Born November 10, 1798
Reborn November 10, 2009
Romanticism—or a public education—has many Americans believing that the U.S. government has rarely oppressed its citizens and most may have trouble recounting an incident other than Franklin Roosevelt's internment of Japanese Americans in 1942. But oppression began much earlier. John Adams, a leader of the Revolution against English tyranny, and his fellow Federalist party members in Congress initiated some tyranny of their own during the summer of 1798, with four laws known together as The Alien and Sedition Acts.
At the time, American politics was divided over our ties to Britain and France, and we had recently begun what would be a two year naval war with France. Adams and Congress, expressing concern over potential opposition from citizens and non-citizens alike, passed three laws related to aliens and one, The Sedition Act of 1798, focused on fellow Americans. Ostensibly, that act was aimed at avowed enemies of the nation but an early phrase seemed more ominous: "That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States..."
The Federalist Party controlled the White House and Congress and, it was widely believed, passed the Sedition Act to silence critics from the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party. Punishment for violating the Sedition Act could include prison and a hefty fine. 18 Americans were indicted, 14 prosecuted and 10 convicted, of which several received prison sentences.
Thomas Jefferson opposed the Sedition Act as violations of the first amendment right to free speech and the tenth amendment limiting Congress to only those powers specifically delegated to it; Article I of the Constitution did not give the legislative branch authority to regulate political speech. In a letter to a friend, Jefferson wrote: the Alien and Sedition Acts are "merely an experiment on the American mind, to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of the Constitution."
From July through October of 1798, Jefferson wrote a resolution affirming state rights and opposing the Alien and Sedition Acts. The resolves were given to John Breckinridge for introduction in the Kentucky state legislature. Kentucky was considered an independent minded state; with no real organizing, 5,000 people had assembled in Lexington to protest the acts at a time when the town's population was less than 2,000. On November 10, the resolution passed the Kentucky house.
The Kentucky Resolution of 1798 affirmed states rights under the tenth amendment to the Constitution, declaring that the states were not "united on the principles of unlimited submission to their General Government" and "when so ever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force".
Over two hundred years later, we find a new Congress violating the Constitution by seizing control of private businesses and attempting to mandate individual health insurance at risk of hefty fines. Free speech is again threatened as citizens gathered to peacefully protest their government are labeled "dangerous" and "terrorists" and news sources are attacked for critical stories. And, again, Kentucky is stepping forward to declare its Constitutional rights.
As important as this action was in 1798, today's political climate may make reaffirming those rights even more critical than it was then. With many freedoms at risk from the faction of the Democratic Party currently controlling both the White House and Congress, it's urgent that we remind Washington that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
November 10th is the anniversary of the first Kentucky Resolution penned by Thomas Jefferson and passed by the Kentucky House in 1798. We will use this historic date and the consequence of the state sovereignty rights enumerated by the tenth amendment to make a special announcement by Stan Lee of the Kentucky House and bring public attention to the need for new reaffirmation of the powers of the state.
