A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the PresidentsSubsequently to the date of those instructions, however, the ordinance of the convention was pa.s.sed, which, if complied with by the people of the State, must effectually render inoperative the present revenue laws within her limits.
That ordinance declares and ordains--
That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having operation and effect within the United States, and more especially "An act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the 19th of May, 1828, and also an act ent.i.tled "An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the 14th July, 1832, are unauthorized by the Const.i.tution of the United States, and violate the true intent and meaning thereof, and are null and void and no law, nor binding upon the State of South Carolina, its officers and citizens; and all promises, contracts, and obligations made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and void.
It also ordains--
That it shall not be lawful for any of the const.i.tuted authorities, whether of the State of South Carolina or of the United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the said acts within the limits of the State, but that it shall be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures and pa.s.s such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this ordinance and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States within the limits of the State from and after the 1st of February next; and it shall be the duty of all other const.i.tuted authorities and of all other persons residing or being within the limits of the State, and they are hereby required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to this ordinance and such acts and measures of the legislature as may be pa.s.sed or adopted in obedience thereto.
It further ordains--
That in no case of law or equity decided in the courts of the State wherein shall be drawn in question the authority of this ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the legislature as may be pa.s.sed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and the person or persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of court.
It likewise ordains--
That all persons holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under the State shall, within such time and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance and such act or acts of the legislature as may be pa.s.sed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such person or persons so to do his or their office or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as if such person or persons were dead or had resigned.
And no person hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, shall, until the legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execution of his office or be in any respect competent to discharge the duties thereof until he shall in like manner have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be empaneled in any of the courts of the State in any cause in which shall be in question this ordinance or any act of the legislature pa.s.sed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath that he will well and truly obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance and such act or acts of the legislature as may be pa.s.sed to carry the same into operation and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof.
The ordinance concludes:
And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the Government of the United States and the people of the co-States that we are determined to maintain this ordinance and declaration at every hazard, do further declare that we will not submit to the application of force on the part of the Federal Government to reduce this State to obedience, but that we will consider the pa.s.sage by Congress of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina, her const.i.tuted authorities or citizens, or any act abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act on the part of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or hara.s.s her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government and to do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent states may of right do.
This solemn denunciation of the laws and authority of the United States has been followed up by a series of acts on the part of the authorities of that State which manifest a determination to render inevitable a resort to those measures of self-defense which the paramount duty of the Federal Government requires, but upon the adoption of which that State will proceed to execute the purpose it has avowed in this ordinance of withdrawing from the Union.
On the 27th of November the legislature a.s.sembled at Columbia, and on their meeting the governor laid before them the ordinance of the convention. In his message on that occasion he acquaints them that "this ordinance has thus become a part of the fundamental law of South Carolina;" that "the die has been at last cast, and South Carolina has at length appealed to her ulterior sovereignty as a member of this Confederacy and has planted herself on her reserved rights. The rightful exercise of this power is not a question which we shall any longer argue. It is sufficient that she has willed it, and that the act is done; nor is its strict compatibility with our const.i.tutional obligation to all laws pa.s.sed by the General Government within the authorized grants of power to be drawn in question when this interposition is exerted in a case in which the compact has been palpably, deliberately, and dangerously violated. That it brings up a conjuncture of deep and momentous interest is neither to be concealed nor denied. This crisis presents a cla.s.s of duties which is referable to yourselves. You have been commanded by the people in their highest sovereignty to take care that within the limits of this State their will shall be obeyed." "The measure of legislation," he says, "which you have to employ at this crisis is the precise amount of such enactments as may be necessary to render it utterly impossible to collect within our limits the duties imposed by the protective tariffs thus nullified."
He proceeds:
That you should arm every citizen with a civil process by which he may claim, if he pleases, a rest.i.tution of his goods seized under the existing imposts on his giving security to abide the issue of a suit at law, and at the same time define what shall const.i.tute treason against the State, and by a bill of pains and penalties compel obedience and punish disobedience to your own laws, are points too obvious to require any discussion. In one word, you must survey the whole ground. You must look to and provide for all possible contingencies. In your own limits your own courts of judicature must not only be supreme, but you must look to the ultimate issue of any conflict of jurisdiction and power between them and the courts of the United States.
