The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-10-16
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MiSeRllaMenMs.
History REPEATING Itself = The
Political Contest or 15s0 atsJ :

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the Democratic party into existence, and
placed it in power in our government -
There had been body of able men who
desired to fashion our general government
upon the model of the British system, but
the great majority of the American people
were Republicans, in principle as well as
in name, and were exceedingly jealous of
their rights of local self government They
hesitated to adopt the federal constitution
as first presented, from apprehension that
it mighttbe so administered as to trench
upon the reserved rights and independence
of the States, and their scruples were only
overcome by the assurance and general I'm
Outstanding that amendments should at
once be Incorporated into the instrument,
, more distinctly guaranteeing the indepen-
dence of the States, and the liberty of the
citizen, 1t was in the pursuance of this
understanding that the first ten amendments
were adopted, constituting together Bill
of Rights. The character of the federal
government, as one of limited delegated
powers, was distinctly defined, and the re-
served rights Of the States and the citizens
thereof set forth in unmistakable terms.
% During the term of the elder Adams, these
reserved rights were encroached upon, and
O there was manifested by the Federal party,
as it was called, a disposition to consolil
ddate all power in the central government -
Q to reconstruct it in administration, SO as
G to makaiit, what had been apprehended at
the outset, supreme, unlimited authority.
The tendency was early discovered by the
sagacious Jefferson. land other vigilant
friends of Democratic institutions; and in
HOO 81 4xxoJ~xx
resolutions were adopted and sent to each
resolutions may be judged from the first Of
!. the series adopted by Kentucky, drawn BY
Thomas Jefferson. It is as follows:
ResolUed, That the several States com
posing the United States of America are
not united on the principle of unlimited
submission to the General Government; but
that, by compact under the style and t.
tie o Constitution for the United States,
and ofamendments thereto, they constituted
"a General Government for special purposes
delegated to that Government certain
definite powers, reserving, each State to it,
self, the residuary mass of right to their own
self-goyernment; and that whatsoever the
General Government assumes undelegated
powers its acts are unauthoritative,s void,
and ofno force; that TO this compact each
State acceded as State, and is an integ-
raj party, its co-States forming, as to itself,
the other party that the government crea-
ted by this compact was not made the ex-
elusive and final judge of the powers dele
gated to itself, since that would have made
its discretion and not the Constitution, the
measure of its powers; but that, as in all
other cases of compact among powers hav-
ing no common judge, each party has an
equal right to judge for itself, as well Of
attractions as the mode and measure of re-
The resolutions then go on to cnumerate
certain acts abridging the freedom ofspeech
and Of the press, and placing the freedom
of the person the power Of the President
without due process lof law, denouncing1
them as saltogether void and Of no force.p
= These resolutions by Virginia and Ken |
lucky brought the subject prominently be- |
fore the whole country. The adherents Of
the Federal, or consolidation party, upheld |
the acts in question, thes.alien and sedition |
laws" etc, while those who favored State
Independence and local. self-government
sided with Virginia in demanding a strict I
construction of the Constitution in its adj
sministration. b 5alH q aiaE o3Ht az \
The Republican party was formed to com
lat the latitudinarian notions of the Fedora
lists, who attempted to deter people from !
Joining their opponents by nicknaming ,
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