±96 NATURAL ANt) CIVIL 



' one has been heard to complain that these laws 



* infringe our state constitution. Our state laws 



* also protect the citizen in his good name ; and 



* if the slanderer publish his libel, he is not in a 



* criminal prosecution, indulged, as by the act 



* of Congress, in giving the truth of the facts aS 



* exculpatory evidence. Thus accustomed to 



* construe our own constitution, you will readily 



* conceive that we acquiesce in a similar con- 



* struction of the constitution of the United 



* States. 



' In your fourth resolution, you declare the 



* A'ien act to be of no force, and not law : That 



* Congress have, in passing that law, assumed a 



* power not delegated by the constitution, and 



* have thereby deprived the alien of certain con- 



* stitutional rights. We ever considered that 

 ' the constitution of the United States was made^ 



* for the benefit of our own citizens ; we never 



* conjectured that aliens were any party to the 



* federal compact ; wc never knew that aliens 



* had any rights among us, except what they de- 



* rived from the law of nations, and rights of 

 ' hospitality, which gives them a right to remain 



* in any country while inoffensive.. ..subjects 



* them to punishment if disobedient, and to be 



* driven away if suspected of design injurious 



* to the public welfare. 



' l-^HE construction of the constitution, whicli 



* prohibits Congress from passing laws to pre- 

 ' vent emigration until the year 1808, in your 



* fifth resolution, is certainly erroneous ; this" 

 ' clause, we ever apprehended had for its object 



* Negro Slaves ; and to give it any other con- 

 '- struction would be to infer that Congress after 



