Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/520

 418 THE HISTORY OF BAEEINGTON. Voted & passed the following resolutions : "Resolved, that we the Inhabitants of the Town of Barring- ton have in common with our fellow Citizens of the United States a right & at this alarming crisis feel it an indispensi- ble duty peaceably to assemble & declare our opinions of Pub- lic measures. Resolved, that we consider ourselves solemnly pledged to support the Constitution of the United States & all just & equitable laws made in uniformity to the same. Resolved, that in our opinion the several laws & especially the last as destructive to Commerce & discouraging to Agri- culture requiring excessive and unreasonable searches and seizures suberting the common law or rules of evidence sub- stituting Executive directions for possitive public law super- ceeding the civil authority by military power, are oppressive, tyrannical, and unconstitutional ; without a parallel even in the most despotic Governments ; and that we are under no constitutional oblication to aid or assist in carrying the same into effect. Resolved, that a timid compliance with the decrees and dictates of one foreign power, blustering threats & illusive correspondence with respect to another are highly deroga- tory to the dignity of an independent Nation & destructive of that peace and security obtained for us by the impartial & dignified measures of our Immortal Washington. Resolved, that we consider with alarming apprehension a bill in Congress for raising an enormous standing army, which (unless we are intended to be suddenly plunged into a destructive war with Great Britain) can have no other object but the arbitrary enforcement of arbitrary laws. Resolved, that we consider any attempt in Congress to overawe or control the Judiciary or to encroach on the rights & powers of the State Government as dangerous to public liberty. Resolved, that our Representatives be instructed to co-op- erate in all measures of the General Assembly devising any constitutional means to induce Congress to repeal the several