The governor also asks for power to grant clearances, in violation of the laws of the Union; and to prepare for the alternative which must happen unless the United States shall pa.s.sively surrender their authority, and the Executive, disregarding his oath, refrain from executing the laws of the Union, he recommends a thorough revision of the militia system, and that the governor "be authorized to accept for the defense of Charleston and its dependencies the services of 2,000 volunteers, either by companies or files," and that they be formed into a legionary brigade consisting of infantry, riflemen, cavalry, field and heavy artillery, and that they be "armed and equipped from the public a.r.s.enals completely for the field, and that appropriations be made for supplying all deficiencies in our munitions of war." In addition to these volunteer drafts, he recommends that the governor be authorized "to accept the services of 10,000 volunteers from the other divisions of the State, to be organized and arranged in regiments and brigades, the officers to be selected by the commander in chief, and that this whole force be called _the State guard_."
A request has been regularly made of the secretary of state of South Carolina for authentic copies of the acts which have been pa.s.sed for the purpose of enforcing the ordinance, but up to the date of the latest advices that request had not been complied with, and on the present occasion, therefore, reference can only be made to those acts as published in the newspapers of the State.
The acts to which it is deemed proper to invite the particular attention of Congress are:
First. "An act to carry into effect, in part, an ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States purporting to be laws laying duties on the importation of foreign commodities," pa.s.sed in convention of this State, at Columbia, on the 24th November, 1832.
This act provides that any goods seized or detained under pretense of securing the duties, or for the nonpayment of duties, or under any process, order, or decree, or other pretext contrary to the intent and meaning of the ordinance may be recovered by the owner or consignee by "an act of replevin;" that in case of refusing to deliver them, or removing them so that the replevin can not be executed, the sheriff may seize the personal estate of the offender to double the amount of the goods, and if any attempt shall be made to retake or seize them it is the duty of the sheriff to recapture them; and that any person who shall disobey the process or remove the goods, or anyone who shall attempt to retake or seize the goods under pretense of securing the duties, or for nonpayment of duties, or under any process or decree contrary to the intent of the ordinance, shall be fined and imprisoned, besides being liable for any other offense involved in the act.
It also provides that any person arrested or imprisoned on any judgment or decree obtained in any Federal court for duties shall be ent.i.tled to the benefit secured by the habeas corpus act of the State in cases of unlawful arrest, and may maintain an action for damages, and that if any estate shall be sold under such judgment or decree the sale shall be held illegal. It also provides that any jailer who receives a person committed on any process or other judicial proceedings to enforce the payment of duties, and anyone who hires his house as a jail to receive such persons, shall be fined and imprisoned. And, finally, it provides that persons paying duties may recover them back with interest.
The next is called "An act to provide for the security and protection of the people of the State of South Carolina."
This act provides that if the Government of the United States or any officer thereof shall, by the employment of naval or military force, attempt to coerce the State of South Carolina into submission to the acts of Congress declared by the ordinance null and void, or to resist the enforcement of the ordinance or of the laws pa.s.sed in pursuance thereof, or in case of any armed or forcible resistance thereto, the governor is authorized to resist the same and to order into service the whole or so much of the military force of the State as he may deem necessary; and that in case of any overt act of coercion or intention to commit the same, manifested by an unusual a.s.semblage of naval or military forces in or near the State, or the occurrence of any circ.u.mstances indicating that armed force is about to be employed against the State or in resistance to its laws, the governor is authorized to accept the services of such volunteers and call into service such portions of the militia as may be required to meet the emergency.
The act also provides for accepting the service of the volunteers and organizing the militia, embracing all free white males between the ages of 16 and 60, and for the purchase of arms, ordnance, and ammunition. It also declares that the power conferred on the governor shall be applicable to all cases of insurrection or invasion, or imminent danger thereof, and to cases where the laws of the State shall be opposed and the execution thereof forcibly resisted by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the power vested in the sheriffs and other civil officers, and declares it to be the duty of the governor in every such case to call forth such portions of the militia and volunteers as may be necessary promptly to suppress such combinations and cause the laws of the State to be executed.
No. 9 is "An act concerning the oath required by the ordinance pa.s.sed in convention at Columbia on the 24th of November, 1832."
This act prescribes the form of the oath, which is, to obey and execute the ordinance and all acts pa.s.sed by the legislature in pursuance thereof, and directs the time and manner of taking it by the officers of the State--civil, judiciary, and military.
It is believed that other acts have been pa.s.sed embracing provisions for enforcing the ordinance, but I have not yet been able to procure them.
I transmit, however, a copy of Governor Hamilton's message to the legislature of South Carolina; of Governor Hayne's inaugural address to the same body, as also of his proclamation, and a general order of the governor and commander in chief, dated the 20th of December, giving public notice that the services of volunteers will be accepted under the act already referred to.
