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KENTUCKY LEGSLATURE.

In th House of Representatives,
November 10th 1798

THE HOUSE according to the standing Order of the
Day, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole
on the state of the Commonwealth,

Mr. CALDWELL in the Chair,

And after sometime spent therein the Speaker resumed
the Chair, and Mr. Caldwell reported, that the Com-
mittee had according to order had under consideration
the Governor's Address, and had come to the follow-
ing RESOLUTIONS thereupon, which he delivered in
at the Clerk's table, where they were twice read and
agreed to by the House.

I. RESOLVED, that the several states
composing the United States of
America, are not united on the principle
of unlimited submission to their General
Government ; but that by compact under
the style and title of a Constitution for
the United States and of amendments
thereto, they constituted a General Go-
vernment for special purposes, delegated
to that Government certain definite pow-
ers, reserving each state to itself, the re-
siduary mass of right to their own self
Government; and that whensoever the
General Government assumes undelegated
powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void,
and of no force : That to this compact
each state acceded as a state, and is an
integral party, its co-states forming as to
itself, the other party : That the Govern-
ment created by this compact was not
made the exclusive or final judge of the
extent of the powers delegated to itself ;
since that would have made its discretion,
and not the constitution, the measure of
its powers; but that as in all other cases
of compact among parties having no com-
mon Judge, each party has an equal right
to judge for itself, as well of infractions
as of the mode and measure of redress.

II. Resolved, that the Constitution of
the United States having delegated to
Congress a power to punish treason, coun-
terfeiting the securities and current coin
of the United States, piracies and felonies
committed on the High Seas, and offen-
ces against the laws of nations, and no o-
ther crimes whatever, and it being true
as a general principle, and one of the
amendments to the Constitution having
also declared, " that the powers not de-
legated to the United States by the Con-
stitution, nor prohibited by it to the states,
are reserved to the states respectively, or
to the people," therefore also the same
act of Congress passed on the 14th day of
July, 1798, and entitled " An act in ad-
dition to the act entitled an act for the
punishment of certain crimes against the
United States ;" as also the act passed by
them on the 27th day of June, 1798, enti-
tled " An act to punish frauds committed
on the Bank of the United States" (and
all other their acts which assume to cre-
ate, define, or punish crimes other than
those enumerated in the constitution) are
altogether void and of no force, and that
the power to create, define, and punish
such other crimes is reserved, and of right
appertains solely and exclusively to the
respective states, each within its own
Territory.

III. Resolved, that it is true as a gene-
ral principle, and is also expressly declar-
ed by one of the amendments to the Con-
stitution that "the powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states, are re-
served to the states respectively or to the
people;" and that no power over the
freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
or freedom of the press being delegated
to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states, all law-
ful powers respecting the same did of
right remain, and were reserved to the
states, or to the people: That thus was
manifested their determination to retain
to themselves the right of judging how
far the licentiousness of speech and of the
press may be abridged without lessening
their useful freedom, and how far those
abuses which cannot be separated from

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