great advantages and benefits resulting from a connexion between the states under the federal Constitution, as to give him instructions to vote for the adoption of resolutions having so alarming and dangerous a tendency as those which had been offered by the gentleman from Caroline, he should go in mourning for them; he should bid adieu to legislation, and seek an asylum in some other region of the globe, among a race of men who had more respect for peace and order, and who set a higher value upon the blessings of good government. But sensible as he was that his constituents would have discernment and patriotism enough to think with him that the resolutions offered for our adoption by the worthy member from Caroline, teem with principles hostile to the very existence of the general government; that they would think with him that any attempt in the state legislature to control the operations of the general government by the adoption of resolutions inviting the sister states to a cooperation in resisting its laws, was equally dangerous and improper as it is unnecessary, he should give a negative to these resolutions, and before he sat down, beg leave to offer a resolution as a substitute for those which had been presented by the member from Caroline. He offered it, he said, at this stage of the business, because the tocsin of rebellion had been that day sounded in the House by the resolutions accompanying the Governor's letter from the state of Kentucky. The sooner then, he said, our determination not to co-operate in resisting the laws of the general government should be announced to that state, the sooner our determination to support the American government should be announced to the nations of the earth, the better. And for this purpose he would offer the resolution which he had before referred to. He then read his resolution, in the following words: "Resolved, That as it is established by the Constitution of the United States, that the people thereof have a right to assemble peaceably, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, it therefore appears properly to belong to the people themselves to petition when they consider their rights to be invaded by any acts of the general government; and it should of right be left to them if they conceive the laws lately passed by the Congress of the United States, commonly called the alien and sedition bills,' to be unconstitutional, or an invasion of their rights, to petition for a repeal of the said laws." After reading the said resolution, Mr. Brooke handed it in to the clerk's table, where the same being again read, was laid upon the table.

On motion of Mr. Johnson, the committee then rose, the chairman reported progress, asked, and had leave for the committee to sit again.

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES,

Wednesday, December 19, 1798.

The House resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, on the state of the commonwealth, Mr. Breckenridge in the chair, when Mr. John Taylor's resolutions being still under consideration,

Mr. POPE arose and said, that he was not accustomed to make apologies; but that he looked upon it as necessary, after what he had said before on the subject. He could assure the committee, that what he had said at first, was not intended as a speech; and he had no doubt but that it was so understood by others. The observations were of a ludicrous turn, and intended only as an answer, of that kind, to the gentleman from Prince George's introducing the French into the debate. This he thought not proper; and the object of his former remarks therefore, was to treat it in a ludicrous manner. But on the present occasion, he said, he considered himself as called upon by his colleague. He would speak, therefore, while the thing was fresh. And in order that he might not be mistaken in it, he had noted the substance. He meant not, he said, to go into the subject before them. There had been enough, he thought, in the harvest-field already. He himself would only glean a little. His colleague had said, that he was not instructed: but that if his constituents were so degenerate, or debased, he (Mr. Pope) was not positive which of these terms he had used, but it was no matter which, it was the same thing, as to instruct him to vote for such resolutions as those which had been offered to them by the gentleman from Caroline, he would go into mourning; that in case the resolutions were adopted, it would be, in his opinion, nothing more than the tocsin of rebellion; and in such a case, he would go to some other country to seek an asylum. Mr. Pope then observed, that he would pause to give an opportunity for correction, if he had misstated anything. But as he was not corrected, he said he would proceed to reason from those observations of his colleague. He considered them as applying to himself, being one of those in favour of the resolutions; but still he did not believe the gentleman had intended them as such. He knew him better. However, he said, both that gentleman and the gentleman from Frederic, whose coolness and moderation must be admitted, had sounded the alarm: they had called the resolutions the tocsin of rebellion they would be drawing the sword as it were, and that we might date the destruction of the liberty of the people from the day on which they passed. He then proceeded to read the resolutions offered by the other side (meaning those offered by Mr. George K. Taylor), and to comment on the language of them. The gentlemen who were in favour of these, he said, displayed boldness. Could they be afraid, then, of the resolutions offered by the gentleman from Caroline. There was something in that he did not understand. He said he must make a deduction from it. The gentlemen surely must be hypochondriac. He compared their case to the conceit of Don Quixotte about the windmills; otherwise they could not be alarmed about our having an army of Frenchmen at our doors. His colleague, he said, had observed that we were more equally represented in Congress than in this Assembly. In answer to which, he asked, if the people of New-Hampshire could more equally represent us than the Legislature of this State. He then stated what was the usual language of the eastern people in Congress respecting the Virginians. They were called by them disorganizers, jacobins, &c. He then proceeded to show which of our members in Congress had voted in favour of those laws, and concluded that Mr. Evans was the only one, General Morgan and Mr.