If these measures can not be defeated and overcome by the power conferred by the Const.i.tution on the Federal Government, the Const.i.tution must be considered as incompetent to its own defense, the supremacy of the laws is at an end, and the rights and liberties of the citizens can no longer receive protection from the Government of the Union. They not only abrogate the acts of Congress commonly called the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, but they prostrate and sweep away at once and without exception every act and every part of every act imposing any amount whatever of duty on any foreign merchandise, and virtually every existing act which has ever been pa.s.sed authorizing the collection of the revenue, including the act of 1816, and also the collection law of 1799, the const.i.tutionality of which has never been questioned. It is not only those duties which are charged to have been imposed for the protection of manufactures that are thereby repealed, but all others, though laid for the purpose of revenue merely, and upon articles in no degree suspected of being objects of protection. The whole revenue system of the United States in South Carolina is obstructed and overthrown, and the Government is absolutely prohibited from collecting any part of the public revenue within the limits of that State.
Henceforth, not only the citizens of South Carolina and of the United States, but the subjects of foreign states may import any description or quant.i.ty of merchandise into the ports of South Carolina without the payment of any duty whatsoever. That State is thus relieved from the payment of any part of the public burthens, and duties and imposts are not only rendered not uniform throughout the United States, but a direct and ruinous preference is given to the ports of that State over those of all the other States of the Union, in manifest violation of the positive provisions of the Const.i.tution.
In point of duration, also, those aggressions upon the authority of Congress which by the ordinance are made part of the fundamental law of South Carolina are absolute, indefinite, and without limitation. They neither prescribe the period when they shall cease nor indicate any conditions upon which those who have thus undertaken to arrest the operation of the laws are to retrace their steps and rescind their measures. They offer to the United States no alternative but unconditional submission. If the scope of the ordinance is to be received as the scale of concession, their demands can be satisfied only by a repeal of the whole system of revenue laws and by abstaining from the collection of any duties and imposts whatsoever.
It is true that in the address to the people of the United States by the convention of South Carolina, after announcing "the fixed and final determination of the State in relation to the protecting system," they say "that it remains for us to submit a plan of taxation in which we would be willing to acquiesce in a liberal spirit of concession, provided we are met in due time and in a becoming spirit by the States interested in manufactures." In the opinion of the convention, an equitable plan would be that "the whole list of protected articles should be imported free of all duty, and that the revenue derived from import duties should be raised exclusively from the unprotected articles, or that whenever a duty is imposed upon protected articles imported an excise duty of the same rate shall be imposed upon all similar articles manufactured in the United States."
The address proceeds to state, however, that "they are willing to make a large offering to preserve the Union, and, with a distinct declaration that it is a concession on our part, we will consent that the same rate of duty may be imposed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than is necessary to meet the demands of the Government for const.i.tutional purposes, and provided also that a duty substantially uniform be imposed upon all foreign imports."
It is also true that in his message to the legislature, when urging the necessity of providing "means of securing their safety by ample resources for repelling force by force," the governor of South Carolina observes that he "can not but think that on a calm and dispa.s.sionate review by Congress and the functionaries of the General Government of the true merits of this controversy the arbitration by a call of a convention of all the States, which we sincerely and anxiously seek and desire, will be accorded to us."
From the diversity of terms indicated in these two important doc.u.ments, taken in connection with the progress of recent events in that quarter, there is too much reason to apprehend, without in any manner doubting the intentions of those public functionaries, that neither the terms proposed in the address of the convention nor those alluded to in the message of the governor would appease the excitement which has led to the present excesses. It is obvious, however, that should the latter be insisted on they present an alternative which the General Government of itself can by no possibility grant, since by an express provision of the Const.i.tution Congress can call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments only "on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the States." And it is not perceived that the terms presented in the address are more practicable than those referred to in the message.
It will not escape attention that the conditions on which it is said in the address of the convention they "would be willing to acquiesce" form no part of the ordinance. While this ordinance bears all the solemnity of a fundamental law, is to be authoritative upon all within the limits of South Carolina, and is absolute and unconditional in its terms, the address conveys only the sentiments of the convention, in no binding or practical form; one is the act of the State, the other only the expression of the opinions of the members of the convention. To limit the effect of that solemn act by any terms or conditions whatever, they should have been embodied in it, and made of import no less authoritative than the act itself. By the positive enactments of the ordinance the execution of the laws of the Union is absolutely prohibited, and the address offers no other prospect of their being again restored, even in the modified form proposed, than what depends upon the improbable contingency that amid changing events and increasing excitement the sentiments of the present members of the convention and of their successors will remain the same.
