The Placer herald., 1864-10-08

their proceedngs) to those parts of the constitu-
ton OF the United States, which delegate to
Congress power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
impoet, excuses; to pay the debts and provide for
the common defence and general welfare of the
! United States, and to make all laws which shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into eXecu-
ton the powers vested by the constitution in the
Government of the United States, or in any de-
partmcnt or officer thereof, goes to the destruc-
ton OF all limits prescribed TO their power by the
constitu lion that words meant by the instrument
| to be subsidiary only to the execution OF limited
| powers. ought not to be so construed as them
! selves to give unlimited powers, nor a part of
| them to be taken, as to destroy the whole residue
OF he instrument. That the proceeding of the
| General Government under color of those articles
will be tit and necessary subject for revisal and
correction at a time of great tranquility, while
those specified in the preceding resolutions call
| for Immediate redress.
8. Res0ived, That the preceding resolutions be
transmitted to the Senators and Representatives
in Congress from The commonwealth who are
enjoined to present the same to their respective
houses, and to use their best cndeavors to pro-
cure at the next session OF Congress Il repeal of
the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts
9. Resolved lastly. That the Governor Of this
commonwealth be, and is authorized and request
ed to communicate the preceding resolutions to
the legislatures of the several States, to assure
them that this commonwealth considers union for
specified 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-that faithful to that compact,
according to the plain intent and meaning in
which it was understood and acceded to by the
several parties it is sincerely anxious for its pre-
scrvation that il does also believe. that to take
from the States all the powers of sellgovcrn-
mcnt. and transfer them to a general and consol-
! dated government, without regard to the special
| delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to
| in that compact, is not for the peace happiness
po1 mr. Dnrit pt Ind not tbopo-
! fore, this commonwealth is determined, as it
doubts not its co states are. to submit to undele
gated and consequently unlimited powers in no
man, or body OF men, on earth; that if the acts
! before specified should stand, these conclusions
would grow from them, that the General Gov
ernment may place any act they think proper on
| the list Of crimes and punish it themselves
| whether enumerated or not enumerated by the
constitution cognizable by them that they may
transfer its cognizancc to the President or any
other person, who may himself be the accuser
counsel judge aud jury, whose suspicious may
be the evidence, his order the sentence, his officer
the eXecutoner, and his breast the sole record Of
| the transaction, that very numerous and valua-
bic description of the inhabitants of these States
| being by this precedent reduced as outlWs to the
absolute dominion of one man, and the barriers
of the constitution thus swept from US ALL no
rampant now remains against the passions and
! the power OF majority of Congress to protect
| from like expectation or other grievOuS pun
latures, Judges, governors and cOunselOrs of the
States, nor their other peaceable inhabitants who
may venture to reclaim tie constitutional rights
and liberties of the States and people, or who
for other causes. good or bad, may be obnoxious
to the views or marked by the suspicious Of the
President or to be thought dangerous to his or
their election or other interest public or person
al; that the frendless alien has been selected as
the safest subject of a first experiment, but the
citizen will soon follow, or rather has already
G,,ll IL,
him as its prey. That these and successive acts
of the same character, unless arrested at the
threshold may tend to drive these States into
revolution and blood and will furnish new calunl-
MES against republican government and new
pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that
man cannot be governed but by rod of iron;
that it would be a dangerous deusion were
confidence in the men of our choice to silence
our fears for the safety of our rights; that con-
hdence is everywhere the parent OF despotism;
free government is founded in jealousy and not
in confidence; it is Jealousy and not confidence
which prescribes limited constitutions to bind
down those whom we are obliged to trust with
power, that our constitution has fixed the limits
TO which, and no further our confidence may 90;
and let the honest advocate of confidence read
the alien and sediton &C is, and say il the consti-
ton has not been wise in fixing limits to the gov
eminent it 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 President Of our choice has
assentcd to and accepted over the friendly stran-
gers, to whom the mild spirit Of our country and
its laws have pledged hospitality and protection:
that the men of choice have more respected
the bare suspicious of the President than the solid
rights OF innocence, the claims Of justification,
the sacred force of TRUTH and the forms and sub
stance Of law and justice. In questions OF power,
then. let no more be heard OF confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains
Of the constitution. That this commonwealth
docs therefore call on its co-states for express
sion OF their sentiments on the acts concerning
aliens. and for punishment of certain crimes.
hercinbciore specified, plainly declaring whether
these are or are not authorized by the Federal
compact. And ii doubts not that their sense will
be so announced as to prove their attachment
unatcred to limited government whether gen
cral or particular, and that the rights and liber-
ties of their co-states will he exposed to no dan
gers by remaining embarked on a common bottom
with their own. But they will concur with this
commonwealth in considering the said acts as so
an undsgused declaration that that compact is
not meant to be the measure OF the power of the
General Government, but that it will proceed in
the exercise over these states OF all powers what
soever That they will view this as scizing the
rights of the states and consolidating them in the
hands OF the General Government with the power
assumed to bind the states. not merely in cases
made Federal but in all cases whatsoever, by
laws made not with their consent but by others
against their consent; that this would be to sur
render the form of government we have chosen,
and living under one deriving its power from its
own will, and not from our authority; and that
the co-staes recurring to their natural ri ghts in
cases not made Federal will concur in declaring
these void and of no force, and will each unite