The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-07-20
ET US CLING TO THE CONSTITUTION AS THE MARINER
M1st&llaufous.
From the Concord IN. ~ STANDARD.

From the Concord Nv. n.y. Standard
The Right of State to retire from the
Compact-The Non-right Of Coercion.
In offering the extracts submitted in my
last number, from "Rawlc on the Constitu-
tion," [ observed that the views of Mr..
Rawle in substance, differed very little if
any, from the principles expressed by Mr..
Jefferson in the Kentucky resolutions,
and those of Mr.. Madison in the resolutions
of Virginia with his report thereon in
1850.
[ shall now proceed, as I proposed, to
introduce few such extracts from those
celebrated and important papers and other
writings of Mr.. Jefferson and Mr.. Madison,
as have the most palpablc and direct bear
ing on the right now foremost under dis
cussion; and inasmuch as many at this dis
tant period may not be fully appriscd of
the origin and history of those resolu-
tons in Kentucky and Virginia, or how
Mr.. Jefferson came to have any agency in
matters that took place in the Kentucky le-
gislature, as at that time he held the office
of VICE PRESIDENT of the U. STATES,
it may be we'll briefly to explain, that
the particular occasion giving rise to those
resolutions was, the passage of the Alien
and Sedition laws in Congress, by which,
among other evils they brought upon the
country, system of espionage was got
up and inaugurated by means of close
watches or spies, to listen to conversations
of persons at the corners of the streets and
elsew here, to ascertain if anything were ut
tel Cd Ss ARTIST rh1 Resident Of tue 'CNTlnp
STATES or heads Of departments, or either
House of Congress. Such offences under
those laws, were deemed Seditiou or aa-
neutrality-suspicious. so offending were
liable to be arrested and brought to trial,
and if found guilty of utterng or publish
ing, censorious Or disrespectful language
towards the powers that be, they were
fined or imprisoned, not to exceed a GER
tain term, at the discretion of the court,
in proportion to the Nervousness of the
offence. But all this was done according
to the tornes Of iav, by legal process, a
little more gcntcci, to be sure, than the
terocious LYNCH LAW system as Inaugural.
ted and practiccd by the ''wIDE-AwAKEs'
under the Lincoln dynasty, WITHOUT LAW
In this way many were fined and imprison
ed, and some were pardoned out of prison
by Mr. Jefferson, after he came into the
chair of state. AS to the Alien law, the
President was authorized to send aliens
out of the country whenever he might
deem it expcdient, and it would seem that
in order the more ef1ectually to aid the
President on this point, the naturalization
law was so altered as to require residence
or probation Of fourteen years instead Of
five years, as under the administration oil
Washington. Such is in brief the history
of that particular occurrence in John
Adams administration, which in that day
was called "THE REIGN OF TERROR"
1t was not known to more than one OF
two persons, that Mr. Jefferson had any
agency in the drafting of the Kentucky
Resolutions, until more than twenty years
after the dccease of Col. w. g. Nicholas
of kentucky, at whose pressing request
Mr.. Jefferson sketched the draft and who
undertook to introduce them to the legis-
n lature, under the assurance that it should
not be known from what quarter they came
A son of Col. Nicholas, in 1921, after the
fathers decease, wrote to Mr.. Jefferson tc
make the inquiry as to the fact, to whom
. Mr.. S. replied with an acknowledgment
of the paternity of the resolutions Aad
6 cannot give a better explanation of tho
circumstances than byusing Mr. Jefferson
own words, in reply to Mr.. Nicholas
which may be found in his correspondence
under date Dec. IL, 1921. " At the
time when the republicans of our country
The did not mean the "pse@do-repu6Hcans'
of this age] were so much alarmed at the
y proceedings of the federal ascendency il
Congress, in the executive and judiciary
departments, it became matter of serious
|; consideration how head could be made
against their enterprises on the constitu
ton. The leading republicans in Congress
found them selves of no use there, brow
beaten as they were by a bold and over
whelming majority They concluded t
retire from that field, take stand in tht
STATE LEGISLATURES, and endeavor there
to arrest their progress. The Alien ant
Sedition laws furnished the particular &C
casion. The sympathy between Virginii
and Kentucky was more cordial, and more
intimately confidential than between any