his all in our hands: he has dissolved his former connexions and made your country his own: but while he is patiently waiting the expiration of the period that is to crown the work, entitle him to all the rights of a citizen-the tale of a domestic spy, or the calumny of a secret enemy, draws on him the suspicions of the President, and unheard, he is ordered to quit the spot he had selected for his retreat, the country which he had chosen for his own, perhaps the family which was his only consolation in life, he is ordered to retire to a country whose government, irritated by his renunciation of its authority, will receive only to punish him— and all this, we are told, is no punishment!

So manifest do these violations of the constitution appear to me, so futile the arguments in their defence, that they press seriously on my mind and sink it even to despondency. They are so glaring to my understanding, that I have felt it my duty to speak of them in a manner, that may perhaps give offence to men whom I esteem, and who seem to think differently on this subject; none, however, I can assure them, is intended. I have seen measures carried in this House, which I thought militated against the spirit of the constitution; but never before have I been witness to so open, so wanton, so undisguised an attack.

I have now done, sir, with the bill, and come to consider the consequences of its operation. One of the most serious has been anticipated, when I described the blow it would give to the constitution of our country. We should cautiously beware of the first act of violation; habituated to overleap its bounds, we become familiarized to the guilt, and disregard the danger of a second offence; until proceeding from one unauthorized act to another, we at length throw off all restraint which our constitution has imposed; and very soon not even the semblance of its form will remain.

But, if regardless of our duty as citizens, and our solemn obligations as representatives; regardless of the rights of our constituents; regardless of every sánc

VOL. II.

3

tion, human and divine, we are ready to violate the constitution we have sworn to defend-will the people submit to our unauthorized acts-will the states sanction our usurped power? Sir, they ought not to submit-they would deserve the chains which these measures are forging for them, if they did not resist. For let no man vainly imagine, that the evil is to stop here; that a few unprotected aliens only are to be af fected by this inquisitorial power. The same arguments, which enforce those provisions against aliens, apply with equal strength to enacting them in the case of citizens. The citizen has no other protection for his personal security, that I know, against laws like this, than the humane provisions I have cited from the constitution. But all these apply in common to the citizen and the stranger: all crimes are to be tried by jury no person shall be held to answer unless on presentment: in all criminal prosecutions, the accused is to have a public trial: the accused is to be informed of the nature of the charge; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; may have process to enforce the appearance of those in his favor, and is to be allowed counsel in his defence. Unless, therefore, we can believe, that treasonable machinations and the other offences, described in the bill, are not crimes, that an alien is not a person, and that one charged with treasonable practices is not accused-unless we can believe all this in contradiction to our understanding, to received opinions and the uniform practice of our courts, we must allow, that all these provisions extend equally to alien and native, and that the citizen has no other security for his personal safety, than is extended to the stranger, who is within his gates. If, therefore, this security is violated in one instance, what pledge have we that it will not be in the other? The same plea of necessity will justify both. Either the offences, described in the act, are crimes, or they are not. If they are, then all the humane provisions of the constitution

forbid this mode of punishing, or preventing them, equally as relates to aliens and citizens. If they are not crimes, the citizen has no more safety by the constitution, than the alien; for all these provisions apply only to crimes. So that in either event, the citizen has the same reason to expect a similar law to the one now before you, which will subject his person to the uncontrolled despotism of a single man. You have al

ready been told of plots and conspiracies; and all the frightful images, that are necessary to keep up the present system of terror and alarm, have been presented to you; but who are implicated by these dark hints -these mysterious allusions? They are our own citizens, sir, not aliens. If there is any necessity for the system now proposed, it is more necessary to be enforced against our own citizens, than against strangers; and I have no doubt, that either in this or some other shape, this will be attempted. I now ask, sir, whether the people of America are prepared for this? Whether they are willing to part with all the means which the wisdom of their ancestors discovered; and their own caution so lately adopted to secure their own persons? Whether they are willing to submit to imprisonment, or exile, whenever suspicion, calumny, or vengeance, shall mark them for ruin? Are they base enough to be prepared for this? No, sir, they will, I repeat it, they will resist this tyrannical system; the people will oppose, the states will not submit to its operations; they ought not to acquiesce, and I pray to God, they never may.

