Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1833-05-22

DIS " ueatfoy tne WHOte residue Oh tne llSlfu- /
ment Thai the proceedings of the general |
government under the color of those articles,
will be fit and necessary subject for revisal
and correction at a time of great tranquility
while those specified in the preceding .esolu-
tons call for immediate redress. I
VIII Resolped, That the preceding rcso-
lutons be transmitted to the Senators and Re-
representatives. in Congress from this commons
wealth, who are enioined to present the same
to their respective houses, and to use their best
endeavors to procure at the next session of Con
gress, repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional
and obnoxious acts
TX. Resolped lastly, That the governor OF
this commonwealth be, and is hereby autho>
rlzed and requested to communicate the pre-
ceding resolutions to the Legislatures of the
lseveral states, to assure them that this common
wealth considers union for special national pur-
poses, and particularly for those specified in
their late federal compact, to be friendly to the
peace, happiness, and prosperity of all thel
states-that faithful to that compact, accordingl
to the plain intent and meaning in which it was
understood and acceded to by tie several par
ties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation
that it does also believe, that to take from the !
states all the powers OF government, and
transfer them to general and consolidated
government, without regard to the special dele
cations and reservations solemnly agreed to In
that compact, is not for the peace, happiness,
or prosperity of these states: And that there
fore, this commonwealth is determined, as it
doubts not its co-states are, to submit to unde-
tegdted and consequently unlimited porers in
no man. or body of men on EARTH: that if the
hacnr J.t,D Il 49,
illusions would flow from them; that the gem
eral government may place any act they think
proper on the list IF crimes and punish it them
selves whether enumerated or not enumerated,
( by the Constitution as cognizable by them i
that they may transfer its cognizance to the
President or any other person, who may HIM
self be the accuser, counsel, Judge, and jury.
whose suspicious may be the evidence, his Or
der the sentence, his officer the executioner,
and his breast the sole record of the transac-
ton; that very numerous and valuable de-
scription Of the inhabitants of these states, be-
ing by this precedent reduced as out laws toI
the absolute dominion of one man and the bar
riers of the Constitution thus swept from us all :;
no rampant now remains against the passions
and the power of majority of Congress, to-
protect from like expectation or grlevous pun
lshment the Minority of the Same body, the
legislatures, Judges, governors, and counsellors
| OF the states, nor their other peaceable inhabI-
! tan.s who may venture to reclaim the consti
tutiuua rihgIs and iibortieS OF The states, aud
people, or who, for other causes, good or bad,
NAV be obnoxious 10 the view or marked by
the suspicious of the President, or to be thought
dangerous to his or their elections or other H.
terests, public or personal; that the friendless
alien has been selected as the safest subject of
a first experiment; but the citizen will soon
follow, or rather has already followed; for, al
ready has sedilion act marked him rs a prey
That these and successive acts of the samej
character, unless arrested on the threshold, may
tend to drive these states into revolution and
blood, and will furnish new calumnes agans
republican governments, and new preexts forI
those who wish it to be believed, that man can
not be governed but by rod of iron; that il
would be a dangerous dousion were confi>
dence in the men Of our choice to silence our
fears for the safety Of our rights; that conf
dence is every where the parent of despotism;
free government is founded in jealousy and not
in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence
which prescrihes limited constitutions to bind
down those whom we are obliged to trust with
power; that our Constitution has accordingly
! fixed the limits to which and no farther our
confidence may go; and let the honest advocated
of confidence read the alien and sedition acts,
and say if the Constitution has not been wise
in fixing limits to the government it created,
and whether we should be wise in DESTROYING
those limits? Let him say what the government
is, lift be not a tyranny, which the men of our
choice have conferred on the President, and
the President;of our choice has assented to and
accepted over the friendly strangers, to whom
the mild spirit of our country and its laws had
pledged hospitality and protection; that the
men Of our choice have more respected the bare
suspicious Of the President than the solid rights
of innocence, the claims of Justification, the
sacred force of truth, and the forms and SUBJ
stance of law and justice. In question of pow
er then let no more be said OF confidence in
man, but bind him down from mischief by the
chains of the Constitution. That THIS COM
MoNwEALTH DOES THEREFORE, CALL ON ITS CO
STATES for an expression of their sentiments
on the acts concerning aliens, and for the pun
ishment of certain crimes herein before speci.
fed, plainly declaring whether these acts are
or are not authorized by the federal compact.
And it doubts not that their sense will be so an
nounced as to prove their attachment to limit
| ed government, whether general or particular