I go with Jackson: OUR FEDERAL UNION, IT MUST BE PRESERVED. And many Southerners agreed.
I agree with (a different) Jackson—the Constitution is not a suicide pact.
As far as Andy goes, I’ll stick with Calhoun’s rejoinder, which you may realize was the counter toast to Andy’s line at the first Jefferson Day dinner.
The full toast is as follows:
“The Union — next to our Liberty the most dear; may we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefit and burden of the Union.”
If you don’t want to respect the rights of the States and distribute the benefit and burden equally, you aren’t interested in Union but in exploiting other States.