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Machir, as well as he could recollect, at the time of the passage of the laws, being either at home, or on their way home. So much then, he said, in answer to the observations of his colleague. He then proceeded to answer the observations of the gentleman from Frederic, in regard to the gentleman from Prince George's introducing the French into the debate. The gentleman from Frederic, he said, seemed to disapprove it. He (Mr. Pope) did so too. He could not imagine how the gentleman from Prince George, himself, could think it proper. And how happened it, that this gentleman could not, in the course of his reflections think of Ireland too. But British enormities, he supposed, would not suit his purpose. He then proceeded to enumerate them; and afterwards adverted to the quotations made from Publius, by the gentleman from Frederic, respecting a resort to be made to the people in such a case as the present one. He (Mr. Pope) thought that the Legislatures ought to take up the matter first; and the people only in the last resort. He stated the nature of the bargain made, at the time of adopting the Constitution, which was, that of the people giving up certain rights, and reserving the rest to themselves. This, he said, was proved by the twelfth amendment, which he read. He then observed that the greater part of the Constitution extended to the prohibiting of powers to the States. This amendatory clause, therefore, reserved to them what was not prohibited. He then read the resolution offered by Mr. Brooke, and observed, that the gentleman from Frederic had also acknowledged the people's right to assemble. But how did that right stand? The article securing it, he said, was invaded. He stated an instance of his receiving a wound in his left breast; in such case he would be less able to protect himself from receiving a wound in the right breast, or elsewhere. This he compared to the case of the clause above referred to, and declared that our most important rights, secured by that clause, were destroyed. Of what account then would be the right of petitioning? If they were to lose the resolutions offered by the gentleman from Caroline, he said, he would pronounce our liberty to be gone. But whenever that was mentioned, he observed, that many of the members on the other side would frown and spurn at it. He then made several contemplative observations upon the consequences of our rights being destroyed, and afterwards observed, that he would recur to that part of the speech of the gentleman from Prince George, in which he had introduced the goddess of liberty; upon which Mr. Pope concluded his observations in the following words: "Methinks I heard that gentleman say to this fair goddess, by your name we aroused the American people to oppose the tyranny of Great Britain! By your name we brought into the field large armies! By your name we drove from our country the mercenary troops of George III. and established our independence! We have now no further use for you: we only meant to change men, not measures.",

Mr. DANIEL said, that he stood up to express that opinion, which his feelings and his judgment compelled him to render on this occasion. He said, he did not flatter himself, that he should be able to afford any considerable aid to the discussion, or to give very material information to the committee. But the importance of the question, and the solemnity of

the appeal, which had been made by the people to the Assembly, in his opinion, required a liberal discussion to be had; that the subject, being contemplated in various points of view, might be the better understood. He should therefore beg the indulgence of the committee, while he took a short view of the subject. In doing this, he said he should follow the track which had been led by the gentlemen opposed to the resolutions before the committee, Leginning with the "alien-act" so called; and first, with an examination of the arguments of the gentlemen from Prince George and Frederic. He said, it must have been observed, that in the progress of their observations, these gentlemen had assumed three principles, which could not be yielded to them, to wit: that the government of the United States was a consolidated government, that the doctrine of implication supplied it with all necessary powers, and that the necessity and expediency of any measure authorized its adoption. These principles, he said, were assumed in aid and maintenance of their arguments, although they were not stated in express terms. But it would be easy to show, that the government was not a consolidated government in principle, however it might be in practice; that the doctrine of implication could not extend the powers of government beyond the specific grant of the Constitution; and that no necessity or expediency ought to authorize a violation of the Constitution.

