Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-08-29

But now, after we have enjoyed the bles-
sings of these sacred provisions, has party
arisen in our midst, and with secret oath
bound combinations, resolved to plot out this
pure and life giving principle, and by force
and violence of law restrain and abridge the
liberties of men and limit their civil rights
by an odious and impious religious test. AS
citizens of this mighty Republic. as members
of the great Democratic party, as men TOT
the sake of mankind at large, we cal upon
rou 10 resist this sacrilege and renuke tnese
conspiratorc against the honof anu uiSnlty u
cur Constitution and laws.
After the adoption of the Constitution, and
during the administration of the elder Adams,
Congress enacted two Statutes, one concern
ing aliens and the other entitled an act for
the punishment of certain crimes against the
United States, known as the Alien and Sedi-
ton Laws. Immediately upon the enactment
of these statutes, the States of Kentucky and
Virginia passed certain resolutions, condemn
ing them as violations of the letter and spirit
of the Constitution and reprobating them rs
gross attempts to establish arbitrary authors
tv and as subversive of the liberties OF the
people The Kentucky resolutions were writ
ten by Mr. Jefferson, and those OF Virginia
were written by Mr.. Madison, and both OF
taese we're addressed to the Legislatures of
the several States, inviting their cooperation
To resist these Statutes. Some of their Legis-
latures refused to cooperate with Virginia
and Kentucky aad pronounced these resolu-
tions to be of dangerous tendency, and
therefore not fit subject for futher considera-
ton. To these refusals the Commonwealth of
Virginia replied in the form of a Report
drawn by Mr.. Madison, adopted by the
Legislature of the State in 1893. The object
of the Alien law was exposed in these reso-
lutions and in that Report, and the mischiev-
Gus consequences of its adoption were fully
explained and demonstrated in those mastery
papers. In them it was proclaimed to be in
human, impolitic, illegal and irrational for
Congress to restrain the current of emigration
that was setting in towards our shores, caused
by the high tides of civil convulsions and
public discord that were raging In Europe.
Mr. Jefferson there said that the Alien law
will furnish new calumnies against republican
governments, and new pretexts for those who
wish it to be believed that man cannot be
governed but by a rod of iron, and that a
very numerous and valuable description of
the inhabitants of these States would, by this
precedent, be reduced as outlaws and that
= the mild spirit of our country and its laws
had pledged hospitality and protection to these
friendless strangers" 1t was denounced by
Mr. Madison iii his report as tyrannical in
It's spirit and comforting despotic power up
on the President, to Danish . an alien from
country into which he had been invited as the
asylum most auspiciors TO his happiness, a
country where he may have formed the most
tender connections, and where he may have
invested his entire property"
This law thus resisted, and nulli6ed, and
defeated, never assumed to do more than ex-
ercise restraining power over ALIENS and
harsh as it was, had no relation to naturalza-
ton, and no man among the hardest of its
supporters at that day. dared to propose the
'disfranchisement of enigrants or the abolition
of the naturalization laws. The public that
was indignant at the tyrannical spirit of that
statute, would have burst out with one shout
of condemnation at any attempt to outlaw
freemen and reduce them to the condition of
slaves, because they were born in another
country and were of another people Upon
the rsistanee to the Alien and Sedition Laws,
and in support of the principles announced in
chose resolutions and that Report of '99, was
Mr. Jefferson elected and the Democratic
party established as an organized element of
pelsticsa acEsa ia tlis eooatry. From that
day to this. has it been stesdfast in its integ-
City and purity, upholding and vinjieating
the liberties of the country
Our Cohstitatien was rot wrested from the
reluctant haads Of Lxless kings. 1t was the
free compact of free sovereiSuties ef Ereemen,
made with each other for their own domestic
advantage in the common cause of human
freedom, and for the perpetuation of hgmaa
rights Our commercial and public aecessi-
ties, and our Political Friaciplcs, ali prompted
as to encourage emigration, and by its health
full indueRce have we prospered as a people.
We have multiplied in our inhabitants. We
have increased in oar wealth and grown
mighty with population that has been driven
to us for shelter and to whom we are piedced
before the werld TO secure the rights Of civil
and religious liberty, and upon whom we are
likewise pledged as Democrats, to confer the
rights of citizenship as the ireliensblc right
of their manhood. In the making of the
laws that govern them they as freemen have
right to participate. To refuse them that
right would be impolitic. illegal and inhuman
ny adopting them we have secured the SER
vfccs ct men skilled in all the mysteries of
the mechanic arts, and we have despoiled Ec-
rope, and European Monarchies of greater
sources OF national and personal property.
individual happiness and public renown, than
IT we had conquered in hundred fights. Treat
them aliens, disqaaiify them by statute. and
we have in our midst body of oppressed nm
happy and dissatisfied men, who would feel
their degradation among freemcu and sink to
its level.
There is not an evil complained of in the
whole catalogue of accusations preferred a.
gainst the naturalized voters of the country,
that vcxld equal the wrong that would be done
60 our priaeiples and our people. by the refusal
% allow the right Of suffrage and the equal
figh' OF ONCE to all citizens In countries
wnere the government is fraud upon the peo-