OCR Text |
Show ) 192 KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1798-9. union for special nationa.l purposes, anu parlicnlarly for those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, hap pine s, and pro pcrity of all the Stales. ' that, faithful to that compact, accorc1ing to the plain in-tent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation; that it docs also believe that, to Lake fl'Om the States all the powers of self-govcrumeu t, and tran 'fer them to a gcucral and consolidated government, withont 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 eo-Stales arc, to submit to undclcgatc<l an<l consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men, on earth ; that, if the acts before specified should stand, these coHclusious would flow from thcm,-that the general government may place any act they think proper on the list of crimes, and punish it themselves, whether enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as recorrniz ·u by them; that they may transfer \ts cognizance to the Prcsidcn t or any other t>crson who 1 • 1 may himself be the accn,cr, counsel, judge, aud jury, whose suspicions may be cv iucncc, his order the seulcHcc, his offi~ er the executioner, anu his breast tl10. Role record of the transaction; that a very numerous an<1 valuable description of the inhabitants of these SLates, being by this precedent reduced, as outlaws, to the absolute dominion of one mnn, and lhc barriers of the Constitution thu swept from u all, no rampart now remains agaiusl the pn.s ion :.wu the power of a majority of Congress to protect from a like exportation, or olher grievous punishment, the minority of the same body, the lctrislature. J·udcrcs crovernors antl connsel- ._, 1 n 'h ' lors of the Slate, nor their peaceable inlmbitunt s, who may venture to reclaim the constitutional righls aud liberties of the SLates am1 people, or who, for oLher causes, good or ' KENTlrGKY H 14~~0LU'l' JONS OF 1798-9. 193 bad, may be obnoxious to the view, or marked by the suspicions, of the President, or thonght dnugrrons to his elections, or other interests, pnblic or personal; tht~t the friend less alien has been sclecLed as the safest subject of a first experiment; but the citi!';Cll will soon follow, or rather hns already followed; for already has a Sedition Act marked him as a prey; that these and successive nels of the same chal'actcr, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these States into revolution and blood, uud will furnish new calumnies against republican governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that man cannot be governed but by a r od of iron; that it would be a dangerous delusion were a conftdcncc in the men of our choice to silc11Cc our fears fot· the safety of onr ricrhls; that confluence is everywhere the purcnt of despotism; free government is found eel in jealousy, and not in con fidcncc; it is jealousy, not eonfLdcncc, which prescribes limilcd constitutions to bind down those whom we arc obliged to trust with power; that our Constitn tion has o.ccordingly fixed the limits to which, o.nd no farther, our confidence may go; and let the honest ad vocate of con fitlencc rcacl the Alien and Sedition .A.cls, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it created, n.nd whether we should be wise in destroying those limits; let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice hn ve conferred on the President, and the President of our choice has asscutcu to and accepted, over the friendly strangers to whom the mild l!lpirit of onr country and its laws had pledged hospitality and protcct.iou ; that the men of cnr choice hn.vc more respected the base suspicions of the Prcsi<lcnt, than the solia rights of ignorance, the claims of justifict~tion, the sacred force of truth and the forms and substance of law u.nd ' justice. In questions of power, then, 1et no more be saiu of con- 13 |