The Constitution of the United States, he said, was a deputation of power from the several States, for the purposes of a Federal Government; wherein the several states were sovereign and independent as to powers not granted, and the Federal Government sovereign and independent as to those powers which were granted. The doctrine of implication could not increase the powers of the Federal Government, but could only go, as it was expressed by the Constitution, to authorize it to make such laws as might be necessary to carry the powers granted into effect. Having premised these things, he proceeded to examine the arguments which had been urged in favour of the "alien-act."

The gentleman from Prince George, he said, prefaced his observations on this subject, by saying that this was an act of the Congress of the United States, in which were combined the wisdom and deliberation of all America; that the determination of this combined wisdom and deliberation, was the strongest evidence of the constitutionality of the act, and that it was therefore dangerous for us to interfere on this subject. Mr. Daniel hoped this mode of reasoning would make no impression on the committee. He said, it was an argument that would equally apply to every possible measure of the Federal Government; and by this rule, any act of the government, however palpably violating the Constitution, and prostrating the rights and liberties of the people, might be maintained. It might be said of every act, that the combined wisdom and deliberation of Congress had sanctioned it.

The objections which that gentleman made to the mode of remonstrance adopted by the resolutions, he said, had already been so handsomely and conclusively answered by a worthy member, (Mr. Mercer,) who preceded him in this discussion, that there was no necessity for him to give them any attention.

The same gentleman, he said, in maintaining the constitutionality of the "alien-act," had observed, that aliens had those rights only in the United States, which they have in other countries by the law of nations; and produced Vattel to show, that the sovereign of any nation had a right to prohibit the entrance of strangers into its territory; to prescribe the condition upon which they may enter; to command their departure when necessary; in short, that it was matter of grace, and not of right, that strangers were suffered to enter the territories of any nation.

If this doctrine, said Mr. Daniel, be admitted true in the extent in which the worthy member quoted it, it was easily seen and could not be overlooked, that the authority applied to a consolidated government, where there was but one sovereign of the nation; but it could not apply to the United States, where there exist the several sovereignties of the state governments, and the sovereignty of the Federal Government: of the state governments, as to powers not granted: of the Federal Government, as to powers which are granted in the Federal Constitution.

But, said Mr. Daniel, this power over strangers, resulting from the right of domain to every nation, and which every independent nation will exercise, does rest somewhere among the American people. It remained, then, to be inquired, where this power was lodged in the distribution of powers among the several sovereignties which existed in the United States, in the manner which he had before stated? The Constitution, he said, gave the answer. By section ninth, article first, it was declared, that "the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress, prior to the year 1808," Thus the power of admitting aliens into its territory, was left to the several states, respectively. It followed then, that each state had the right to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which aliens should be admitted, and was the judge when those terms and conditions were violated. Aliens, said he, are admitted into the territory of a nation or state, upon certain conditions. They could not therefore, be sent off, or commanded to depart, without injustice, so long as they observed the conditions upon which they were admitted. That power, which was the sovereign judge of the propriety of admitting aliens into its territory, must be the sovereign judge of the necessity and justice of sending them away. This necessity and justice could not exist, so long as the conditions, upon which they were admitted, remained unbroken. Each state had this power over its respective territory, by the clause of the Constitution which he had just recited. Each state, said he, was therefore, the sovereign judge of the propriety and justice of commanding aliens and strangers to depart from the limits of its respective territory.

But, said he, the gentlemen contend, that this article of the Constitution cannot apply; and here they differ in their construction; the gentleman from Frederic maintaining, that this clause related only to the importa.. tion of slaves; the gentleman from Prince George insisting, that this clause does only secure to the states the right of admitting aliens, but does not declare that Congress shall not have power to send them away. He said he would examine the objections as they stood in order. spect to the opinion of the member from Frederic, (Mr. Magill,) the words

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