the next meeting of her legislature, and during the memorable session of 1798-9, were passed those resolutions, which, taken in connection with the debates that followed, present not only the most eloquent and learned commentaries upon the Constitution of the United States, showing the due limit of its powers, but they place in bold position those sovereign rights which belonged to the States then as well as now, composing this Union. Side by side stood Virginia and Kentucky in this important struggle for power; in this great effort of these two States to maintain the Constitution as it should be, and the rights of the States as they existed.

New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, New Hampshire, and Vermont, all with one voice and a common effort, stood firmly and warmly in support of the Alien and Sedition Laws.

The resolutions of Virginia, passed by her legislature the 21st of December, 1798, were sent to the different States of the Union, to show the position she occupied and allow an opportunity to every member of the Union to make common cause in behalf of the Constitution which she thought outraged, and to maintain the rights of the States which she thought had been trampled upon and abused.

These resolutions, eight in number,* set forth the true position of Virginia in reference to the contest that fell chiefly upon her shoulders.

These resolutions, coming from the then leading State in the Confederacy, and forming the system of politics in reference to the doctrine of Federal power on one hand, and State rights on the other, are of sufficient importance to justify an insertion in this volume, especially as the book containing the debates and resolutions upon the Alien and Sedition Laws, has become rare and difficult to procure. The resolutions are in the following words:

1st. That the General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this State, against every aggression, either foreign or domestic; and that it will support the Government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former.

2d. That the General Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the union of the States, to maintain which

* Vide the Debates and Resolutions of 1798-99.

it pledges all its powers; and that for this end it is its duty to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles which constitute the only basis of that union, because a faithful observance of them can alone secure its existence and the public happiness.

3d. That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the Federal Government, as resulting from the compact to which the States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no farther valid than they are authorized by grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties thereto, have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.

4th. That the General Assembly doth also express its deep regret that a spirit has in sundry instances been manifested by the Federal Government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter which defines them; and that indications have appeared of a design to compound certain general phrases (which, having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former Articles of Confederation, were less liable to be misconstrued,) so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular examination which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases, and so as to consolidate the States by degrees into one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable result of which, would be to transform the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or at best, a mixed monarchy.

5th. That the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution in the two late cases of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" passed at the last session of Congress, the first of which exercises a power nowhere delegated to the Federal Government, and which, by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of a free government, as well as the particular organization and positive provisions of the Federal Constitution; and the other of which acts exercises, in like manner, a power not delegated by the Constitution, but, on the contrary, expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto, a power

which, more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is leveled against that right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.

6th. That this State, having by its Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution, expressly declared that among other essential rights, "the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be canceled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any authority of the United States," and from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from every possible attack of sophistry and ambition, having, with other States, recommended an amendment for that purpose, which amendment was in due time annexed to the Constitution,* it would mark a reproachful inconsistency and criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shown, to the most palpable violation of one of the rights thus declared and secured, and to the establishment of a precedent which may be fatal to the others.t

7th. That the good people of this Commonwealth having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other States, the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the union of all, and the most scrupulous fidelity to that Constitution which is the pledge of mutual friendship and the instrument of mutual happiness, the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions in other States, in confidence, that they will concur with this Commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid are unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each for co-operating with this State in maintaining unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved in the States respectively, or to the people; that the Governor be desired to transmit a copy of the foregoing, resolutions to the executive authority of each of the other States, with a request that the same may be communicated to the legislature thereof; and that a copy be furnished each of the Senators and Representatives representing this State in the Congress of the United States.

8th. That the General Assembly, having carefully and re

* Vide Amendments to the Con., Article 1.

A reference to the act of ratification of the Constitution, by Virginia, will more fully explain this resolution, which has been quoted at p. 91.

spectfully attended to the proceedings of a number of the States, in answer to their resolutions of December, 21, 1798, and having accurately and fully re-examined and reconsidered the latter, find it to be their indisputable duty to adhere to the same, as founded in truth, as consonant with the Constitution, and as conducive to its preservation; and more especially to be their duty to renew, as they do hereby renew, their protest against the "Alien and Sedition Acts," as palbable and alarming infractions of the Constitution.

After the resolutions of the 21st of December, 1798, had been transmitted to the executives of the different States of the Union-every one who returned any answer being directly opposed to the action and the sentiments of the Virginia Legislature that body determined at a very early period to revise these resolutions, which had been offered by John Taylor, of Caroline, since known to have been penned by James Madison. A long and animated debate ensued. Statesmen who had won eternal laurels upon the theatre of the Union, rallied with all their ability, eloquence, and learning to the standard of the Republican party, then beginning to expand throughout the length and breadth of the Union. William B. Giles, unrivaled in close and severe argument, displayed on this occasion his wonted ability. John Taylor, of Caroline, and W. C. Nicholas, were likewise members of the legis lature, with the display of all their eloquence, their zeal, and their patriotism. The Federal party was led on by George Keith Taylor, one of the ablest and most acute debaters the State has ever produced. Whilst Lee and other determined and gallant spirits added as able defence as such cause would admit. The result of this debate was that every resolution was sanctioned by the House, and supported by a report that will ever live upon the page of political philosophy as one of its brightest ornaments.

I would gladly examine every resolution and the doctrines upon which they are based, as well as the theories that were brought in opposition to them, but must content myself, at this time, with a notice of that part more particularly applicable to the topic under discussion,-the "Alien and Sedition Laws." As I stated, the States who noticed the Virginia resolutions, all dissented.* The resolutions of these States were generally brief. Massachusetts and New York alone under

* Vide names of the States, supra page 179.

took, by argument, to sustain the General Government. The Legislature of Massachusetts did not claim the right or admit the authority of any of the State governments to decide upon the constitutionality of the acts of the Federal Government. These acts were constitutional. The Constitution had erected no other tribunal and no other could decide, according to its provisions, upon the constitutionality of an act but the Supreme Court. These acts were not only constitutional, but expedient and necessary. That the United States, at the time of passing the Alien Act, were threatened with actual invasion, had been driven by the unjust conduct of France into warlike preparations, expensive and burdensome, and had then in the bosom of the country thousands of aliens, who were ready to join the army and plunge the poignard to the heart of our citizens. Should Congress wait until hostilities had commenced and the flame of war raging over the land? The removal of aliens was a usual preliminary of hostility and invariably justified by the law of nations.

The Sedition Act was equally defensible in the opinion of the Massachusetts Legislature. True, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." The act complained of is no abridgment of either. The genuine liberty of the press is the liberty to utter and publish the truth; the constitutional right of a citizen to utter and publish the truth was not to be confounded with the licentiousness in speaking and writing that which is employed in propagating falsehood and slander. It is a truth, most manifest, that the important trust delegated to the General Government cannot be discharged without the power to restrain or punish seditious practices and unlawful combinations against itself, and to protect the officers thereof from abusive misrepresentations. Had this power been withheld, the Government would have been responsible for the effects without control over the causes which naturally produce them, and would have failed to meet the great purpose for which it was designed, viz. "To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity." Seditious practices and unlawful combinations against the Government, or any officer thereof in the performance of his duty, as well as licentiousness of speech and of the press, were punishable by common law in any of the courts of the United States before the