My opinions, sir, on this subject, are explicit, and I wish they may be known; they are, that whenever our laws manifestly infringe the constitution under which they were made, the people ought not to hesitate which they should obey: if we exceed our powers, we become tyrants, and our acts have no effect. Thus, sir, one of the first effects of measures, such as this, if they be acquiesced in, will be disaffection among the states, and opposition among the people to your gov

ernment; tumults, violations and a recurrence to first revolutionary principles: if they are submitted to, the consequences will be worse. After such manifest violation of the principles of our constitution, the form will not long be sacred; presently every vestige of it will be lost and swallowed up in the gulf of despotism. But should the evil proceed no further than the execution of the present law, what a fearful picture will our country present! The system of espionage thus established, the country will swarm with information spies, delators and all that odious tribe, that breed in the sunshine of despotic power, that suck the blood of the unfortunate, and creep into the bosom of sleeping innocence only to awaken it with a burning wound. The hours of the most unsuspecting confidence; the intimacies of friendship, or the recesses of domestic retirement, afford no security: the companion whom you must trust, the friend in whom you must confide, the domestic who waits in your chamber, are all tempted to betray your imprudence or guardless follies, to misrepresent your words, to convey them, distorted by calumny, to the secret tribunal where jealousy presides, where fear officiates as accuser, where suspicion is the only evidence that is heard.

These, bad as they are, are not the only ill consequences of these measures. Among them we may reckon the loss of wealth, of population and of commerce. Gentlemen, who support the bill, seemed to be aware of this, when yesterday they introduced a clause to secure the property of those who might be ordered to go off. They should have foreseen the consequences of the steps, which they have been taking: it is now too late to discover, that large sums are drawn from the banks, that a great capital is taken from commerce. It is ridiculous to observe the solicitude they show to retain the wealth of these dangerous men, whose persons they are so eager to get rid of. If they wish to retain it, it must be by giving them security to their persons, and assuring them that while

they respect the laws, the laws will protect them from arbitrary powers; it must be, in short, by rejecting the bill on your table. I might mention other inferior considerations: but I ought, sir, rather to entreat the pardon of the House, for having touched on this. Compared to the breach of our constitution, and the establishment of arbitrary power, every other topic is trifling; arguments of convenience sink into nothing; the preservation of wealth, the increase of commerce, however weighty on other occasions, here lose their importance, when the fundamental principles of freedom are in danger. I am tempted to borrow the impressive language of a foreign speaker, and exclaim- Perish our commerce, let our constitution live;" perish our riches, let our freedom live. This, sir, would be the sentiment of every American, were the alternative between submission and wealth: but here, sir, it is proposed to destroy our wealth in order to ruin our commerce: not in order to preserve our constitution, but to break it—not to secure our freedom, but to abandon it.

I have now done, sir, but before I sit down, let me entreat gentlemen seriously to reflect, before they pronounce the decisive vote, that gives the first open stab to the principles of our government. Our mistaken zeal, like the patriarch of old, has bound one victim; it lies at the foot of the altar; a sacrifice of the first born offspring of freedom is proposed by those who gave it birth. The hand is already raised to strike, and nothing I fear, but the voice of heaven, can arrest the impious blow.

Let not gentlemen flatter themselves, that the fervor of the moment can make the people insensible to these aggressions. It is an honest, noble warmth, produced by an indignant. sense of injury. It will never, I trust, be extinct, while there is a proper cause to excite it. But the people of America, sir, though watchful against foreign aggressions, are not careless of domestic encroachment; they are as jealous, sir, of their liberties at home, as of the power and prosperity of