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

7. Resolued, That the construction applied By
! the general government Gas is evinced by sun
dry of their proceedLgs) to those parts OF the
, Constitution of the United States which dele
gate to Congress power to lay and collect taxes
duties, imposts, excuses, TO pay the debts and
provide for the common defence and genera
welfare of the United States, and to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper foi
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 theil
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 fit and neces
sary subject for revisal and correction at time
of greater tranquility, while those specified III
| the preceding resolutions call for Immediate re-
dress.
8. Resolved, That the preceding resolutions
| be transmitted to the senators and representa-
| tives in Congress from this commonwealth, who
are enjoined to present the same to their respec.
tive 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
8. Resolred, lastly, That the governor of this
commonwealth be, and is hereby, authorized and
requested to communicate the proceeding reso-
lutions to the legislatures of the several States,
/ to assure them that this commonwealth consid-
ers union for special national purposes, and par.
tcularly for those specified in the late fedora
compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness
and prosperity of all the States; that, faithful to
| that compact, according to the plain intent and
meaning in which it was understood and acceded
to by the several parties lis sincerely anxious for
its preservation that it does also believe, that
to take from the States all the powers OF self
government and transfer them to general and
consolidated government, without regard to the
special delegations and reservations solemnly
agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace,
happiness, or prosperity of these States; and
that therefore, this commonwealth is determined,
as it doubts not its co States are, tamely to sub
| mil to undelegated and consequently, unlimited
polcers, in no man or body of men 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 enumerated or not by the
Constitution as cognzabie by them that they
may transfer its cognlzance 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
States being BY this precedent reduced as out.
Al. IL 4. IF nd
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 or other griev-
GUS punishment the minority Of the same body,
the legislatures, judges, governors and counsel
lors of the States, nor their other peaceable in
habtants who may venture to reclaim the con-
stitutonal 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 friendless
alien has been selected "a the safest subject of
first expert ent; but the citizen will soon fol-
low, or rather has already followed for already
| has a sediti,n act marked him as a prey that
these and successive acts Of the same character,
unless arrested on The threshold may tend to drive
these States into revolution and blood, and will
furnish new ealumnies against republican gov
/ ernments, and new preteXts for those who wish
| il to be believed that man cannot be governed
| but by "A rod Of iron that IL would be n 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 s found
ed in jealousy, and not in confidence il is jeal
ousy, and not confidence, which prescribes im
tied constitutions to bind down those whom We
are obliged to trust with power; that our Consti
tuition has, accordingly, fixed the limits 10 which
and no farther, our confidence may 90; and LEI
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
it created. aud whether we should be wise in de.
stroying those limits
Let him say what the government is, il il be
not tyranny, which the men of our choice
have conferred on the President, and the Pres
dent 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 limo
cence, the claims Of Justification, the sacred
force Of truth, and the forms and substances Of
law and Justice. In questions Of power, then
let no more he said OF confidence in man, but
bind him down from mischief, by the chains Of
the Constitution. That THIS COMMONWEALTH
DOES THEREFORE CALL on ITS cO-sTATEs for
an expression Of their sentiments on the acts
concerning aliens, and for the punishment Of
certain crimes herein before speefed-plainly
declaring whether these acts are or are not au
thorized by the federal compact And II doubt:
not that their sense will be so announced as to
prove their attachment TO limited government
whether general or particular, and that H.,
rights and liberties Of their cO.States will be ex
posed 10 no dangers by remaining embarked OF
a common bottom With their own; but they
will concur with this commonwealth in consid
, rring the said acts as so palpably against tb'
Constitution as TO amount 20 an und sguiseC
declaration that the compact is not meant 10 b
the measure Of The powers Of the genera
government, bot that it will proceed in the ex
ercise, over these States, Of all powers whatso
. ever. That they will view this az seizing tn
rights Of the States, and consolidating them i
the hands of the general government, with