KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 645 man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment to limited government, whether general or particular, and that the rights and liberties of their co-states will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked on a common bottom with their own; but they will concur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration, that the compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the general government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these states of all powers whatsoThat they will view this as seizing the rights of the states, and consolidating them in the hands of the general government, with a power assumed to bind the states, not merely in cases made federal, but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent; that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-states, recurring to their natural rights not made federal, will concur in declaring these void and of no force, and will each unite with this commonwealth in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. ever. EDMUND BULLOCK, S. H. R. Passed the House of Representatives, Nov. 10, 1798. Attest, THO'S TODD, C. H. R. In Senate, Nov. 13, 1798- Unanimously concurred in. Approved, November 19, 1798. Attest, B. THURSTON, C. S. JAMES GARRARD, Governor of Kentucky. THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1799, [In response to the Resolutions of the other States in reply to the Resolution of 1798.] By the Governor, Harry Toulmin, Secretary of State. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Thursday, Nov. 14, 1799. The house, according to the standing order of the day, resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, on the state of the commonwealth, (Mr. Desha in the chair,) and, after some time spent therein, the speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. Desha reported that the committee had taken under consideration sundry resolutions passed by several state legislatures, on the subject of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and had come to a resolution thereupon, which he delivered in at the clerk's table, where it was read and unanimously agreed to by he House as follows: The representatives of the good people of this commonwealth, in General Assembly convened, having maturely considered the answers of sundry states in the Union to their resolutions, passed the last session, respecting certain unconstitutional laws of Congress, commonly called the Alien and Sedition Laws, would be faithless indeed to themselves, and to those they represent, were they silently to acquiesce in the principles and doctrines attempted to be maintained in all those answers, that of Virginia only accepted. To again enter the field of argument, and attempt more fully or forcibly to expose the unconstitutionality of those obnoxious laws, would, it is apprehended, be as unnecessary as unavailing. We cannot, however, but lament that, in the discussion of those interesting subjects by sundry of the legislatures of our sister states, unfounded suggestions and uncandid insinuations, derogatory to the true character and principles of this commonwealth, have been substituted in place of fair reasoning and sound argument. Our opinions of these alarming measures of the general government, together with our reasons for those opinions, were detailed with decency and with temper, and submitted to the discussion and judgment of our fellow-citizens throughout the Union. Whether the like decency and temper have been observed in the answers of most of those States who have denied or attempted to obviate the great truths contained in those resolutions, we have now only to submit to a candid world. Faithful to the true principles of the federal Union, unconscious of any designs to disturb the harmony of that Union, and anxious only to escape the fangs of despotism, the good people of this commonwealth are regardless of censure or calumniation. Lest, however, the silence of this commonwealth should be construed into an acquiescence in the doctrines and principles advanced, and attempted to be maintained by the said answers, or at least those of our fellow-citizens, throughout the Union, who so widely differ from us on those important subjects, should be deluded by the expectation that we shall be deterred from what we conceive our duty, or shrink from the principles contained in those resolutions, therefore, Resolved, That this Commonwealth considers the Federal Union upon the terms and for the purposes specified in the late compact, conducive to the liberty and happiness of the several States: That it does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and to KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 647 that compact, agreeably to its obvious and real intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution: That, if those who administer the general government be permitted to trangress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, an annihilation of the State governments, and the creation, upon their ruins, of a general consolidated government, will be the inevitable consequence: That the principle and construction, contended for by sundry of the state legislatures, that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop not short of despotism - since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the Constitution, would be the measure of their powers: That the several States who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy: That this Commonwealth does, under the most deliberate reconsideration, declare, that the said Alien and Sedition Laws are, in their opinion, palpable violations of the said Constitution; and, however cheerfully it may be disposed to surrender its opinion to a majority of its sister States, in matters of ordinary or doubtful policy, yet, in momentous regulations like the present, which so vitally wound the best rights of the citizen, it would consider a silent acqiescence as highly criminal: That, although this Commonwealth, as a party to the Federal compact, will bow to the laws of the Union, yet it does, at the same time, declare, that it will not now, or ever hereafter, cease to oppose, in a constitutional manner, every attempt, at what quarter so ever offered, to violate that compact: And finally, in order that no pretext or arguments may be drawn from a supposed acquiescence, on the part of this Commonwealth, in the constitutionality of those laws, and be thereby used as precedents for similar future violations of the federal compact, this Commonwealth does now enter against them its solemn PROTEST. Extract, etc. Attest, THOMAS TODD, C. H. R. In Senate, Nov. 22, 1799- Read and concurred in. Attest, B. THURSTON, C. S. INDEX. Abbott Academy founded, 590. Adams, Abigail, on the cannonading at Adams, Herbert B., on the influence 291. Adams, John, 593; advises stateliness Administration of Jefferson, the, 388. Ad valorem duties, 574. African siaves first brought to America, Agassiz, Louis, on the Antiquity of Agitators. Webster on, 473. Agriculture, Schools of, 590. Alabama admitted, 424. Alabama Claims, the, 558. Alaska, purchase of, 549. Albany, Convention at, in 1754, 223; Peace Conference, the, 506, Algerian pirates, 382. Algiers, Dey of cowed, 415. Sedition Acts, protests Alton, slavery riots in, 462. Amendment, the Fifteenth, incorpor- America characterized by Richard American Association formed, in 1774. Amusements in early times, 159. Anderson, Major Robert, at Fort Sum- Andre, Major John, 320; captured and Andros, Sir Edmund, 100, 113; extent Annapolis, Puritans at 134; Washing- Anne, Queen, obtains a monopoly of Anonymous plan for Union, 222. Anti-Masons nominated for President Archæology, the Museum of, at Cam- Aristocracy, the, of Virginia, 202. INDEX. Massachusetts, 225. 649 Bell, Alexander G., patents the tele- Arizona, cliff-dwellings of, 48, 51; pur- Belcher, Governor, salary refused by writes an Bell. John, nominated as President, Bellows, Henry W., opposed to dis- Army disbandment of the Union, 545; uinon, 485. Washington's farewell address to, Berkeley, and Carteret, 131. of, 271; of the Revolution, mutinous, Bible, the, Connecticut law, 111; not respected by the British after his Biddle, Richard, life of Sebastian court martial, 316; unsuccessful in Billerica sends a protest to Gage, 246. Arthur, President, takes the oath of Bimini, island of, 67. Aryan race, the, in America, 597. Black Hawk's war, 446. Blackstone, the Rev. William, at Bos- sug-Bladensburgh, battle of, 407. Austin, Anne, the Quakeress, 152. 444. Austin, Moses, obtains a grant of Texan Austrian Succession, War of the, 175, 180. Authorship in early times, 162. Bail. excessive, not to be required, 619, Baker Col. E. D.. killed, 516. Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de, 35. Baltimore, early in, 529. Blockade of British ports declared by Bloody Pond, the English entrapped Blue Laws, the so-called, of Connecti- Bonaparte at the head of French affairs, Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 421. Baltimore, Lord, grantee of Mary-Botts, J. M, on the haste of secession, land, 132. Baltimore, Mass, soldiers in, 513. Barattaria, pirates of, 408. 501. Boundary lines mentioned inearly char- Bowyer, fort, attacked by the British, Braddock's expedition against the Bradford academy, founded, 590. Bradford's History of Plymouth Col- Brandywine, battle of the, 303. |