It is to be regretted, however, that these conditions, even if they had been offered in the same binding form, are so undefined, depend upon so many contingencies, and are so directly opposed to the known opinions and interests of the great body of the American people as to be almost hopeless of attainment. The majority of the States and of the people will certainly not consent that the protecting duties shall be wholly abrogated, never to be reenacted at any future time or in any possible contingency. As little practicable is it to provide that "the same rate of duty shall be imposed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the unprotected," which, moreover, would be severely oppressive to the poor, and in time of war would add greatly to its rigors. And though there can be no objection to the principle, properly understood, that no more revenue shall be raised than is necessary for the const.i.tutional purposes of the Government, which principle has been already recommended by the Executive as the true basis of taxation, yet it is very certain that South Carolina alone can not be permitted to decide what these const.i.tutional purposes are.
The period which const.i.tutes the due time in which the terms proposed in the address are to be accepted would seem to present scarcely less difficulty than the terms themselves. Though the revenue laws are already declared to be void in South Carolina, as well as the bonds taken under them and the judicial proceedings for carrying them into effect, yet as the full action and operation of the ordinance are to be suspended until the 1st of February the interval may be a.s.sumed as the time within which it is expected that the most complicated portion of the national legislation, a system of long standing and affecting great interests in the community, is to be rescinded and abolished. If this be required, it is clear that a compliance is impossible.
In the uncertainty, then, that exists as to the duration of the ordinance and of the enactments for enforcing it, it becomes imperiously the duty of the Executive of the United States, acting with a proper regard to all the great interests committed to his care, to treat those acts as absolute and unlimited. They are so as far as his agency is concerned. He can not either embrace or lead to the performance of the conditions. He has already discharged the only part in his power by the recommendation in his annual message. The rest is with Congress and the people, and until they have acted his duty will require him to look to the existing state of things and act under them according to his high obligations.
By these various proceedings, therefore, the State of South Carolina has forced the General Government, unavoidably, to decide the new and dangerous alternative of permitting a State to obstruct the execution of the laws within its limits or seeing it attempt to execute a threat of withdrawing from the Union. That portion of the people at present exercising the authority of the State solemnly a.s.sert their right to do either and as solemnly announce their determination to do one or the other.
In my opinion, both purposes are to be regarded as revolutionary in their character and tendency, and subversive of the supremacy of the laws and of the integrity of the Union. The result of each is the same, since a State in which, by an usurpation of power, the const.i.tutional authority of the Federal Government is openly defied and set aside wants only the form to be independent of the Union.
The right of the people of a single State to absolve themselves at will and without the consent of the other States from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of the millions composing this Union, can not be acknowledged. Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant both to the principles upon which the General Government is const.i.tuted and to the objects which it is expressly formed to attain.
Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the const.i.tutional power of the Government, or which may be inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, the Const.i.tution itself has prescribed the modes of redress. It is the acknowledged attribute of free inst.i.tutions that under them the empire of reason and law is subst.i.tuted for the power of the sword. To no other source can appeals for supposed wrongs be made consistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no other can such appeals be made with safety at any time; and to their decisions, when const.i.tutionally p.r.o.nounced, it becomes the duty no less of the public authorities than of the people in every case to yield a patriotic submission.
That a State or any other great portion of the people, suffering under long and intolerable oppression and having tried all const.i.tutional remedies without the hope of redress, may have a natural right, when their happiness can be no otherwise secured, and when they can do so without greater injury to others, to absolve themselves from their obligations to the Government and appeal to the last resort, needs not on the present occasion be denied.
The existence of this right, however, must depend upon the causes which may justify its exercise. It is the _ultima ratio_, which presupposes that the proper appeals to all other means of redress have been made in good faith, and which can never be rightfully resorted to unless it be unavoidable. It is not the right of the State, but of the individual, and of all the individuals in the State. It is the right of mankind generally to secure by all means in their power the blessings of liberty and happiness; but when for these purposes any body of men have voluntarily a.s.sociated themselves under a particular form of government, no portion of them can dissolve the a.s.sociation without acknowledging the correlative right in the remainder to decide whether that dissolution can be permitted consistently with the general happiness. In this view it is a right dependent upon the power to enforce it. Such a right, though it may be admitted to preexist and can not be wholly surrendered, is necessarily subjected to limitations in all free governments, and in compacts of all kinds freely and voluntarily entered into, and in which the interest and welfare of the individual become identified with those of the community of which he is a member. In compacts between individuals, however deeply they may affect their relations, these principles are acknowledged to create a sacred obligation; and in compacts of civil government, involving the liberties and happiness of millions of mankind, the obligation can not be less.
