“The Union must be preserved,” Jackson reiterated, “and its laws duly executed.” Poinsett was directed to tell the Unionists in South Carolina “that perpetuity is stamped upon the constitution by the blood of our Fathers.” Nothing could dissolve the Union. Nothing. Constitutional amendment was the process provided to secure needed changes. For this reason a state may not secede, much less “hazard” the Union. “Nullification therefore means insurrection and war; and the other states have a right to put it down.”23
