AMERICAN POLITICS. BOOK II. POLITICAL PLATFORMS. THE FIRST POLITICAL PLATFORM ENUNCIATED IN THE UNITED STATES ΤΟ COMMAND GENERAL ATTENTION WAS DRAWN BY MR. MADISON IN 1798, WHOSE OBJECT WAS TO PRONOUNCE THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AN D TO DEFINE THE RIGHTS OF THE STATES. Virginia Resolutions of 1798. progress of the evil, and for maintaining Pronouncing the Alien and Sedition Laws to be uncon- within their respective limits the authori bution, and Defining the rights of the States.ties, rights, and liberties appertaining to Drawn by Mr. Madison. them. Friday, Dec. 21, 1798. That the General Assembly doth also Resolved, That the General Assembly of express its deep regret, that a spirit has, Virginia doth unequivocally express a in sundry instances, been manifested by firm resolution to maintain and defend the federal government, to enlarge its the Constitution of the United States, and powers by forced constructions of the coathe constitution of this state, against every stitutional charter which defines them; aggression either foreign or domestic; and and, that indications have appeared of a that they will support the government of design to expound certain general phrases ranted by the former. clares limited grant of powers in the former ArThat this Assembly most solemnly de- ticles of Confederation, were the less liable the states, to maintain which it pledges its meaning and effect of the particular a warm attachment to the Union of to be misconstrued) so as to destroy the powers; and, that for this end, it is their enumeration which necessarily explains, duty to watch over and oppose every in- and limits the general phrases, and so as fraction of those principles which consti- to consolidate the states by degrees into tute he only basis of that Union, because one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and a fai thful observance of them can alone inevitable result of which would be, to e its existence and the public happi- transform the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or at best, a mixed monarchy. secur ness. 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 the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of 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 That the General Assembly doth par ticularly 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 free government, as well as the particu lar organization and positive provisions of the Federal Constitution; and the other. of which acts exercises, in like manner, a Extracts from the Address to the People, power not delegated by the Constitution, which accompanied the foregoing resolu but on the contrary, expressly and positions: tively forbidden by one of the amendments Fellow - Citizens: Unwilling to shrink thereto; a power which, more than any from our representative responsibility, other, ought to produce universal alarm, conscious of the purity of our motives, but because it is levelled against the right of acknowledging your right to supervise our freely examining public characters and conduct, we invite your serious attention measures, and of free communication to the emergency which dictated the subamong the people thereon, which has ever joined resolutions. Whilst we disdain to been justly deemed the only effectual alarm you by ill-founded jealousies, we guardian of every other right. recommend an investigation, guided by the coolness of wisdom, and a decision bot tomed, on firmness but tempered with moderation. That this state having by its Convention, which ratified the Federal Constitution, expressly declared, that among other essential rights, "the liberty of conscience It would be perfidious in those intrusted and the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, with the guardianship of the state sover restrained, or modified by any authority eignty, and acting under the solemn obligaof the United States," and from its extreme tion of the following oath: "I do swear, anxiety to guard these rights from every that I will support the Constitution of the possible attack of sophistry and ambition, United States," not to warn you of encroachhaving 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 other. ments, which, though clothed with the pretext of necessity, or disguised by arguments of expediency, may yet establish precedents, which may ultimately devote a generous and unsuspicious people to all the consequences of usurped power. Encroachments, springing from a government whose organization cannot be maintained without the co-operation of the states, furnish the strongest incitements upon the state legislatures to watch fulness, and impose upon them the strongest obligation to preserve unimpaired the line of partition. would 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 acquiescence of the states under inthe Union of all: and the most scrupulous fractions of the federal compact, fidelity to that Constitution, which is the either beget a speedy consolidation, hy pledge of mutual friendship, and the in- precipitating the state governments into strument of mutual happiness; the General impotency and contempt; or prepare the Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like way for a revolution, by a repetition of dispositions in the other States, in confi- these infractions, until the people are dence that they will concur with this com- aroused to appear in the majesty of their monwealth, in declaring, as it does hereby strength. It is to avoid these calamities, declare, that the acts aforesaid are uncon- that we exhibit to the people the momen stitutional; and, that the necessary and tous question, whether the Constitution of proper measures will be taken by each for the United States shall yield to a construcco-operating with this state, in maintain- tion which defies every restraint and overing unimpaired the authorities, rights, and whelms the best hopes of republicanism. liberties, reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people. Exhortations to disregard domestic usurpations until foreign danger shall have That the governor be desired to transmit passed, is an artifice which may be for ever a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the used; because the possessors of power, who executive authority of each of the other are the advocates for its extension, can communicated to the legislature thereof; successively employed to soothe the people states, with a request that the same may be ever create national embarrassments, to be and that a copy be furnished to each of the into sleep, whilst that power is swelling this state in the Congress of the United character are insinuations of a foreign inSenators and Representatives representing silently, secretly, and fatally. Of the same fluence, which seize upon a laudable enthusiasm against danger from a broad, and 1798. December 24th. Agreed to by the distort it by an unnatural application, Senate. as to blind your eyes against danger at States. Attest, JOHN STEWART. H. BROOKE. A true copy from the original deposited in the office of the General Assembly. JOHN STEWART, Keeper of Rolls. home. 80 The sedition act presents a scene which was never expected by the early friends of the Constitution. It was then admitted |