Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-11-30
STATES, RIGHTS.

THE ADOPTION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES RIGHTS
DOCTRINE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE NORTH.
Since the South have determined on making
Slavery national institution, and already
clearly succeeded in forcing the General Govern
ment to adopt her plan in that respect, does it
not behoove the Anti-Slavery men of the North
to pause before this new phase which the battle
between Slavery and Freedom has recently as-
sumed, and look around them, to see whether
the exigency may not require of them change
of their old position, In some respects, to enable
them to meet with moro effect the argument in
yolved in this late alarming assumption of the
Slave Power
We maintain tho affirmative, clearly believing
that it does behoove them so to pause, 50 to ex-
anime, and SO to meet the question arising un
der this crisis. And we maintain the opinion
also, that on such examination OF the present
state of the contest, and the means required to
wage it successfully, in the altered position of
the enemy, that they will perceive both the JUS
tico and expadiency of adopting at once, to the
fullest extent, as an essential part Of their po
litical creed, the old States Rights doctrines of
the South, originating with those fathers and
founders of true Democracy-Jefferson and
Madison-and embodied in the celebrated Vir-
GINA and Kentucky Resolutions Of 1893 and
1893.
We would have tho Free Democracy adopt
this doctrine, not only because we believe it to
be right and truly Democratic, but because it
would place them before the country, at this
time, in the strongest possible position for sue
cessful resistance to the aggrcssions of the Slave
Power on the rights and liberties of the free
States, now carried on through the formidable
nstrumentality of the Federal Government.
The Resolutions to which we have referred,
together with the subsequent interpretations
given of them, by their illustrious authors, and
by the various Legislatures Of the Saveholding
States, that up to 1850 had universally adopted
them, and that still hold to them on everything
but Slavery, distinctly embody the following 70
sitions
LIST. Every State has full right to judge for
itself of the infractions of the Federal compact,
or whether an act of Congress is u violation Of
the Constitution or not, and its decision thereon
is conclusive against the Federal Government
I'd. That when State judges that infractions
have been made on the Constitution by the Cen
eral Government, it has the full right to decide
I g., ,fonlf hat shall ha tho ,no1a IF
whether romonstrance, protest, or the absolute
notification of the obnoxious act in question
All this will abundantly appear by the fol-
lowing extracts:
That this Assembly doth explicitly and per-
emptorily declare that it views the powers of
the Federal Government rs resulting from the
compact to which the States are parties, as linn
tied by the plain sense and intention of the in
strument constituting that compact, as no fur
ther valid than they are authorized by tho grants
enumerated in that compact and that in case
of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise
Of other powers not granted by said compact,
the States who are parties thereto, have the
right, and ore in duty bound, to interpose. for
arresting the progress of the evil, and for main
tanning, within their respective limits, the au-
thorties, rights and liberties appertaining to
them. j. Virginia Resolutions, drdtoa By Mr..
Madison
"That this Government, created by this COM
pact was not made the exclusive judge of the
extent of tho powers delegated to itself, since
that would have made its discretion, and not
the Constitution, the measure Of its powers
but that, as in all other cases of compact among
parties having no common judge, each party has
an equal right to judge for Itself, as aoell Of in
fractions, as Of the mode and measure Of re-
dress. "-Rentucky Resolutions Of 1898, draton
by Mr.. Jr0erson
"That the several States who formed that in
strument, being sovereign and independent, have
the unquestionable right to judge of the infrac
} ton; and that a MULTIPLICATION, by those sove-
roignties, Of all unauthorized acts done under
color of that instrument, is the rightful RENE
DY. '-hentucky Resolutions Of 1893.
And the subsequent legislatures of Virginia,
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and every
other Slaveholding State that has taken action
on the subject, have repeatedly, from 1899 to
1850, rc-adopted the whole of those resolutions,
and fully re-affrmed, in the broadcast sense, all
the doctrines, and the strongest positions they
embody aud maintain.
Now who does not clearly perceive that those
doctrines and positions, adopted and assumed
by all the leading Slavehoding States for more
than half century, afford complete justifca-
ton and defence for the passage of the late Act
ofConnecticut against kidnapping, which south
ern members made such an out-cry about in
the Senate last summer, and also for tho passage
of similar Act by our late legislature! And
who may not just as clearly perceive that they
would afford an equally complete justifca-
ton and defence of those and all other North
earn legislatures, for the exercise Of their right
of Judging of the infraction Of the Constitution
in all National legislation for Slavery. and APP
plying the remedy, even to the absolute nullif-
cation of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the pro-
hbition of its execution, within their respective
,imita, under penalties ten times more severe
than those contained in that law to ensure its
| observance
..H