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is therefore not law but utterly void and
of no force.
That transferring the power of judging
any person who is under the protection of
the laws, from the Courts to the President
of the United States, as is undertaken by
the same act concerning Aliens, is against
the article of the Constitution which pro-
vides, that " the judicial power of the
United States shall be vested in Courts,
the Judges of which shall hold their offices
during good behavior," and that the said
act is void for that reason also; and it is
further to be noted, that this transfer of
Judiciary power is to that magistrate of
the General Covernment who already
possesses all the Executive, and a qualified
negative in all the Legislative powers.
VII. Resolved, that the construction
applied by the General Government (as is
evinced by sundry of their proceedings)
to those parts of the Constitution of the
United States which delegate to Congress
a power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
imposts, and excises ; to pay the debts,
and provide for the common defence, and
general welfare of the United States, and
to make all laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into execution the
powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States, or any
department thereof, goes to the destruc-
tion of all the limits prescribed to their
power by the Constitution--That words
meant by that instrument to be subsiduary
only to the execution of the limited pow-
ers, ought not to be so construed as them-
selves to give unlimited powers, nor a part
so to be taken, as to destroy the whole re-
sidue of the instrument : That the pro-
ceedings of the General Government un-
der colour of these articles, will be a fit
and necessary subject for revisal and cor-
rection at a time of greater tranquility,
while those specified in the preceding re-
solutions call for immediate redress.
VIII. Resolved, that the preceding Re-
solutions be transmitted to the Senators
and Representatives in Congress from this
Commonwealth, who are hereby enjoined
to present the same to their respective
Houses, and to use their best endeavours
to procure at the next session of Congress,
a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional
and obnoxious acts.
IX. Resolved lastly, that the Governor
of this Commonwealth be, and is hereby
authorised and requested to communicate
the preceding Resolutions to the Legisla-
tures of the several States, to assure them
that this Commonwealth considers Union
for specified National purposes, and par-
ticularly for those specified in their late
Federal Compact, to be friendly to the
peace, happiness, and prosperity of all the
states : that faithful to that compact, ac-
cording to the plain intent and meaning
in which it was understood and ac-
ceded to by the several parties, it is sin-
cerely anxious for its preservation : that
it does also believe, that to take from the
states all the powers of self government,
and transfer them to a general and conso-
lidated Government, without regard to
the special delegations and reservations
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not
for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of
these states : And that therefore, this Com-
monwealth is determined, as it doubts not
its Co-states are, tamely to submit to unde-
legated & consequently unlimited powers
in no man or body of men on earth : that if
the acts before specified should stand, these
conclusions would flow from them ; that
the General Government may place any
act they think proper on the list of crimes &
punish it themselves, whether enumerated
or not enumerated by the Constitution as
cognizable by them : that they may transfer
its cognizance to the President or any other
person, who may himself be the accuser,
counsel, judge, and jury, whose suspicions
may be the evidence, his order the sen-
tence, his officer the executioner, and his
breast the sole record of the transaction :
that a very numerous and valuable descrip-
tion of the inhabitants of these states, be-
ing by this precedent reduced as outlaws
to the absolute dominion of one man and
the barrier of the Constitution thus swept
away from us all, no rampart now remains
against the passions and the power of ama-
jority of Congress, to protect from a like
exportation or other more grievous punish-
ment the minority of the same body, the
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