Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1830-10-15

be right and the seventeen wrong, more than pos
sibe But TO establish positive and permanent rule
giving such power, to such minority, over such
minority, would oyerturn the first principle of free
government, and IN practice necessarily overturn the
Government itself
Is it to be recoilected thai the constitution was
proposed to the people of the States ichoie and
unanimously adopted BY the States schote, it be-
ing part Of the constitution that not less than three
fourths of the States should be competent to make
any alteration in what had been unanimously agreed
to. So greet is the caution this point that III two
cases where peculiar interests were at STAKE pro
portion of three fourhs is distrusted, and una
nimity required to nuke an alteration
When the constitution was adopted as a whole, 1t
is certain that there were many parts, which if sep
arately proposed would have been promp y rejected
1t is far from mpossible that every part OF const
tuition mlgh;be rejected by ma ory. aud yet taken
together whole be unanimously accepted. Pree
constitutions will rarely if ever be formed without
reciprocal concessions; without articles conditioned
on and balancing each other. Is there constitution
of single State ont of the twenty four that would
bear the experiment of having it's component parts
submitted to the people and separately decided on!
What the fate of the constitution of the United
States would be if small proportion of the States
could expunge parts OF it particularly valued by a
| large majority. can have but one answer
Yhe difcultyjs not removed by limiting the doc
trine to cases of construction. How many cases of
that sort, involving cardinal provisions Of the consi
tuition, have occurred How many now exist How
many may hereafter spring upe How many might
be ingeneusy created, If entled 10 the privilege of
a decision IN the mode proposed
1t is certain that the principle of that mode would
not reach further than IS contemplated! If q single
State of right require three fourths of It's
States to override its exposition of the constitution,
because that proportion is authorized to amend it,
would the plea be less plausible, that the consti
tuition unanimously established, 1t ought to be
unanimously eXpounded:
The reply to all such suggestions seems TO be I'M
avoldab bic and irresistible, that the cons tuition
compact that its text Is to be eXpounded according
the compact; ana that Of the parties night
fully renounce the expoundihg provision than
any other part When such rightaccrues, may
accrue, 1t must grow out of abuses of the compact
releasing the sufferers from their feay 10 it.
| In favor of the nuli!ying claim for the States, in
divldnally, it appears, you observe, that the pro-
ceedings of the Legislature of Virginia, in 9s, and
IN 80, against the Alien and Sedldon Acts, are much
dwet upon
1t may often happen. experience proves that
erroneous constructions not anticipated may not be
Sufficiently guarded against, in the language nsed
and it is dGe the distinguished individuals who
have mlsconceived The intention of those proceedings
to suppose that the meaning of the Legislature,
though well compreheDdedht time, may not now
be obvious TO those uaacqnAnted with the conenpo
! rary indications and impressions
! But it is believed that bylkeepug IN view the dis
tinctIon between the goverA ments of the States and
the States IN the sense III wAch they were parties TO
the Constitution; between thu rights OF the parties IN
their and in tnes Individual capacjties
between the several modes md objects of nierpos-
ton against the abuses of pdwer, and especially be
tween interpretations within the purvew of the con-
stituton, and interpretations appealing from he con-
lst!tution to the rights of nature. paramount to all
consl buttons; with an attention. always Of explana
tory usc TO the views and arguments which were
combated the Resolutions of Virginia az vldicaied
I'm the report them will be found entitled TO an ex-
position, showing consistency in their parts and an
inconsistency OF tho whole with the doctrine under
consideration
That the Legislature could not have intended to
sanction such a doctrine to be inferred from the
debates in the Houselof Delegates, and from the ad
dress of the two houses their constituents on he
subject Of the Resolutions The tenor of The debates
which were ably conducted, and are understood to
have been revised for the press by most, if not ali of
the speakers, dscloses no reference whatever to a
constitutional right OF individual State to rrest
by force the operation of law of the United States
Concert omong the. States for redress against the
Alien and Sedtion Lays. acts of usurped power,
was leading sentiments and the attainment of a
concert, the immediate object Of the course adopted
by the legislature, which was that of inviting the
other States Ito concur In declaring the acts to be
unconstitutional and to cooperate by the necessary
and proper measures in maintaining unmpared the
authorities, rights and Liberties reserved 10 the States
respectively and to the peoples That by the ne
cessary and proper measures TO be concurrentty and
comparatively taken, were meant known to
the Constitution, particularly the ordinary control
the people and legislatures of he States, over the
government of the United States cannot be doubted;
and the interpostor of this control, as the event
shswed, was equal to the
1t is worthy OF remark, and explanatory OF the in
tenilons of the Legislature, that the words mot law
but utterly null, void and of force eect," which
had followed, in of the Resolutions, the word ur-
constitutional were struck by common consent.
Though the words were in fact but synonymous will,
unconstitutional yet, 10 guard against misunder-
standing Of this phrase more than decaratory of
opinion, the word 'unconstitutinual" alone was re-
tanned, as not liable TO that daprer
The published Address of The Legislature to the
people, their constituents affords another conclusive
evidence of lis views. The Address warns them
ganst the encrouching spirit of the General Govern
ment, argues the unconstitutonay of the Alien and
Sedtion Acts, points other instances IN winch the
constitutional limits had been overeaped; dwells up
on the dangerous mode Of deriving power by implca
ton; and III general presses the necessity of watch
ing over the consolidating tendency of the Federal
policy But nothing IS said that can be understood
to look to means of rnanta aiming the rights of the
States beyond the regular ones, with the forms of the
Constitution.
If ony further lights on the subject could be need