And
certainly, where wrong has been done, he who knows and conceals the
doer of it, makes himself an accomplice, and justly censurable as
such. It becomes then but an act of justice to themselves, that the
innocent and the worthy should throw off with disdain all communion
of character with such offenders, should determine no longer to
screen the irregular and the vicious under the respect of their
cloak, and to notify them, even by a solemn association for the
purpose, that they will co-operate with the faculty in future, for
preservation of order, the vindication of their own character, and
the reputation and usefulness of an institution which their country
has so liberally established for their improvement, and to place
within their reach those acquirements in knowledge on which their
future happiness and fortunes depend. Let the good and the virtuous
of the alumni of the University do this, and the disorderly will then
be singled out for observation, and deterred by punishment, or
disabled by expulsion, from infecting with their inconsideration the
institution itself, and the sound mass of those which it is preparing
for virtue and usefulness.
_Draft Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of
Virginia, on the Principles of the Constitution of the United
States of America, and on the Violations of them_
December 1825
We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf, and in the
name of the people thereof, do declare as follows:
The States in North America which confederated to establish
their independence of the government of Great Britain, of which
Virginia was one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent
States, and as such, authorized to constitute governments, each for
itself, in such form as it thought best.
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