tyranny, and in an unfortunate hour freedom was overthrown! If there be one thing in the history of the Rhode Island controversy more humiliating than another, it is the extraordinary obsequious sycophancy of a large class of citizens. They yielded too readily to the siren pleadings of the parasites of power, or shrank ingloriously from the threats of tyrants.

In times of religious or political quiet, men live and die without exhibiting to the world their mental or moral powers, or even knowing them themselves. But when society becomes unsettled, and its elements thrown into commotion, and shaken and tossed as with a mighty tempest, it requires a higher degree of moral integrity than falls to the lot of the mass of mankind to withstand the fury of opposing forces; and when great truths are to be set up or sustained, those who take the lead in such movements must possess a degree of firmness and decision unknown to mankind in general. Such have been the lights of the world in all religious, political, and social reformations; their iron wills were incapable of bending; to them fear was unknown; and regardless of all consequences to themselves, they have ever struggled with invincible perseverance in the paths which their consciences pointed out. Whilst thousands upon thousands have fallen out by the way, a few master spirits have reached the destined goal. Such men may be overcome or cast down by the power of tyrants, but the truths which they sought to establish, though "crushed to earth, will rise again." When such men fall, their enemies are confounded, the pillars of bigotry and error are shaken, light flashes upon the paths of truth and reason, and the final triumph of the great principles for which they contended is shadowed forth. And when all the petty tyrants who triumphed over Mr. Dorr shall be wholly forgotten, his name shall occupy a conspicuous place in the temple of political liberty, never to be effaced or destroyed until the whole structure falls. When we review the numerous tragical scenes enacted in Rhode Island in that memorable controversy, we can hardly believe them ever to have been realities; they look more like the distorted visions of a morbid imagination than sober truths; they stand without a parallel in the United States, and it is confidently hoped they will ever remain so. Nor is there much danger that similar proceedings will ever transpire in any other state. Can it be supposed that if two thirds of the people of any one of the large states had, in a regular manner, deliberately formed and adopted a democratic constitution, the menaces of any national executive would have frightened them from their purpose? or that the friends of such a constitution could have been subdued by a petty tyranny under the pretext of martial law? If it had been New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, instead of the small State of Rhode Island, neither John Tyler nor any other chief magistrate would have rashly dashed his military forces against the people.

CHAPTER XV.

RESOLUTIONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE CONCERNING MR. DORR.

Resolutions from the Legislature of New Hampshire, communicated to the Senate of the General Assembly of Rhode Island, Jan. 8, 1845.

WHEREAS it is provided by the sixth article of the amendments of the constitution of the United States, "That in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, - which district shall have been previously ascertained by ław, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence; "

And whereas a citizen of one of the states of this republic (Thomas Wilson Dorr) has, by the constituted authorities of that state, been charged with the crime of treason, arraigned before its court, pronounced guilty of the offence charged, and by that court sentenced to hard labor in the state prison during his natural life;

And whereas, in the opinion of this legislature, all the substantial forms of justice, required to be observed in criminal cases, were during his trial for the offence disregarded, his rights grossly violated and denied to him by his removal for trial from the vicinage in which the crime was alleged to have been committed; by the selection of a packed jury, all of whom were his political enemies; and by the refusal, on the part of the judges of the court before whom he was tried, to permit him, by the strongest evidence which it was possible to offer, to establish his innocence, and to prove that the acts for which he was charged with the crime of treason were only in obedience to the constitution of the state, whose chief magistrate he was, and as such was bound to support that constitution which the people of Rhode Island had adopted; and which evidence of adoption he offered to lay before the court, by presenting to them the votes of the people themselves, on which votes were the names of the voters, so that if fraud or illegal voting had been resorted to in the adoption of the constitution, the court would be enabled to detect the same - all of which evidence was rejected, and the decision of his guilt or innocence, in which was involved the great and important question of the right of the people to establish a constitution or form of government suited to their own wants and convenience, was referred to a jury packed for the occasion, and three of them, he offered to prove to the court, had, in violation of their oath, prejudged his case:

Therefore, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened, That in the person of Thomas Wilson Dorr, now confined in the state prison of Rhode Island, the authorities of that state have trampled upon the constitution of the United States, by denying to him the right to be tried by an impartial jury, in the vicinage in which the crime was alleged to have been committed, and by refusing to him the right of introducing testimony tending to establish his innocence of the offence charged; and that it is the duty of Congress to restore to the said Thomas Wilson Dorr those sacred rights guaranteed to him by the con

stitution, as a man and a citizen of this republic; and to wipe out the deep and damning stain stamped upon the national escutcheon by the mock trial and condemnation of this individual, guilty of no offence but that of maintaining the sovereignty of the people, and of obeying their sovereign will.

And whereas it is provided by the eighth article of the amendments to the constitution of the United States, that "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted," and whereas the punishment imposed upon the said Thomas Wilson Dorr is, in the opinion of this legislature, both "cruel and unusual," - unusual, as being, it is believed, the first offence of a strictly political character which has been punished by a state since the declaration of American independence - unusual when the nature of the offence is considered in connection with the plain principles upon which the government of the United States is founded, the principle of the sovereignty of the people; and whereas it is the manifest duty of the general government to protect and guard the rights of individuals so far as those rights are guaranteed by the constitution, - therefore Resolved, That the imprisonment of Thomas Wilson Dorr by the authorities of Rhode Island presents to the Congress of the United States a case of " cruel and unusual punishment" inflicted upon that individual for exercising, in a constitutional manner, the duties imposed upon him as chief magistrate of that state, to which office he was duly elected under a constitution adopted by a large majority of its citizens, and as such calls loudly upon the general government to extend to him, the said Thomas Wilson Dorr, that protection against tyranny and oppression which the government of these United States are bound in good faith to extend to all and every one of its citizens.

Resolved, That while we disclaim all right to inter