Year: 1861

that reason also; and it is further to he noted


that this transfer Of judiciary power is to that
magistrate Of the general government who al
ready possesses all the executive and qualified
negative in all the legislative powers.


7. Res0ived. That the construction applied by
the general government (as is evident by sundry
Of their proceedings) to those parts of the Con
stituton of the United States which delegate to
Congress power 10 lay and collect taxes, duties.
imposts, eXcises to pay the debts and provide
for the common defense and general welfare OF
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 prescribed to their power by the Con-
stitutiOn: that words meant by that instrument to
be subsidiary only to the execution Of the limited
powers, ought not to be so construed as them
selves to e We unlimited, nor part so to be taken
as to destroy the whole residue of the instrument;
that the proceedings OF the general government,
under color of those articles. will be lit and
necessary subject for revsal and correction at !.
time OF greater tranquility while those specified
in the preceding resolutions call for immediate
redress.


8. Resolved That the preceding resolutions be
transmitted to the Senator's and Representatives
in c ngress from this Commonwealth, who are
erjoined to present the same to their respective
houses, and to use their best endeavors to procure
u Il
aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts.


9. Resolued. Lastly That the Governor Of this
Commonwealth be, and is authorized and request
ell to communicate the preceding res. lutions TO
the Legislatures of the several States, to assure
them that this Commonwealth considers union
for special national purposes and particularly
for t"ose specified in their late federal compact,
to be friendly to the peace. happiness and pros
perity of all the States; that. faithful to that
compact according to the plain intent and mean
ing in which it was understood and ucceded to
by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for
its preservation; that it does not believe that,
to tnke from The States all the powers Of self
government. and transfer them to a general and
consolidated government without regard to the
special government. and reservations SOlemnly
agreed to in that compact. is not for the peace.
happiness or prosperity OF these States; and that
therefore, this Commonwealth is determined. as
it doubts not its co-Stalcs are, TO submit to un-
delegated and consequently unlimited powers in
no man or body of men on earth; that if the acts
before specified should stand, these conclusions
would flow from them that the general govern
ment may place any act they think proper on the
list of crimes, and punish it themselves, whether
enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitu-
tion as cognizable by them; that they may trans
fer its cogniz ,nce to the President or any other
person. who may himself be the accuser, counsel,
Judge and jury. whose suspicious may be evidence.
his order the sentence, his officer the executOncr,
and his breast the sole record Of the transaction;
that a very numerous and valuable description
of the inhabitants Of these States being by this
precedent, reduced as Outliw to absolute dOm-
nion Of one man, and the barriers of the Consti
tuition thus swept from US all, no rampant now
remains against the passions and the power OF a
majority OF Congress, to protect from like cx-
portation. or other gricvous punishment, the mi
nority Of the same body, the legislatures Judges,
governors, AMI counscors OF the States, nor their
1a tnh tho to
reclaim the Constitutional rights and lii critics 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 be
thought dangerous to his or their elections or
other interests, public PERSONAL that the friend
less alien has been selected rs the safest subject
of first experiment. but the citizen will soon
follow, or rather has already tollowcd for already
has ~ sedition act marked him as u spy;-thlt
these and successive acts Of the same character,
unless arrested on the threshold, may tend TO
drive these States into revolution and blood,
AM will furnish new calumnes against lepubli-
can governments, and new pretexts for those who
wish it to be believed that man cannot be govern
ed but by a rod of irOn;--that it would be
dangerous deusion were confidence in the men
of our choice to silence our fears for the safety
of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the
parent of despOtism; free government is founded
in jealousy. and not in confidence; it is sjeaousy,





stitutions, to bind down those whom we are oblig-
ed to trust with pOwer that our Constitution has
accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no fur
ther, our confidence may go; and let the honest
advocate o. confidence read the alien and sediion
acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise
in fixing limits to the government it created, and
whether we should be wise in destroying those
limits; let him say what the government is, if it
be not u tyranny, which the men Of our choice
have conferred on the President. and the Prcsi
dent of our choice has assented to and accepted
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
the 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 bird him down from
mischief by the chains OF the Constitution.


That this Commonwealth does, therefore, call
on its co-States for m expression of their scnt-
ments on the acts concerning aliens, end for the
punishment of certain crimes. herein-before spe-
Gifted. plainly declari whether these acts are
or are not authorized by the federal compact.
And it doubts not that their sense will be so an
nOunced as to prove their attachment to limited
government. whether general or particular; and
that the rights and liberties OF their co-States
will be exposed to no dangers by remaining en-
barked on a common bottom with their Ow ; but
they will concur with this Commonwealth in con
siderng the said acts as so palpably against the
Constitution as to amount t" an undisguiscd de-
clar;,tion that the compact is not meant to be the
measure of the powers OF the general govern
ment. but that it will proceed in the exercise over
these States of all powers whatsoever.


That they will view this as seizing the rights
of the States. nd consolidating them in the hands
of the general government. with power assumed
to bind the States, not merely in cases made tede-
raj, hut in all cases whatsoever, by laws made,
not with their consent, but by others against their
consent; that This would be to surrender the form
Of government we have chosen, and live under
one deriving its powers from its own will, and
not from our authority: and that the CO States,