Litchfield enquirer., 1861-07-18
lenders assailed by ferocious and murderous

7 lenders assaled by ferocious and murderou mobs?
 THE VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF lI9S. Having had occasion to allude to the Virgin
 resolutions of l799, may observe, that of thes famous resolves, the subjects of so much polit cal romance, it is time that little plain trut
 should be promulgated. The country in l79 was vehemently agitated by the struggles of tn
 domestic parties which about equally divided i
 and these struggles were urged to unwonted an
 extreme bitterness by the preparations mad
 and making for 8 war with France By an ac
 of Congress passed in the summer of that veal , the President of the United States was clothe, with power to send from the country any alie whom he might deem dangerous to the publi F peace and safety, or who should be concerned il any reasonable or secret machinations aeans the government of the United States. Thi
 act was passed as war measure it was to b
 in force two years and it expired by it's own linn itation on the 25th of June, 1900. War; it i true, had not been formally declared but hos
 tilities on the ocean had taken place on bot
 sides, and the army of the United States Ina,
 been placed upon war footing. The mcasur
 was certainly within the war power, and on
 which no prudent commander, even wthou
 the authority of a statute, would hesitate to ex ecute in an urgent case within his own district Congress thought fit to provide for and regulate
 it's exercise by law.
 Two or three weeks later (July IL, l790), an
 otEer law was enacted, making it penal to com
 blne or conspire with intent to oppose any law
 ful measure of the Government of the United States or to write print or publish any false or scandalous writing against the Government ei- ther House of Congress, or the President of the United States. In prosecutions under this law 1 1t was provided that the truth might be pleaded in justification. and that the jury should be judges both of the law and of the fact. This law was, by its own limitation, to expire at the close of the then current Presidential term. i Such are the famous Alien and Sedition laws, under the administration of that noble and true hearted revolutionary patriot John Adams, though not recommended by him officially or privately; adjudged to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, distinctly approved by Washington, Patrick Henry and 1 Marshall and whatever else may be said of them, certainly preferable to the laws which. throughout the seeding states, Judge Lynch would not fail to enforce at the lamp post and tar bucket against any person guilty of the of fences against which these statutes are aimed It suited, however, the purposes of party at that time, to raise a formidable clamor against tHcse laWS.- IL was III Fdll luaI Ilelf cOLStllu- tlonality was affirmed by the Judiciary of the United States. "Nothing," said Washington alluding to these laws, twill produce the least change in tie conduct of the lead CTS of the opposition to the measures of the General Government. They have points to car. ry from which no reasoning, no inconsistency of conduct, no absurtlty can divert them" Such in the opinion of Washington, was the object i for which the legislatures of Virginia and Ken lucky passed their famous resolutions of l799, the former drafted by Mr. Madison, and the lat ter by Mr. Jefferson and sent to friend in Ken lucky to be moved. These resolutions were transmitted to the other states for their concur renee. The replies from the states which made any response were referred to the committees in Virginia and Kentucky. In the legislature of Virginia an elaborate report was made by Mr. Madison, explaining and defending the resolu- tions in Kentucky another resolve re-ailirmng those of the preceding year was drafted by hfr Wilson Cary Nicholas. Our respect for the distinguished men who took the lead on this oc- casion, then ardent!y engaged in the warfare of politics, must rot make us fear to tell the truth that the simple object of the entire movement was to make political capital for the ap- preaching election, by holding up to the excited imaginations of the masses the Alien and Sedi- tion laws as an infracton of the Constitution which threatened the overthrow of the liberties of the people. The resolutions maintained that the states being parties to the constitutional compact, ina case of deliberate, palpablc and dangerous exercise of powers not granted by the compact the states have a right and are in duty bound to intsrDose for preventing the progress of the evil.
 Such, in brief, was the main purfort of the Virgin a and Kentucky resolutions. The sort Of interpretation intended was left in studied ob- scurity. Not word was dropped of secession from the Union. Mr. Nicholas resolution in l739 hinted at nullifcation" as the appropri- ate remedy for an unconditional law, but what was meant by the Astounding word was not ex- plained. The words nu void and of no effect contained in the original draft of the Virginia resolutions were stricken out from them on their passage through the Assembly; and Mir. Madis- on, ill his report of l799, carefully explains that no extra constitutional measure were intended One of the Kentucky resolutions ends with an invitation to the states to unite in petition to Congress to repeal the laws
 These resolutions were communicated. as I have said, to the other states for concurrence. From most of them no response was received |; some adopted dissenting reports and resolutions; not one concurred. But the resolutions did their work-all that were intended or expected to do-by shaking the administration at the ensuing election, Mr. Jefftrson. at whose in stance the entire movement was made, WAS cho- sen President by very small majority; Mir. Mad ison was placed at the head of his administra- ton as Secretary of State the obnoxious laws expired by their own limitation, not repealed by the dominant party, as Calhoun with strange n- advertance asserts Discourse on the Constitu- tioD, p. 359) and Alr. Jefferson proceeded to administer the government upon constitutional principles quite as lax to say the least, as those of his predecessors. If there was any mark ked de- parture in his general policy from the course hitherto pursued, it was that, having some theo- retical prejudice against navy, he allowed that branch of the service to languish By no ad- mipstration have the powers of the general GOV. ernnent been more literally construed-not to Say further strained-sometime benefcially as in the acquisition of Louis uisana-sometimes her. niciousy as in the embargo. The resolutions of l79S and the metaphysics they inculcated were surrendered to the cobwebs, which habitualv await the plausible congregations of the canvass after an election is decided. These resolutions of 1798 have been annually walked from their slumbers as closely contested elections as par ty cry; the report of the Hartford Convention without citing them by name, borrows their lan' guage; but as representing in their modern in. depreciation any system on which the govern. ment ever was or could be administered thov were buried in the same grave as the laws uh;cT called them forth "nion
 Unhapplly during their transient vitality l;ke the butterfly which deposits his egg in the an, pie blossoms that have so lately filled our orchards with beauty and perfume,-a gilded barmless moth, whose food is dew drop. whose life ia n