Without adverting to the particular theories to which the federal compact has given rise, both as to its formation and the parties to it, and without inquiring whether it be merely federal or social or national, it is sufficient that it must be admitted to be a compact and to possess the obligations incident to a compact; to be "a compact by which power is created on the one hand and obedience exacted on the other; a compact freely, voluntarily, and solemnly entered into by the several States and ratified by the people thereof, respectively; a compact by which the several States and the people thereof, respectively, have bound themselves to each other and to the Federal Government, and by which the Federal Government is bound to the several States and to every citizen of the United States." To this compact, in whatever mode it may have been done, the people of South Carolina have freely and voluntarily given their a.s.sent, and to the whole and every part of it they are, upon every principle of good faith, inviolably bound. Under this obligation they are bound and should be required to contribute their portion of the public expense, and to submit to all laws made by the common consent, in pursuance of the Const.i.tution, for the common defense and general welfare, until they can be changed in the mode which the compact has provided for the attainment of those great ends of the Government and of the Union. Nothing less than causes which would justify revolutionary remedy can absolve the people from this obligation, and for nothing less can the Government permit it to be done without violating its own obligations, by which, under the compact, it is bound to the other States and to every citizen of the United States.
These deductions plainly flow from the nature of the federal compact, which is one of limitations, not only upon the powers originally possessed by the parties thereto, but also upon those conferred on the Government and every department thereof. It will be freely conceded that by the principles of our system all power is vested in the people, but to be exercised in the mode and subject to the checks which the people themselves have prescribed. These checks are undoubtedly only different modifications of the same great popular principle which lies at the foundation of the whole, but are not on that account to be less regarded or less obligatory.
Upon the power of Congress, the veto of the Executive and the authority of the judiciary, which is to extend to all cases in law and equity arising under the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, are the obvious checks, and the sound action of public opinion, with the ultimate power of amendment, are the salutary and only limitation upon the powers of the whole.
However it may be alleged that a violation of the compact by the measures of the Government can affect the obligations of the parties, it can not even be pretended that such violation can be predicated of those measures until all the const.i.tutional remedies shall have been fully tried. If the Federal Government exercise powers not warranted by the Const.i.tution, and immediately affecting individuals, it will scarcely be denied that the proper remedy is a recourse to the judiciary. Such undoubtedly is the remedy for those who deem the acts of Congress laying duties and imposts, and providing for their collection, to be unconst.i.tutional. The whole operation of such laws is upon the individuals importing the merchandise. A State is absolutely prohibited from laying imposts or duties on imports or exports without the consent of Congress, and can not become a party under these laws without importing in her own name or wrongfully interposing her authority against them. By thus interposing, however, she can not rightfully obstruct the operation of the laws upon individuals. For their disobedience to or violation of the laws the ordinary remedies through the judicial tribunals would remain. And in a case where an individual should be prosecuted for any offense against the laws, he could not set up in justification of his act a law of the State, which, being unconst.i.tutional, would therefore be regarded as null and void. The law of a State can not authorize the commission of a crime against the United States or any other act which, according to the supreme law of the Union, would be otherwise unlawful; and it is equally clear that if there be any case in which a State, as such, is affected by the law beyond the scope of judicial power, the remedy consists in appeals to the people, either to effect a change in the representation or to procure relief by an amendment of the Const.i.tution. But the measures of the Government are to be recognized as valid, and consequently supreme, until these remedies shall have been effectually tried, and any attempt to subvert those measures or to render the laws subordinate to State authority, and afterwards to resort to const.i.tutional redress, is worse than evasive. It would not be a proper resistance to "_a government of unlimited powers_," as has been sometimes pretended, but unlawful opposition to the very limitations on which the harmonious action of the Government and all its parts absolutely depends. South Carolina has appealed to none of these remedies, but in effect has defied them all.
While threatening to separate from the Union if any attempt be made to enforce the revenue laws otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, she has not only not appealed in her own name to those tribunals which the Const.i.tution has provided for all cases in law or equity arising under the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States, but has endeavored to frustrate their proper action on her citizens by drawing the cognizance of cases under the revenue laws to her own tribunals, specially prepared and fitted for the purpose of enforcing the acts pa.s.sed by the State to obstruct those laws, and both the judges and jurors of which will be bound by the import of oaths previously taken to treat the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States in this respect as a nullity. Nor has the State made the proper appeal to public opinion and to the remedy of amendment; for without waiting to learn whether the other States will consent to a convention, or if they do will construe or amend the Const.i.tution to suit her views, she has of her own authority altered the import of that instrument and given immediate effect to the change. In fine, she has set her own will and authority above the laws, has made herself arbiter in her own cause, and has pa.s.sed at once over all intermediate steps to measures of avowed resistance, which, unless they be submitted to, can be enforced only by the sword.