vice and protection of the respective States; excepting in cases provided for by the national constitution, viz., to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions. It never could have been contemplated by the framers of our excellent constitution, who, it appears, in the most cautious manner, guarded the sovereignty of the States, or by the States, who adopted it, that the whole body of the militia were, by any kind of magic, at once to be transformed into a regular army for the purpose of foreign conquest; and it is to be regretted, that a construction should have been given to the constitution, so peculiarly burdensome and oppressive to that important class of our fellow citizens.
33. Massachusetts on the Extension of Territorial Limits.
June 16, 1813.
The spring election of 1813 resulted in the Federalists securing control of both branches of the General Court, as well as in the re-election of Governor Strong. The Governor in his Speech referred to territorial extension (Resolves of Mass. (1812–15), 231) and the House in its Answer considered the effect of extension on the future influence of New England. (Ibid., 238, 239.) Josiah Quincy, who had opposed the admission of Louisiana, in a strong state rights speech in Congress January 14, 1811, had declined a re-election to that body, but accepted a seat in the State Senate, and at once took the lead in opposing the policy of the Federal Government. He was Chairman of the Committee that drew up the Report and Resolutions relative to the extension of Territory, extracts from which follow. A Remonstrance against the war, June 15, 1813, also contained a protest against the extension of territory.
References: The text of the Report and Resolutions is given in Resolves of Mass. (1812–15), 310–318; also in Niles, IV, 285–287. For the Remonstrance against the war, see Resolves of Mass., 338, 339; also in Amer. State Papers, Misc., II, 210–214; and in Niles, IV, 297–301; the Protest of the Minority is also included in last two references. Quincy's speech in Congress, cf. Annals, 11 Cong., III, 523–542; Johnston, Amer. Orations (ed. 1897), I, 180–204; Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 205–218. For letter of Pickering on the resolutions, cf. Ibid., 323, 324. General references: Of especial value, Quincy's Quincy, chs. XII, XIII; Adams, V, 325, 326; VII, 64–66; Barry, Mass., III, 398, 399; Hildreth, VI, 226–228, 426–429; McMaster, III, 376–378; IV, 211–213; V, 408–411; Schouler, II, 314, 315, 420–422; Von Hoist, I, 250–252.
The question touching the admission, into the Union, of states,
