Kentucky Resolutions of 1798: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:57, 23 December 2010

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.

—Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 were a series of resolutions written by Thomas Jefferson and passed as a group by the Legislature of Kentucky in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. In the document, Jefferson argues for the compact theory and nullification: that individual States, being parties to the Constitution, have the right to judge the constitutionality of laws passed by the general government and thus to declare them unconstitutional and void.

The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 were accompanied by the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, passed by the Virginia General Assembly around the same time. Several states responded, denouncing the resolutions. As a result, Kentucky issued the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799 to reaffirm its position.

Summary of each resolution

The sovereign states formed a compact with each other, called the Constitution of the United States, to create a general government with limited powers, and all powers not granted to it were retained by each state. Whenever the general government takes undelegated powers, they are "void, and of no force," and furthermore, because the compact was made between the states, each state retains the right to judge for itself the constitutionality of the actions of the general government.
The Constitution gives the general government the power to punish certain enumerated crimes; given the principle of limited government and the 10th amendment, all other punishments, including those found in the Sedition Act and the Bank Fraud act, are "void, and of no force."
Given the principle of limited government, the 10th amendment, and the 1st amendment, the Sedition Act, in that it abridges the freedom of the press, is "void, and of no force."
Power over "alien friends" it not granted in the Constitution to the general government, therefore the Alien Friends Act is "void and of no force."
The Alien Friends Act violates the immigration clause of Article 1, Section 9, and is thus void.
The Alien Friends Act is furthermore void because it takes the judicial power from the judiciary and gives it to the president, and because it allows the president to deport an "alien friend" without due process or a proper jury trial.
That clauses such as the General Welfare Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, being "subsidiary only to the execution of the limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers."
That the representatives and senators from Kentucky in the United States Congress should attempt to repeal the above acts.
That the governor of Kentucky should send out these resolutions to the other states, assuring them that Kentucky supports the preservation of the constitution and of limited government.

Quotes

The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; [...] 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 government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
—1st resolution
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.
—1st resolution
Words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of the limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be taken as to destroy the whole residue of the instrument.
—7th resolution
These and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these states into revolution and blood, and will furnish new calumnies against republican governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron.
—9th resolution
Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.
—9th resolution
In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
—9th resolution

Links

Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 on Wikisource

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ==Summary of each resolution==
 #The sovereign states formed a compact with each other, called the [[Constitution of the United States]], to create a general government with limited powers, and all powers not granted to it were retained by each state. Whenever the general government takes undelegated powers, they are "void, and of no force," and furthermore, because the compact was made between the states, each state retains the right to judge for itself the constitutionality of the actions of the general government.
-#The Constitution gives the general government the power to punish certain enumerated crimes; given the principle of limited government and the [[Tenth amendment to the Constitution|10th amendment]], all other punishments, including those found in the Sedition Act and the Bank Fraud act, are "void, and of no force."
+#The Constitution gives the general government the power to punish certain enumerated crimes; given the principle of limited government and the [[Tenth amendment to the Constitution|10th amendment]], all other punishments, including those found in the [[Sedition Act]] and the Bank Fraud act, are "void, and of no force."
 #Given the principle of limited government, the 10th amendment, and the 1st amendment, the Sedition Act, in that it abridges the freedom of the press, is "void, and of no force."
 #Power over "alien friends" it not granted in the Constitution to the general government, therefore the [[Alien Friends Act]] is "void and of no force."