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134-577: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799 in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that the states had the right and the duty to declare unconstitutional those acts of Congress that the Constitution did not authorize. In doing so, they argued for states' rights and strict construction of

268-584: A Mississippian culture took root in western and central Kentucky and a Fort Ancient culture appeared in eastern Kentucky. While the two had many similarities, the distinctive ceremonial earthwork mounds constructed in the former's centers were not part of the culture of the latter. Fort Ancient settlements depended largely on corn, beans, and squash, and practiced a system of agriculture that prevented ecological degradation by rotating crops, burning sections of forest to create ideal habitat for wild game, relocating villages every 10–30 years, and continually shifting

402-499: A Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary 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

536-409: A collective action of the states, not a refusal by an individual state to enforce federal law, and that the deletion of the words "void, and of no force or effect" was intended to make clear that no individual state could nullify federal law. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, while claiming the right of nullification, did not assert that individual states could exercise that right. Rather, nullification

670-469: A compact." Leading proponents of this view of the U.S. Constitution primarily originated from Virginia and other southern states. Notable proponents of the theory include Thomas Jefferson . Under this theory and in reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 , Jefferson claimed the federal government overstepped its authority, and advocated nullification of the laws by the states. The first resolution of

804-598: A crisis of Union. The latter was deferred in 1798–1800, but it would return, and when it did the principles Jefferson had invoked against the Alien and Sedition Laws would sustain delusions of state sovereignty fully as violent as the Federalist delusions he had combated. Jefferson's biographer Dumas Malone argued that the Kentucky resolution might have gotten Jefferson impeached for treason, had his actions become known at

938-425: A fairer English translation "The Land of Those Who Became Our Fathers". In any case, the word aki means "land" in most Algonquian languages. The first archaeological evidence of human occupation of Kentucky is approximately 9500BCE, and it was Clovis culture, primitive hunter-gatherers with stone tools. Around 1800 BCE, a gradual transition began from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculturalism. Around 900 CE,

1072-463: A government not a league. ... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation." James Madison also opposed South Carolina's position on nullification. Madison argued that he had never intended his Virginia Resolution to suggest that each individual state had the power to nullify an act of Congress. Madison wrote: "But it follows, from no view of

1206-404: A government, they gave it the name of a Constitution , therein they established a distribution of powers between this, their general government, and their several State governments. The leading 19th-century commentary on the Constitution, Justice Joseph Story 's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833), likewise rejected the compact theory and concluded that the Constitution

1340-799: A major slave market and departure port for slaves being transported down the Ohio River. Kentucky was a heavily divided slave state during the American Civil War . Though the state had dueling Union and Confederate state governments, Kentucky was never an official component of the Confederacy. Kentucky was one of the Southern border states during the war, and it remained neutral within the Union . Despite this, representatives from 68 of 110 counties met at Russellville calling themselves

1474-495: A military veteran from Virginia, was elected its first Governor. The central Bluegrass region and the western portion of the state were the areas with the most slave owners . Planters cultivated tobacco and hemp on plantations with the use of slave labor, and were noted for their quality livestock . During the 19th century, Kentucky slaveholders began to sell unneeded slaves to the Deep South , with Louisville becoming

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1608-686: A period known as the Beaver Wars (1640–1680), another Algonquian tribe called the Maumee , or Mascouten was chased out of southern Michigan. The vast majority of them moved to Kentucky, pushing the Kispoko east and war broke out with the Tutelo of North Carolina and Virginia that pushed them further north and east. The Maumee were closely related to the Miami from Indiana. Later, the Kispoko merged with

1742-472: A protest, an escape valve through which the legislators blew off steam to relieve their tensions.' ... However solemn or spirited, interposition resolutions have no legal efficacy." Merrill Peterson , Jefferson's otherwise very favorable biographer, emphasizes the negative long-term impact of the Resolutions, calling them "dangerous" and a product of "hysteria": Called forth by oppressive legislation of

1876-503: A radical doctrine of states' rights that effectively undermined the constitution." Chernow argues that neither Jefferson nor Madison sensed that they had sponsored measures as inimical as the Alien and Sedition Acts themselves. Historian Garry Wills argued "Their nullification effort, if others had picked it up, would have been a greater threat to freedom than the misguided [alien and sedition] laws, which were soon rendered feckless by ridicule and electoral pressure". The theoretical damage of

2010-600: A record 29,006 birds taken during the 23-day season in spring 2009. In 1991 the Land Between the Lakes partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Red Wolf Recovery Program, a captive breeding program. Kentucky is subdivided into 120 counties , the largest being Pike County at 787.6 square miles (2,040 km ), and the most populous being Jefferson County (which coincides with

2144-491: A refusal to sell their crops to the major tobacco companies. An Association meeting occurred in downtown Guthrie , where a vigilante wing of "Night Riders", formed. The riders terrorized farmers who sold their tobacco at the low prices demanded by the tobacco corporations. They burned several tobacco warehouses throughout the area, stretching as far west as Hopkinsville to Princeton . In the later period of their operation, they were known to physically assault farmers who broke

