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General Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these States of all powers whatsoever. That they will view this as seizing the rights of the States and consolidating them in the hands of the General Government, with a power assumed to bind the States (not merely in cases made federal) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent; that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-States recurring to their natural rights in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these VOID and of no FORCE, and will each unite with this Commonwealth in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress.

EDMUND BULLOCK, S. H. R.
JOHN CAMPBELL, S. S. P. T.

Passed the House of Representatives, Nov. 10, 1798.

Attest,

THOS. TODD, C. H. R.

In SENATE, Nov. 13, 1789-Unanimously concurred in. B. THURSTON, C. S.

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Attest,

Approved, November 19th, 1798.

JAMES GARRARD, Governor of Kentucky. By the Governor,

HARRY TOULMIN, Secretary of State. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Thursday, Nov. 14, 1799. The House, according to the standing order of the day, resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, on the state of the Commonwealth, Mr. Desha in the chair; and, after some time spent therein, the Speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. Desha reported, that the Committee had taken under consideration sundry resolutions passed by several State Legislatures, on the subject of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and had come to a resolution thereupon, which he delivered in at the Clerk's table, where it was read and unanimously agreed to by the House, as follows:

The representatives of the good people of this Commonwealth, in General Assembly convened, having maturely considered the answers of sundry States in the Union, to their resolutions passed the last session, respecting certain unconstitutional laws of Congress, commonly called the Alien and Sedition Laws, would be faithless, indeed, to themselves and to those they represent, were they silently to acquiesce in the principles and

doctrines attempted to be maintained in all those answers, that of Virginia only excepted. To again enter the field of argument, and attempt more fully or forcibly to expose the unconstitutionality of those obnoxious laws, would, it is apprehended, be as unnecessary as unavailing. We cannot, however, but lament, that, in the discussion of those interesting subjects, by sundry of the Legislatures of our sister States, unfounded suggestions, and uncandid insinuations, derogatory to the true character and principles of this Commonwealth, have been substituted in place of fair reasoning and sound argument. Our opinions of these alarming measures of the General Government, together with our reasons for those opinions, were detailed with decency, and with temper, and submitted to the discussion and judgment of our fellow-citizens throughout the Union. Whether the like decency and temper have been observed in the answers of most of those States, who have denied or attempted to obviate the great truths contained in those resolutions, we have now only to submit to a candid world. Faithful to the true principles of the Federal Union, unconscious of any designs to disturb the harmony of that Union, and anx ious only to escape the fangs of despotism, the good people of this Commonwealth are regardless of censure or calumniation. Least, however, the silence of this Commonwealth should be construed into an acquiescence in the doctrines and principles advanced and attempted to be maintained by the said answers, or least those of our fellow-citizens throughout the Union who so widely differ from us on those important subjects, should be deluded by the expectation, that we shall be deterred from what we conceive our duty, or shrink from the principles contained in those resolutions-therefore,

Resolved, That this Commonwealth considers the Federal Union, upon the terms and for the purposes specified in the late compact, as conducive to the liberty and happiness of the several States: That it does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and to that compact, agreeably to its obvious and real intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution: That if those who administer the General Government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, an annihilation of the State Governments, and the creation upon their ruins of a General Consolidated Government, will be the inevitable consequence: THAT THE

PRINCIPLE AND CONSTRUCTION CONTENDED FOR BY SUNDRY OF THE STATE LEGISLATURES, THAT THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT IS THE EXCLU

SIVE JUDGE OF THE EXTENT OF THE POWERS DELEGATED TO IT, STOP NOTHING SHORT OF DESPOTISM-SINCE THE DISCRETION OF THOSE WHO ADMINISTER THE GOVERNMENT, AND NOT THE CONSTITUTION, WOULD BE THE MEASURE OF THEIR POWERS: That the several States who formed that instrument being sovereign and independent have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction; and, THAT A NULLIFICATION BY THOSE SOVEREIGNTIES, OF ALL UNAUTHORIZED ACTS DONE UNDER COLOR OF THAT INSTRUMENT IS THE RIGHTFUL REMEDY: That this Commonwealth does, under the most deliberate reconsideration, declare, that the said Alien and Sedition Laws are, in their opinion, palpable violations of the said Constitution; and, however cheerful it may be disposed to surrender its opinion to a majority of its sister States, in matters of ordinary or doubtful policy, yet, in no momentous regulations like the present, which so vitally wound the best rights of the citizen, it would consider a silent acquiescence as highly criminal: That although this Commonwealth, as a party to the Federal compact, will bow to the laws of the Union, yet, it does at the same time declare, that it will not now, or ever hereafter, cease to oppose in a constitutional manner every attempt, at what quarter soever offered, to violate that compact. And, finally, in order that no pretext or arguments may be drawn from a supposed acquiescence, on the part of this Commonwealth, in the constitutionality of those laws, and be thereby used as precedents for similar future violations of the Federal compact-this Commonwealth does now enter against them its SOLEMN PROTEST.

Extract, &c. Attest,

THOS. TODD, C. H. R.

In SENATE, Nov. 22, 1799-Read and concurred in.

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APPENDIX.

ORDINANCE OF 1787.

CESSION FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.

Whereas the General Assembly of Virginia, at their session, commencing on the 20th day of October, 1783, passed an act to authorize their delegates in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the right of that Commonwealth to the territory northwestward of the river Ohio: and whereas the delegates of the said Commonwealth have presented to Congress the form of a deed proposed to be executed pursuant to the said act, in the words following:

To all who shall see these presents, we, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, the underwritten delegates for the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the Congress of the United States of America, send greeting:

Whereas the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, at their sessions, begun on the 20th day of October, 1783, passed an act, entitled, "An act to authorize the delegates of this State in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the right of this Commonwealth to the territory northwestward of the river Ohio," in these words following, to wit:

"Whereas the Congress of the United States did, by their act of the sixth day of September, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, recommend to the several States in the Union, having claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the western country, a liberal cession to the United States, of a portion of their respective claims, for the common benefit of the Union: and whereas this Commonwealth did, on the second day of January, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-one, yield to the Congress of the United States, for the benefit of the said States, all right, title, and claim, which

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