XXXIII, SEC. 32; XXXIV, SEC. 32; XXXV, SEC. 13; XXXVII, SEC. I; XXXVIII, XXXIX. The 38th paragraph provides "that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious procession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed within this State to all mankind, provided that the liberty of conscience hereby granted shall not excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State." The 39th provides that "no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter, under any pretence or description whatever, be eligible to or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within this state." The first of those articles protects us from persecution in religious matters. The other excludes the clergy from enjoying any office, civil or military. Two provisions passed by in silence by the framers of the new constitution; and although possibly the leaders in both have been equally averse to a democratic system, and have had the same object, the ruin of state government, in view. XLII. This paragraph provides "that it shall be in the discretion of the legislature to naturalize all such persons and in such manner as they shall think proper." The 1st art., 8 sec., 4th clause, give to the new government power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. And by the 4th art., 2d sec., "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states," whereby the clause is rendered entirely nugatory. From this contrast it appears that the general government, when compleatly organized, will absorb all those powers of the state which the framers of its constitution had declared should be only exercised by the representatives of the people of the state; that the burthens and expence of supporting a state establishment will be perpetuated; but its operations to ensure or contribute to any essential measures promotive of the happiness of the people may be totally prostrated, the general government arrogating to itself the right of interfering in the most minute objects of internal police, and the most trifling domestic concerns of every state, by possessing a power of passing laws" to provide for the general welfare of the United States," which may affect life, liberty and property in every modification they may think expedient, unchecked by cautionary reservations, and unrestrained by a declaration of any of those rights which the wisdom and prudence of America in the year 1776 held ought to be at all events protected from violation. In a word, the new constitution will prove finally to dissolve all the power of the several state legislatures, and destroy the rights and liberties of the people; for the power of the first will be all in all, and of the latter a mere shadow and form without substance, and if adopted we may (in imitation of the Carthagenians) say, Delenda vit America. SYDNEY. NOTE. THIS article first appeared in The Pittsburgh Gazette, but as I have not been able to find a file of that paper, I have been compelled to reprint it from The American Museum. It was anonymous, but its authorship is settled by its republication in Brackenridge's "Gazette Publications," printed in book form in 1806. (317) |