Proclamation Regarding Nullification: States' Rights Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)

Quote #4

It has been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. (32)

The point of the Revolution, according to Jackson, was not to have a bunch of independent states arguing with one another over everything. States lost many of their rights when they decided to join the Union. Sometimes the laws will favor your region, sometimes not—that's just part of the deal. In fairness to the Farmers, they did their best to create a document that would exist for the betterment of all the states, with their different interests and economies. Nobody was completely happy with it—the nation even then was just too large and diverse for the Constitution to please everyone.

Quote #5

Fellow-citizens of my native State! let me not only admonish you, as the first magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to a certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either deceived themselves or wish to deceive you. (36)

Jackson's calling the Nullifiers babies who don't know enough to recognize the danger they're getting into. And he's their Daddy. Their leaders are trying to convince them this is a states' right issue when it so isn't.