This would be simply civil war, and civil
war must be resorted to only as the last remedy for the worst of evils.
Whatever might tend to provoke it should be most carefully avoided.
A faithful and conscientious magistrate will concede very much to honest
error, and something even to perverse malice, before he will endanger
the public peace; and he will not adopt forcible measures, or such as
might lead to force, as long as those which are peaceable remain open to
him or to his constituents. It is true that cases may occur in which the
Executive would be compelled to stand on its rights, and maintain them
regardless of all consequences. If Congress should pass an act which is
not only in palpable conflict with the Constitution, but will certainly,
if carried out, produce immediate and irreparable injury to the organic
structure of the Government, and if there be, neither judicial remedy
for the wrongs it inflicts nor power in the people to protect themselves
without the official aid of their elected defender--if, for instance,
the legislative department should pass an act even through all the forms
of law to abolish a coordinate department of the Government--in such a
case the President must take the high responsibilities of his office and
save the life of the nation at all hazards.
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