To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the [American] system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by influence of its patronage, will supersede the laws...

Speech of Mr. Calhoun...: On the Bill Further to Provide for the Collection of Duties on Imports (ed. 1833)