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The Commonwealths of Kentucky and Virginia each passed legislation drafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1798. The statutes adopted were
called the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 & 1799.
The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 (Virginia's are similar) examine Jefferson's idea of the nature of the relationship between the federal government
and the state governments.
From a post at FreeRepublic:
Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 Still Apply (States Rights)
fadedglorypatriotmilitia ^ | 3/9/2010 | Keith Allen Lehman
Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3:51:23 PM by rxsid
"Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 Still Apply
Thomas Jefferson is well known for his letters and being the principal author of The Declaration of Independence. He also was the 3rd President of the
United States; but before he was elected for that office, he held the office of Vice President during the administration of the 2nd President of the
United States, John Adams. Previous to that, Thomas Jefferson served as an elected member of the Virginia legislature, Mister of France and Secretary
of State for President George Washington. After losing to John Adams, Federalist, in the 1796 presidential election by only three electoral votes, he
became the Vice President. In 1800 he became the President of the United States after a tie-breaking election with his opponent Aaron Burr, who became
Jefferson’s Vice President.
While the Declaration of Independence is a well known American government document, few know that Thomas Jefferson was the author of another important
document – The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Mr. Jefferson drafted the document in secret while he was serving as vice president. It was written in
response to the unpopular Alien and Seditions Acts that passed Congress and President John Adams signed during an undeclared war with France. The acts
demonstrated how quickly men of government had forgotten the principles that caused the American Revolutionary War and the foundation of the law of
the United States – the US Constitution and its amendments. It authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered dangerous to the
peace and safety of the United States, to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States, and
criminalized any speech which might defame Congress, the President, or bring either of them into contempt or disrepute.
10th Amendment
In protested and argued citing the Tenth Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.
The acts were also in violation of the First Amendment, freedom of speech.
States Rights
Thomas Jefferson stated that the federal government had over stepped its bounds and was exercising powers which belonged to the states. Thomas
Jefferson corresponded with James Madison in private letters, and the two gentlemen suspected that their letters were secretly being opened and ready
by the government. However, the letters developed a series of resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts and was passed by the Virginia
legislature in 1798 and 1799. In the Kentucky Resolutions, Thomas Jefferson explained the nature of the relationship between the federal government
and the state governments:
Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general
government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a
general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass
of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no
force: that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the
government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have
made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common
judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.
Over a period of time in American history, states would invoke what is called The Principles of ’98 to oppose unconstitutional embargoes 1807 to
1809, misuse of the state militia during the War of 1812, the Second Bank of the United States issue in 1825, and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850.
Today those principles are being used to address unconstitutional federal laws and executive orders that concern firearm regulations, Cap and Trade,
the push for REAL ID, Obamacare and other abuses of the Constitution of the United States that are too numerous to mention here."
More here:
fadedglorypatriotmilitia.blogspot.com...
[edit on 1-4-2010 by Toot Sweet]