How did they try?
People get divorced every day. But they don't necessarily get slain in the process.
Divorced people go through a legal process where both sides get to present their viewpoints and a mediator comes to an equitable agreement on the settlement of issue. What South Carolina did was walk out on the marriage after having helped run up the credit cards, taken every bit of community property they could get their hands on, and fired some shots at the spouse on the way out the door.
Quote:
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"On the 23d May , 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her People, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken."
"Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government with definite objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights."
"We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences."
"In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof. "
End of quote.
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So there it is. No arbiter. How to resolve?
If it's true, then the federal government was at fault for not enforcing the supreme law, as it is superior to any Thing in any state constitution, state laws, etc., which were to the contrary -- unless there were no federal penalties to the states for not harmonizing its laws with the supreme law.
If there were no penalties to the northern states for not adhering to the supreme law, why invoke penalties upon the south for seceding when there were no penalties listed?