Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1852-01-17
State InterpOsitiOH-Th Right to Judge.

State InterpOsitiOH-Th Right to Judge.
That the people of each State, in their sovereign
character, have the right in the last resort, to
judge for themselves as well of attractions of
the Constitution, as of the mode and measure of
redress, is further taught and practically iustra-
ted by the action of the States of Kentucky and
Virginia, in '98 and 80, on the passage of the
Alien and Sedtim laws, during the Administra-
ton of the elder Adams.
The resolutions of Kentucky were originally
drafted by Jefferson, then Vice President-whose
account of their origin and object may be found
in the 4th volume of his Correspondence, p. 344.
In this letter to Mr.. Nicholas, he says:
cat the time when the republicans of our
country were so much alarmed at the proceedings
of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the ex-
ecutive and the Judiciary departments, it became
matter of serious consideration how head could
be made against their enterprises on the consttu-
ton. The leading republicans in Congress found
themselves of no use there, brow beaten as they
were, by bold and overwhelming majority
They concluded to retire from that field, take
stand IN the State Legislatures, and eDdeavor there
to arrest their progress. The alien and sedition
laws furnished the particular OCCASION"
81 fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another
crisis, with this difference only that the Judiciary
branch is alone and single handed in the present
assaults on the constitution. But its assaults
more sure and deadly as from an agent seemingly
passive and unassuming. May you and your CO.
temporaries meet them with the same determind-
ton and effect, as your father and his did the
alien and sedition laws, and preserve inyiolate a
constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity
and purity, will prove in the end blessing to all
the nations of the earth 4"
Kentucky passed her resolutions on the 10Th
November, 49, Her first resolution is as follows:
eel. Resolved That the several States compo-
sing the United States of America are not uni
ted on the principle of unlimited submission to
their General Government but that, by compact,
under the style and title of Constitution for the
United States, and of amendments thereto, thew
constituted General Government for special pur-
poses, delegated to that Government certain def
mite powers, reserying, each State to ITSELF the
reslduary mass of right to their own self-govern-
ment and that, whatsoever the General Govern
ment assumes undelegated powers, its acts are
unauthoritatiye, void, and of no force that to
this compact each State acceded as State, and
as an integral party that this Government, crea-
ted by this compact, was not made the exclusive
or final judge of the extent of the powers dele
gated to itself; since that would have made its
of its powers but that, as in all other cases of
compact, among parties having no common Judge,
EACH PARTY HAS AN EQUAL RIGHT TO
JUDGE FOR ITSELF, AS WELL OF IN
FRACTIONS AS OF THE MODE AND MEA-
SURE OF REDRESS.
After this explicit declaration the resolutions
pronounce the acts in question null and void
Mr.. Edward Livingston. in most lucid, bold
Jol;x q,
June, '98, on the passage of the Alien bill, had
clearly indicated the result. He emphatically
asked "Will the people submait to our unau-
thorized acts ? Will the States sanction our
'usurped power? Sir, they ought not to submit
They would deserve the chains which these mea-
sures are forging for them if they did not resist"
Not only did Kentucky under the immediate
advice of Mr. Jefferson, thus speak the language
of freedom, and of resistance to usurpation, but
the mother-State, who had given to the nation her
immortal Jefferson, and to Kentucky many of her
proudest sons, had still an abundance of talent
and of patriotism, fresh from the Convention, that
framed our Constitution, to lead the sons of
Virginia to the of that Constitution, and
the liberty of her citizens, from the foul grasp of
Federal usurpation, which then threatened the
destruction of both.
The old, the respected, the war-tried sister of
the cold thirteen, at the call Of Kentucky,
shouted back almost as an echo, the alarm signal
of her younger sister.
In December, '98, Virginia passed her memo
rable resolutions, from which we quote to-day, in
proof of the orthodoxy of the doctrines we advo-