CHAPTER CXLVIII.

THE Consultation which resulted in the Resolves of Kentucky contemplated the co-operation of Virginia, the "cordial and intimately confidential sympathy" of which States is mentioned by Jefferson. Nicholas had been his instrument in the former of these States, John Taylor he has been seen stimulating to bring forward similar measures in the latter. In a mind which could calmly contemplate the highest and most comprehensive of all political crimes, a forced rupture of this great Union, such a suggestion would meet with no obstacles. The task of presenting them to the Legislature of Virginia was readily assumed and performed by Taylor.

As the author of these disorganizing resolves could not be concealed-they were from the pen of Madison,—they were couched in terms artfully framed together to disguise their real objects; but evincing a spirit, and a purpose, and furnishing a precedent, following which, this great Union has been much imperilled. This series of Resolves declared a firm resolution to defend the Constitution against every aggression, foreign or domesticavowed attachment to the Union, and asserted the duty of watching over and opposing every infraction of its principles. They proclaimed, that Virginia viewed the powers of the General Government as resulting from

a compact to which the STATES were parties-as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of powers not so granted, the right and duty of the STATES, as parties thereto, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil. A spirit, they averred, had in sundry instances been manifested by the Federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the Constitution; to expound general phrases, and to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration, so as to consolidate the STATES by degrees into one government, the obvious tendency and inevitable consequence of which would be to transform the present Republican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy.

They protested against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution in the Alien and Sedition laws-the first, exercising a power nowhere delegated to the Federal government, and, by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of the Executive, subverting the general principles of free government, and the particular organization, and positive provisions of the Constitution; the other, in like manner, exercising a power not delegated by the Constitution, but expressly and positively forbidden by one of its amendments-a power which ought, more than any other, to produce general alarm, because levelled against the right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people therein.

For these reasons, Virginia appealed solemnly to the other States, "to concur in declaring, as she thereby declared, those acts unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each State for cooperating with her in maintaining unimpaired the authori

ties, rights, and liberties reserved to the States respectively or to the people." There is in these resolutions an intermingling of truth and falsehood,* of incontrovertible propositions and vague deductions, of broad assertions and cautious reserves, highly characteristic of their author. A declaration of "a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution" is the affirmance of an intention to perform an obvious duty; but when made at the time it was made, and when intended, as it was intended, to palsy the arm of defence the administration had raised; and to excite a belief that the Constitution was in danger, it can only be regarded as a criminal attempt to excite false and disorganizing alarms. The avowal of a right in a STATE to interpose for the purpose of arresting deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercises of powers not granted by the Constitution, if intended to mean the extreme right of revolution in the people against flagrant usurpations, cannot be controverted; but as implying the right in a STATE to judge what is such exercise of power, and thus to withdraw the judgment from the National Judiciary ;-to interpose its will against a law of the whole Republic, is a doctrine at war with each and all of the great powers for which the sovereign people of the United States proclaimed, in the preamble of the Constitution, it was "ordained and established." The laws of the Union would thus cease to be "supreme laws." The powers of the Constitution, acting as it was intended to act upon individuals, would cease to be sovereign. The Constitution would no longer be "a Constitution of GOVERNMENT.” "It is an idea not only

* "It consists," Hume observes of the Remonstrance, "of many gross falsehoods intermingled with some evident truths. Malignant insinuations are joined to open invectives, loud complaints of the past accompanied with jealous prognostications of the future."

at war with this government, but with all government," was the just remark of Marshall.

A letter from Washington to Lafayette, who contemplated a visit to the United States, written the day after these resolutions passed,* exhibits his view of the authors of them. Adverting to the existing state of things, he

wrote:

"The sum of them may be given in a few words, and it amounts to this. That a party exists in the United States, formed by a combination of causes, which oppose the Government in all its measures, and are determined, as all their conduct evinces, by clogging its wheels indirectly, to change the nature of it, and to subvert the Constitution. To effect this, no means which have a tendency to accomplish their purposes are left unessayed. The friends of Government, who are anxious to maintain its neutrality, and to preserve the country in peace, and adopt measures to secure these objects, are charged by them as being monarchists, aristocrats, and infractors of the Constitution, which, according to their interpretation of it, would be a mere cipher. They arrogated to themselves the sole merit of being the friends of France, when, in fact, they had no more regard for that nation than for the Grand Turk, further than their own views were promoted by it; denouncing those who differed in opinion (whose principles are purely American, and whose sole view was to observe a strict neutrality,) as acting under British influence; and being directed by her counsels, or as being her pensioners. This is but a short sketch of what requires much time to illustrate; and is given with no other view, than to show you what would be your situation here at this crisis, under such circumstances as it unfolds. *** Neutrality was not the point at which France was aiming; for, whilst they were crying Peace! Peace! and pretending that they did not wish us to be embroiled in their quarrel with Great Britain, they were pursuing measures in this country so repugnant to its sovereignty, and so incompatible with every principle of neutrality, as must inevitably have produced a war with the latter. And when they found that the Government here was resolved to adhere steadily to its plan of neutrality, their next step was to destroy the confidence of the people in it, and

*They passed December 24, 1798.

to separate them from it; for which purpose their diplomatic agents were specially instructed; and, in the attempt, were aided by inimical characters among ourselves. Not, as I observed before, because they loved France more than any other nation, but because it was an instrument to facilitate the destruction of their own Government. *** No doubt remains on this side of the water, that to the representations of, and encouragement given by these people, is to be ascribed, in a great measure, the infractions of our treaty with France; her violation of the laws of nations, disregard of justice, and even of sound policy." He added, "if the Directory are sincere in their desire of accommodation, let them evidence it by actions; for words, unaccompanied therewith, will not be much regarded now. I would pledge myself, that the Government and people of the United States will meet them heart and hand at a fair negotiation; having no wish more ardent, than to live in peace with all the world, provided they are suffered to remain undisturbed in their just rights. *** It has been the policy of France, and that of the opposition party among ourselves, to inculcate a belief, that all those who have exerted themselves to keep this country at peace, did it from an overweening attachment to Great Britain. But it is a solemn truth, and you may count upon it, that it is void of foundation, and propagated for no other purpose, than to excite popular clamor against those whose aim was peace, and whom they wished out of their way.

After my valedictory address to the people of the United States, you would no doubt be somewhat surprised to hear, that I had again consented to gird on the sword. But, having struggled eight or nine years against the invasion of our rights by one power, and to establish our independence of it, I could not remain an unconcerned spectator of the attempt of another power to accomplish the same object, though in a different way, with less pretensions; indeed, without any at all.”

Such were the sentiments of the Father of his Country. When, amid the mazes in which the artifices of Jefferson, Madison, and their compeers, have endeavored to involve the early history of this Republic, the mind becomes perplexed and warped, let this earnest and most truthful view by him, whom none can doubt, be recurred to.