Northern Opinion of the Virginia Resolutions (1798)

FROM THE COUNTRY PORCUPINE

ONE Taylor (I believe his name is John) has brought forward a Resolution, in the Legislature of Virginia, which, I think, is at once the most foolish and the most impudent that I ever read or heard of.

It sets out with declaring the firm resolution of the General Assembly "to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States." In the next stave, the Assembly solemnly declare their "warm attachment to the union of the States." In stave the 3d they peremptorily declare, that, in case the Federal Government step beyond the powers granted to it by the compact with the individual states, "the states, who are parties thereto, have the RIGHT, and are in DUTY bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the cvil."

Having thus drawn up a declaration of their Rights of Man, they proceed at once to the exercise of them. They assert, in stave 4th, that the Federal Government has indicated a design "to consolidate the stales, by degrees, into one Sovereignty, the inevitable result of which would be, to transform the present republican system af the United States into an ABSOLUTE, or, at best, a MIXED MONARCHY."

As a proof that such is the design of the Federal Government, they cite (in stave 5th 6th, and 7th) the "alarming" instance of the ALIEN and SEDITION bills; and, in virtue of their above mentioned RIGHTS OF MAN, they "declare the said acts to be unconsti[tuti]onal and NOT LAW."

These seditious declarations are followed by a resolution to desire the Governor to transmit a copy of them to the Legislatures of all the other states, in order to obtain their concurrence therein.

Observe, that no decision had taken place on the resolution, when the last papers came away; but from the characters of those who sit in the assembly of that infatuated state, there is every reason to suppose, that the seditious party will prevail, and the Ancient Dominion will once more be exposed to the contempt of all the other states. She may drag her two chickens, Kentucky and Tennessee, along with her; but every where else she will meet with the same scornful reception that so humbled her in the years 1795, and 1796.

This step on the part of the Virginians admits of no excuse; but, when they pretend to be actuated by an anxiety to preserve liberty, who can help despising them? They actuated by a love of liberty! They who live on the sweat of slaves; and who buy and sell those slaves with as little ceremony as the Pennsylvanians do hogs or sheep!!!

If these fellows be sincere; if they really wish to be guided by the Constitution of the United States, as they solemnly declare they do; if all their pompous declarations on this subject be not mere sound, I will point out to them a passage of that constitution, by an adherence to which they will render their sincerity conspicuous, without any opposition to the Federal Government, and without running the risk of a disdainful rebuff from the other states.

The passage I allude to I am surprised they should have overlooked, because it is placed at the very beginning of the instrument for which they profess as high, and as sincere, a veneration as Buonaparte did for the KORAN. It is this : — "We hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT — that all MEN are created EQUAL; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNAL[I]ENABLE RIGHTS. That, amongst these, are, life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness."

Now, are not negroes men? And, is it not notorious that the laws of Virginia hold about half a million of these men in abject Slavery; that the lives of these men are in a great measure at the disposal of their drivers; that they are bought, sold, and bartered like beasts, and that not a single soul of them is suffered to pursue his happiness? And, is it not a shame; is it not a scandal and a reproach to the American nation, to hear the legislators of this States [State] of Slaves talk about their attachment to the Constitution and their anxiety to preserve the liberty of their fellow men?

The last time the Virginians requested the concurrence of the other states, in an attack on the Federal Government, I remember that the Senate of Pennsylvania told them, that they had better let the Federal Covernment alone, and employ their leisure time in passing laws for the paymcnt of their just debts and for emancipating their slaves. Such I

hope, will be the answer they will receive this time, if they should persist in sending forth their seditious propositions.

[Philadelphia], December 26, 1798.