- "...The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league; and whether it be formed by compact between the States or in any other manner, its character is the same.
It is a Government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant.
But each State, having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute, jointly with the other States, a single nation, can not, from that period, possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation; and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole Union.
To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not a nation, because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offense.
Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only be done through gross error or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution or incur the penalties consequent on a failure.
The laws of the United States must be executed.
I have no discretionary power on the subject; my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution.
Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution deceived you; they could not have been deceived themselves."
I have no doubt that Jackson's words also helped guide Lincoln's actions in the spring of 1861.