself upon your reputation as a true prophet.
February, 1833.
REPORT
Of the Secretary of the Treasury on the removal of the Public Deposits from the Bank of the United States—made to both Houses of Congress, December 4th, 1833.
