Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-10-23
The Kentucky ResoIutIons,

Inc lanu was tutl or French emlsSarles
and spies, who were intimately allied
with certain restless and uneasy spirits
among our people, jealous Of and bit
terly hostile to the party in power. To
avert danger from the Vaccinations of
these, the so-called Alien and Sedition
laws were passed. They were made
the pretext Of furious howl from the
Administrations opponents, who con-
ceiVed the design Of making them in
strumental in the furtheranee of parti-
san ends. Jefferson, the most maEg-
nant partisan then in the country, was
visited at Monticello by Geo. and Will
son c. Nicholas, who consulted with
him as to the course to be pursued, and
it was determined to make an at
tempt TO unite the State legislatures in
3 declaration hostile 70 the General
Government.
Jefferson was urgently pressed to
draft a series of resolutions which Geo.
Nicholas promised to introduce in the
Kentucky Legislature. Jefferson con-
sented to do il but only after exacting
from them most solemn assurances that
it shonld not be known from what
quarter the resolutions came. The
ninth Of the resolutions as drafted by
Jefferson, authorized the initial steps
for a secession movement, but George
Nicholas substituted one more discreet
before presenting them to the Legisla-
ture. The secret of the authorship of
the resolutions was kept until 1921,
when Jefferson, in answer to letter of
= sou Of the man who presented them
to the Kentucky legislature, interro-
eating him on the subject, admitted
the deed.
1t is interesting to note that the now
common practice of the Democratic
party, of declaring every measure of
their opponents destructive of liberty,
is, as well as the championship of null
LITIGATION and secession, a trait inherit
ed from the Father of Democracy. -
In q letter written about this time,
Jefferson declared that "our General
Government has, in the rapid course OF
nine or ten years, become more arbitra-
~, and swallowed up more of the popu-
lar liberty, than even that Of England" !"
The secret of all this bitterness was
that the people had elected John
Adams, and not Jefferson, to succeed
Washington; and so he set about to
break up the Union, precisely as the
party he founded did when not put in
power in 1861.
But his resolutions. as. toned down,
were presented to and passed by the
Kentucky Legislature; and shortly
after, another series, enuncisting the
same theory, but in rather more guard
ed terms was introduced in the Virginia
Legislature. Tais series was drawn up
by Madison to whom Jefferson had
transmitted the Kentucky resolutions.
Madison also kept himself in the back
ground, and allowed his resolutions to
be introduced by enc John Taylor, who
could very 6ttiDgly introduce them, as
but q few months before he had suggest
ed that Virginia aud North Carolina
should secede from the Union and get
up a separate Confederacy. The Vir-
ginia Convention also adopted the reso-
lutions, but they were opposed Ia that
State by a numerous and able minority.
Now the dismal but deserved fate Of
these first nulli6cation States rights
pronuneiamentoS ought to be related.
1t was part of the scheme that copies
should be forwarded to the Legislatures
of the other States aud similar action
invited. This was done. With what
result2 Ten of the States, ten of the
original thirteen which formed and
adopted the Constitution. and may be
supposed to have known what sort of
Government they had established, ut
terly repudiated, in clear, strong and
unmistakable terms, any recognition
of this theory of the Constitution,
branding it as false aud subversiVe of
the National Government. The Legis-
lature of Delaware scornfully dismissed
them as ''unjusti6able aud dangerous,
and not fit subject for. the further
consideration of the General Assembly,
Rhode Island declared the proposed
methods of redress IAN infrsction of
the Constitution of the United States,
expressed in plain terms" Massachu-
setts could not admit the right of the
State Legislatures to denounce the ad-
ministration of that Government to
which the people themselves, by a
solemn compact, have exclusively COM
mitted their national concerns" New
York ''felt constrained to bear un-
equivocal testimony against such senti-
ments and doctrines" Connecticut
explicitly dis-avoWed the principles
contained in the resolutions" and the
repudistion of the seditious scheme
was no less decided by the other States.
Is it not plain that the testimony of
these States, as to the character of the
government they framed and adopted,
Is to be accepted rather than the dec
lsration of a disappointed party politi-
clan with selfish ends to subserVe?
But this is not all. The Senators and
Representatives of Kentucky were en-
joined to present the resolutions to the
houses of Congress. Wheth-
er they were honorably ashamed to rise
in their places and submit such dec
laration of doctrine to the National
Congress, or were deferred by the re-
Dukes administered to the folly of their
State by so many of the original thIr-
teen, it is not easy to decide; but there
is no record that they ever performed
the duty enjoined. Congress, however,
committee, to which was
several petitions praying for
the repeal OF the laws. This commit
tee made an elaborate and aole report
in favor of their constitutionality and
their wisdom in the circumstances Of
the country. When this report was
the Kentucky members felt
bound to make 8 show of defending
the notorious action of their State, and
they did rally feebly in opposition to
the report, but they were immoderate- |
ly laughed at and derided, aud without !
= word in reply to their labored ha-
the report of the committee
was concurred in.
And this is the Veritable history of
the first propositions embodying the
Democratic notification and secession |
theory, and the true record of their
utter condemnation by the fathers,
within ten years after the organizat ton
Of the National Government.
But the Democratic party, which /
vas conceived in this sin, still clings to
The EVIL doctrine, and from time to
lime reYiyes it. Calhoun announced it,
out was crushed by Andrew Jackson,
Who was, in his day, what we should
low call 9 "War Democrat" 1t was
Isserted again in 1861. and everybody
Knows how that conflict resulted. d.-Cia-
innGh Gazette.
An amusing incident occurred in one Of
he churches of Philsdelphis, last Sunday
evening. An old lady, whose failing eyes
iemanded an unnsnallV large nrarar hook