Judiciary power is taken from courts, and given to the executive; the previous safeguard of a presentment by a grand inquest, is removed: the trial by jury is abolished; the "public trial," required by the constitution, is changed into a secret and worse than inquisitorial tribunal. Instead of giving "information on the nature and cause of the accusation," the criminal, alike ignorant of his offence, and the danger to which he is exposed, never hears of either, until the judgment is passed and the sentence is executed. Instead of being "confronted with his accusers," he is kept alike ignorant of their names and their existence; and the forms of a trial being dispensed with, it would be a mockery, to talk of "process for witness," or the "assistance of counsel for defence." Thus are all the barriers, which the wisdom and humanity of our country has placed between accused innocence and oppressive power, at once forced and broken down. Not a vestige even of their form remains. No indictments, no jury, no trial, no public procedure, no statement of the accusation, no examination of the witnesses in its support, no counsel for defence: all is darkness, silence, mystery and suspicion. But, as if this were not enough, ⚫ the unfortunate victims of this law are told, in the next section, that, if they can convince the President that his suspicions are unfounded, he may, if he pleases, give them a license to stay. But how can they remove his suspicions, when they know not on what act they were founded? How take proof to convince him, when he is not bound to furnish that on which he proceeds? Miserable mockery of justice! Appoint Appoint an arbitrary judge, armed with legislative and executive powers added to his own! Let him condemn the unheard, the unaccused object of his suspicions, and then to cover the injustice of the scene, gravely tell him, you ought not to complain, you need only disprove facts you have never heard, remove suspicions that have never been communicated to you; it will be easy to convince your judge, whom you shall not approach,

that he is tyrannical and unjust, and when you have done this, we give him the power, he had before, to pardon you if he pleases!

So obviously do the constitutional objections present themselves, that their existence cannot be denied. and two wretched subterfuges are resorted to, to remove them out of sight. In the first place, it is said, the bill does not contemplate the punishment of any crime, and therefore the provisions in the constitution. relative to criminal proceedings and judiciary powers, do not apply. But have the gentlemen, who reason thus, read the bill, or is every thing forgotten, in our zealous hurry to pass it? What are the offences upon which it is to operate? Not only the offence of being "suspected of being dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States," but also that of being "concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof"-and this, we are told, is no crime. A treasonable machination against the government, is not the subject of criminal jurisprudence! Good heaven! to what absurdities does not an over zealous attachment to particular measures lead us! In order to punish a particular act, we are forced to say, that treason is no crime, and plotting against · our government is no offence! And to support this fine hypothesis, we are obliged to plunge deeper into absurdity, and say, that the acts, spoken of in the bill, are no crimes, and therefore the penalty, contained in it, is not a punishment, but merely a prevention ; that is to say, we invite strangers to come amongst us; we declare solemnly, that government shall not prevent them; we entice them over by the delusive prospects of advantage; in many parts of the union we permit them to hold lands, and give them other advantages while they are waiting for the period at which we have promised them a full participation of all our rights. An unfortunate stranger, disgusted with tyranny at home, thinks he shall find freedom here; he accepts our conditions; he puts faith in our promises; he vests

his all in our hands: he has dissolved his former connexions and made your country his own: but while he is patiently waiting the expiration of the period that is to crown the work, entitle him to all the rights of a citizen-the tale of a domestic spy, or the calumny of a secret enemy, draws on him the suspicions of the President, and unheard, he is ordered to quit the spot he had selected for his retreat, the country which he had chosen for his own, perhaps the family which was his only consolation in life, he is ordered to retire to a country whose government, irritated by his renunciation of its authority, will receive only to punish him— and all this, we are told, is no punishment!

So manifest do these violations of the constitution appear to me, so futile the arguments in their defence, that they press seriously on my mind and sink it even to despondency. They are so glaring to my understanding, that I have felt it my duty to speak of them in a manner, that may perhaps give offence to men whom I esteem, and who seem to think differently on this subject; none, however, I can assure them, is intended. I have seen measures carried in this House, which I thought militated against the spirit of the constitution; but never before have I been witness to so open, so wanton, so undisguised an attack.

I have now done, sir, with the bill, and come to consider the consequences of its operation. One of the most serious has been anticipated, when I described the blow it would give to the constitution of our country. We should cautiously beware of the first act of violation; habituated to overleap its bounds, we become familiarized to the guilt, and disregard the danger of a second offence; until proceeding from one unauthorized act to another, we at length throw off all restraint which our constitution has imposed; and very soon not even the semblance of its form will remain.

But, if regardless of our duty as citizens, and our solemn obligations as representatives; regardless of the rights of our constituents; regardless of every sanc

VOL. II.

3

tion, human and divine, we are ready to violate the constitution we have sworn to defend-will the people submit to our unauthorized acts-will the states sanction our usurped power? Sir, they ought not to submit-they would deserve the chains which these measures are forging for them, if they did not resist. For let no man vainly imagine, that the evil is to stop here; that a few unprotected aliens only are to be affected by this inquisitorial power. The same arguments, which enforce those provisions against aliens, apply with equal strength to enacting them in the case of citizens. The citizen has no other protection for his personal security, that I know, against laws like this, than the humane provisions I have cited from the constitution. But all these apply in common to the citizen and the stranger: all crimes are to be tried by jury: no person shall be held to answer unless on presentment: in all criminal prosecutions, the accused is to have a public trial: the accused is to be informed of the nature of the charge; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; may have process to enforce the appearance of those in his favor, and is to be allowed counsel in his defence. Unless, therefore, we can believe, that treasonable machinations and the other offences, described in the bill, are not crimes, that an alien is not a person, and that one charged with treasonable practices is not accused-unless we can believe all this in contradiction to our understanding, to received opinions and the uniform practice of our courts, we must allow, that all these provisions extend equally to alien and native, and that the citizen has no other security for his personal safety, than is extended to the stranger, who is within his gates. If, therefore, this security is violated in one instance, what pledge have we that it will not be in the other? The same plea of necessity will justify both. Either the offences, described in the act, are crimes, or they are not. If they are. then all the humane provisions of the constitution

forbid this mode of punishing, or preventing them, equally as relates to aliens and citizens. If they are not crimes, the citizen has no more safety by the constitution, than the alien; for all these provisions apply only to crimes. So that in either event, the citizen has the same reason to expect a similar law to the one now before you, which will subject his person to the uncontrolled despotism of a single man. You have al

ready been told of plots and conspiracies; and all the frightful images, that are necessary to keep up the present system of terror and alarm, have been presented to you; but who are implicated by these dark hints -these mysterious allusions? They are our own citizens, sir, not aliens. If there is any necessity for the system now proposed, it is more necessary to be enforced against our own citizens, than against strangers; and I have no doubt, that either in this or some other shape, this will be attempted. I now ask, sir, whether the people of America are prepared for this? Whether they are willing to part with all the means which the wisdom of their ancestors discovered; and their own caution so lately adopted to secure their own persons? Whether they are willing to submit to imprisonment, or exile, whenever suspicion, calumny, or vengeance, shall mark them for ruin? Are they base enough to be prepared for this? No, sir, they will, I repeat it, they will resist this tyrannical system; the people will oppose, the states will not submit to its operations; they ought not to acquiesce, and I pray to God, they never may.

My opinions, sir, on this subject, are explicit, and I wish they may be known; they are, that whenever our laws manifestly infringe the constitution under which they were made, the people ought not to hesitate which they should obey: if we exceed our powers, we become tyrants, and our acts have no effect. Thus, sir, one of the first effects of measures, such as this, if they be acquiesced in, will be disaffection among the states, and opposition among the people to your gov