The true Democrat., 1856-06-24
VI. Resolued, That the imprisonment of a

United States, as is undertaken by the said act entitled An act concerning alens," is con- trary to the constitution, one amendment in which has provided that "no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law" and, that another having provided "that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to public trial by an impartial jury, to be informed as to the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory pro- cess for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have assistance of counsel for his defence,' 3 the same act undertaking to authorize the Pre- rsldent to remove person out of the United States who is under the protection of the law, on his own suspicion, without jury, without public trial without conformation of the wit nesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defence, without counsel, is contrary to those provisions also of the con- stitution, is therefore NOT LAW, but utterly VOID and of NO FORGE.
 That transferring the power of judging any person who is under the protection of the laws, from the courts to the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same act con- corning aliens, is against the article of the con- stitution which provides that "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the courts, the judges of which shall hold their offices during good behaviour and that the said act is void for that reason also; and 1t is further to be noted that this transfer of judi ciary power is to that magistrate of the gene ral government who already possesses all the executive, and qualified negative in all the
 legislative powers.
 VII. Resolued, That the construction ap. piled by the general government Gas is evident by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress power to lay and collect taxes, duties, lmposts, excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and gen. eral 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 to their power prescribed by the constitutions: That words meant by that instrument to be subsdia- ry only to the execution of the limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themseves to give unlimited powers, nor a part so to be ta- ken as to destroy the whole residue of the in- strument: That the proceedings of the gene-
 
 will be fit and necessary subject for revsal and correction at time of greater tranquility, while those specified in the preceding resolu- tions call for immediate redress.
 VIII. Reso1ved, That the preceding resolutions be transmitted to the senators and representatives 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, a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and ob- noXlous acts.
 TX. ResolOea lastly, That the government of this commonwealth be, ,and is hereby authorized and requested to communicate the preceding resolutions to the legislatures of the several States, to assure them that this commonwealth considers union for special national purposes, and particularly for those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and prosperity of all the States; tEat faithful to that compact according to the plain intent and meaning in which 1t was under stood and acceded 10 by the several parties, 1t IS sincerely anxious for its preservation; that It does also believe that, to take from the States all the powers of selfgovernment and trans. fer them to a general and consolidated govern. ment, without regard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, Is not for the peace, happiness or pros perity of these States; and that, therefore, this commonwealth Is determined, as it doubts net Its co-States are, to submit to undeieqatel and consequently unlimited p0l0ers, ta no nun or bosty Ot men on eaith; that if the acts before specified should stand these conclusions would flow from them-that the general government may place any act they think proper on the list of crimes, and punish 1t themselves, whe- ther enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as cosnizable by them; that they may transfer its cognlzance to the President or any other person, who may himself be the ac- cuser, counsel judge and jury, whose suspicious may be the evidence, his order the sentence, his officer the executloner, and his breast the sole record of the transactions; that a very nu- merous and valuable description of the nhabi- tants of these States, being by this precedent reduced as outlaws to the absolute dominion of one man, and the barriers of the constitution thus swept from us all, no rampant now re- mains against the passions and the powers of moJorlty Of Congress, to protect Us from a like eXportatlon or other grevlous punishment, the minority of the same body, the legislatures, judges, governors and counsellors of the States nor their other peaceabe inhabitants who may venture to reclaim the constitutional 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 interests, public or per sonal; that the lriendless alien has been select ed as the safest subject of first experiment; but the citizen will soon follow, or rather, has fo1l fora a1r hoe marked him as prey; that these, and success sive acts of the same character unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these States into revolution and blood, and will fur nish new calumnies against republican govern ment, and new preteXts for those who wish 1t to be believed, that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron; that it would be dangerous de- fusion, were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our parent of despOtism; free governments founded in jealousy, and not in confdence--it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our con- stitution 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 con- stitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government 1t created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits?
 Let him say what the government is, if it be not tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on the President, and the Pre- sident of our choice has assented to and &C., cepted 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 tEe President than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of power, then, let no more be 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 pun ishment of certain crimes herein before speci- fled, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact fkJAnd it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment to limit ed government, whether general or particular, and that the rights and liberties of their CO.,