The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-03-13
THE RESOLUTIONS OF ,7ss-17os.

cusses the origin and authorship of these famous resolutions. The article contains the fac simile of an autograph letter from
 Mr. Jefferson, and also fac simile of the official copy of the resolutions published by order of the Kentucky legislature, MT. burrett says:
 In the summer of I7o8 the acts of con- gress, known as the AIIen and Sedition laws were passed; the former on the 22d of June and the lattex on the I4.h of July
 The alien act was designed to rid the country of obnoxious foreigners, and the sedition act to punish citizens whose tongue spoke and whose pens wrote too severely against the president and con- gress. Never were acts of congress re- ceived by a vast majority of the people with more bitter and deep condemnation. A cry of indignation went up against them from every quarter of the land. Pe- titions for their repeal, loaded with long lists of signatures, poured in from near and distant sections. Pablic meetings were held In different states, at which burning resolutions of denunciauons were adopted and defiant speeches uttered by | flaming orators. The opposition Hews. papers were gorged with terrific articles over such tyrant-destroyiag signatures as Bru,us and Cassius," and iafiamma- tory pamphlets issued to swell the fearful cry of abhorrence. Distinguished for
 agaers, who had helped with their money ? or their swords to gain oar liberty, fed from the home ot ihe free as from land reekiHg with pestilence. The officers of tho Federal courts, metamerphosed into human gaggcTs and newspaper censers used the might of their position for crush ing their fellow citiz sns who had pro. sumed to write or speak unbecominely of the powers that ruled. Matthew Lyon a member of congress from Vermont, was indicted, in the Uaited States court of that state, for having toe severely criti- cised tho conduct of tho president and of congress, fined one thousand dollars, and incarcerated in the loathsome prison of Vergennss for four months. Indictments wore found against other leading mon for up as an earnest of what all might expect who presumed 10 exercise the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. guaranteed by the second amendment of the constitution. The Federal majority which passed these obnoxious laws still existed in congress, bat blind to this DOT ten,ous uprising of the people agains, them calmly looked upon the gathering storm without due efferts to arrest 1t un til 1t gathered strength which finally swept them from power.
 In the mid.t of this tremendous excite msnt incident to the alien and sedition laws, shn Breckinridge, ot Kentucky, and Wilson C. Nicholas, of Virginia. on a visit to Monticello, in tho fall of I7o8 had conference with Thomas Jeffer1on as to the unconstitutionA Aity of these laws and the best mode of averting their danger. From letter, afterward written by Mir.
 Jefferson to J. Cabell Breckinridge, a son facts arc learred as to this meeting of these three distinguished gentlemen. and the origin of the Kentucky resolutions As this letter, when copy oft was 'oand among the papers of Mr. Jefferson by his exscutor, was enormously assumed to have been written to a son of George Nicholas, and 6rst given to the pubic addressed "To - Nicholas" on page 344 of the fourth volume of Mir. R An- oolph's Life of Jefferson" and as this mistake has been unfortunately repeated, not only in histories of Kentucky. but in those of other states, and of the Usited States, reproduction of it here is neces. sary to the truth of history as well as to the elucidadon of our subject. A fac simile of this letter is given on the pre- cediag pages.
 While it is painful to see in the fore going letter So broad a claim on the part of Mir. Jefferson to the authonhip of these resolutions, without an ample acknowl- ment that they were drafted In conformity with the previously agreed views of him. self, Jshn BreckiAridge, Wilson C Nieho- las, and possibly James Madison and without a suggestion that they had been materially altered by John Breckinridge before he laid them before the Kentucky legislature, which adopted them, the let ter shows that in this meeting at Monti cello, it was agreed between these distin- guished gentlemen that the best way to counteract the alien and sedition laws was to array the state legislatures against them. To this end serics of resolutions were to be prepared for the Kentucky legislature, which should make this state, in CO., operation with Virginia, put forth solemn protest against the constitution ality of thsss laws and Mr Breclanridge, then nsAber of the kea,ucky legisla. tufe, was to undertake ts have them | adopted by that body. This conclusion having beea reached in tho conference, 1t | was but natural and courteous that MT. | Jefferson should have been invited to !! draft the resolutions. He was vice presi- | deat of the Uaited States and the ac- knowlsdged leader of the political organ ization then gathering strength for its impending coaflict with the Federalists, and destined in it's triumph to make hin | the successor of Mir, Adams, in the presi- dentia chair. The copfersnce more over, was at the homo of Mir. Jefferson, and it wouli have been scarcely less thaa rude for his guests not to have urged tAsir hosts to sketch the contemplated resolutions. When tho promise there fsre, of secrecy as to his connection with them was made, Mir. Jefferson did draw series of nine resolutions and deliver Al