The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-09-27

7. Rssolued, That the construction applied by
the general government (as is evinced by sun
dry of their prooeedings) TO those parts OF the
Constitution of the United States Which dele
gate to Congress power 10 lay and collect taxes
duties. imposts, excuses, To pay the debts and
provide for the common defence and general
welfare Of the United States, and To make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the powers vested by
the Constitution in the government Of the United
States, or any department thereof, goes to the
destruction Of all the limits prescribed to their
power by the Constitution That words meant
by that instrument to be subsidiary only to the
execution OF the limited powers, ought not to
be so construed AS themselves to give unlimited
powers, nor part so to be taken as to destroy
the whole residue of the instrument: That the
proceedings of the general government, under
color of these articles, will be TIT and neces-
sary subject for revisal and correction at time
Of greater tranquility, while those specified IN
the preceding resolutions call for Immediate re-
ess.
8. nesolped, That the preceding resolutions
be transmitted to the senators and representa-
tives in Congress from this commonwealth, who
q epjoined TO present the same to their re- pee
i've houses, and to use their best endeavors to
procure, at the next session of Congress re-
peal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and OBJ
noxious acts.
g. Resolved lastly, That the governor of this
commonwealth be, and is hereby, authorized and
quested to communicate the proceeding reso-
lutions TO the legislatures of the several States,
{, assure them that this commonwealth consid-
ers union for special national purposes, and par
A.. Il. r.. fb. lota
compact to be friendly to the pc 0, happiness,
that compact, according to the plain intent and
meaning in which it was understood and acceded
to by the several parties is sincerely anxious for
its preservation; that it does also believe, that,
to take from the States all the powers of 81 :
1vernment, and transfer them to a general ar
lsolidated government, without regard to the
special delegations and reservations solemnly
agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace,
Il piness, or prosperity of these States and
nat, therefore, this commonwealth is determineS,
as it doubts not its States are, tamely to srb-
init to undelsgated, and consequently, unlimited
po,oers, in no man or body Of on earth; that.
If the acts before specified should stand, these
conclusions would flow from them-that the
general government may place any act that they
think proper on the list of crimes, and punish
it themselves, whether enu0erated or not by the
Constitution as cognizable by them that they
may transfer its cognzance to the President or
any other person, who may himself be the ac-
cuser, Judge, and jury, whose suspicious may be
the evidence, his order the sentence, his officer
the executioner, and his breast the sole record
of the transaction; that very numerous and
valuable description of the inhabitants of these
s. being by this precedent reduced as out
Law to the absolu dominion of one man, and
the barriers of the Constitution thus swept from
us all, no rampant now remains against the pas
sions and the powers of majority of Congress
to protect from like expectation other gric Y
GUS punishment the minority of the same DO
the legislatures, judges, governors and couns >
Tors of the States, nor their other peaceable in
habitants, who may venture tv reclaim the con-
rights and liberties of the States and
people, or who, for other causes, good or bad,
may be obnoxious to the view, or marked by the
suspicious of the President, or to be thought
dangerous to his or their elections, or other in
terests, public or personal; that the friendess
alien has been selected as the safest subject of
first experiment; but the citizen will soon fol-
low, or rather has already followed, for already
has sedtion act marked him as a prey that
these and successive acts of the same character,
unless arrested the threshold, may tend to drive
these States into revolution and blood, and will
furnish new calumnies against republican gov
ernments, and new pretexts for those who wish
it to be believed that man cannot be governed
but by rod of iron that it would be dan
gerous delusion were a confidence in the men of
our choice to silence our fears for the safety of
our rights; that confidence is everywhere the
parent of despotism-free government is found
ed in jealousy, and not in confidence it is jeal-
ousy, and not confidence, which prescribes linn
tied constitutions to bind down those whom we
are obliged to trust with power; that our Consti-
tuition has. accordingly, fixed the limits to which,
and no farther, our confidence may go +; and let
the honest advocate of confidence read the alien
and sedition acts, and say if the Constitution has
not been wise in fixing limits to the government
i created, and whether we should be wise in de-
stroying those limits
Let him say what the government is, If it be
not tyranny, which the men of our choice
nave conferred on the President, and the Presi-
lent 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
,hoice have more respected the bare suspicious
If the President than the solid rights of nno-
renee, the claims OF justification, the sacred
orce of truth, and the forms and substances of
aw and justice. In questions of power, then,
ct no more be said Of confidence in man, but
bind him down from mischief, by the chains of
he Constitution. That THIS COMMONWEALTH
DOES THEREFORE CALL ON ITS co-eTArEs for
IN expression of their sentiments on the acts
concerning aliens, and for the punishment of
,ertan crimes herein before speci6ed--plainly
declaring whether these acts are or are not au-
Lhorized by the federal compact. And it doubts
not that their sense will be so announced as to
prove their attachment to limited government;
whether general or particular, and that the
rights and liberties of their co,States will be ex-
posed to no dangers by remaining embarked on
4 common bottom with their own but they
will concur with this commonwealth in consd-
'rng the said acts as so palpably against ii
Constitution ms to amount TO an undisguiseo
declaration that the compact is not meant to be
he measure of the powers of the genera
but that It will proceed in the eq9
,rcise, over these States, of all powers whatsc
,ver. That they will view this as seizing the
rights of the States, and consolidating them in
he hands of the general government, with a
power assumed to bind the States, mot merely
N cases made federal, but in all cases whatso-
,vav \ hv laua made not with their conaeut. bnt