2278-581: A resolution nullifying the Embargo Act. Instead, they challenged it in court, appealed to Congress for its repeal, and proposed several constitutional amendments. Several years later, Massachusetts and Connecticut asserted their right to test constitutionality when instructed to send their militias to defend the coast during the War of 1812 . Connecticut and Massachusetts questioned another embargo passed in 1813. Both states objected, including this statement from

2412-412: A single popular convention but conventions of only the ratifying states and would carry the Constitution into effect only between those ratifying states. Others have taken the position that the federal government is not a compact among the states but was instead formed directly by the people in their exercise of their sovereign power. The people determined that the federal government should be superior to

2546-482: A state, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party; that this government, 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 powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of

2680-406: Is believed to have once been a lush open woodland environment similar to oak savanna with abundant thickets of river cane , a species of bamboo , was once described by E. Lucy Braun as having the most "anomalous" plant life of the whole Eastern United States. Kentucky's natural environment has suffered greatly from destructive human activities that began after European colonization, particularly

2814-835: Is divided into eastern, central and western sub-regions, the latter known as the Pennyrile); the Western Coal Field ; and the far-western Jackson Purchase , the northernmost extension of the Mississippian Embayment, west and south of the Tennessee River. The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass encircling 90 miles (140 km) around Lexington , and the Outer Bluegrass that contains most of

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2948-561: Is established by the people of the United States, in the aggregate.... When the gentleman says the Constitution is a compact between the States, he uses language exactly applicable to the old Confederation. He speaks as if he were in Congress before 1789. He describes fully that old state of things then existing. The Confederation was, in strictness, a compact; the States, as States, were parties to it. We had no other general government. But that

3082-472: Is included in the boundaries of Fulton County . Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River (populated by 18 people as of 2010 ) requires traveling through Tennessee. The epicenter of the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, causing the Mississippi River to flow backwards in some places. Though the series of quakes changed the area geologically and affected

3216-456: Is known as the "Bluegrass State" in reference to Kentucky bluegrass , a species of grass introduced by European settlers which has long supported the state's thoroughbred horse industry. The fertile soil in the central and western parts of the state led to the development of large tobacco plantations similar to those in Virginia and North Carolina , which utilized enslaved labor prior to

3350-790: The Big Sandy River and Tug Fork to the east. Its major internal rivers include the Kentucky River , Tennessee River , Cumberland River , Green River , and Licking River . Though it has only three major natural lakes, Kentucky is home to many artificial lakes . It has the largest artificial lakes east of the Mississippi in both water volume ( Lake Cumberland ) and surface area ( Kentucky Lake ). Kentucky Lake's 2,064 miles (3,322 km) of shoreline, 160,300 acres (64,900 hectares) of water surface, and 4,008,000 acre-feet (4.9  billion cubic meters ) of flood storage are

3484-552: The Brown decision. In a similar case arising from Louisiana's interposition act, Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board , the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of a federal district court that rejected interposition. The district court stated: "The conclusion is clear that interposition is not a constitutional doctrine. If taken seriously, it is illegal defiance of constitutional authority. Otherwise, 'it amounted to no more than

3618-638: The Colony of Virginia , whose geographical extent was south of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers beyond the Appalachian Mountains , became known to European Americans as Kentucky (or Kentucke) country . It was named for the Kentucky River , a tributary of the Ohio. The precise etymology of the name is uncertain. One theory sees the word based on an Iroquoian name meaning "(on) the meadow" or "(on)

3752-604: The Kentucky Resolutions began by stating: Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America , are not united on the principles 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 Government for special purposes, delegated to that Government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itself,

3886-583: The Louisville Metro governmental area ) with 772,144 residents as of 2023 . Compact theory Compact theory featured heavily in arguments by southern political leaders in the run up to the American Civil War that states had a right to nullify federal law and to secede from the union. It also featured in southern arguments opposing desegregation after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education . The theory also entered into

4020-533: The Mexico–United States border crisis of the early 2020s. The US Supreme Court has rejected the idea that the Constitution is a compact among the states. Rather, the Court has stated that the Constitution was established directly by the people of the United States, not by the states. In one of the Supreme Court's first significant decisions, Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), Chief Justice John Jay stated that

4154-597: The New England states rejected the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798–99, several years later, the state governments of Massachusetts , Connecticut , and Rhode Island threatened to ignore the Embargo Act of 1807 based on the authority of states to stand up to laws deemed by those states to be unconstitutional. Rhode Island justified its position on the embargo act based on the explicit language of interposition . However, none of these states actually passed

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions - Misplaced Pages Continue

4288-820: The Revolutionary War . The county was subdivided into Jefferson , Lincoln and Fayette Counties in 1780, but continued to be administered as the District of Kentucky even as new counties were split off. On several occasions the region's residents petitioned the General Assembly and the Confederation Congress for separation from Virginia and statehood . Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville between 1784 and 1792. One petition, which had Virginia's assent, came before

4422-625: The Richmond News Leader , wrote a series of editorials urging "massive resistance" to integration of the schools. Kilpatrick, relying on the Virginia Resolution, revived the idea of interposition by the states as a constitutional basis for resisting federal government action. A number of southern states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Virginia, and Florida, subsequently passed interposition and nullification laws in an effort to prevent integration of their schools. In

4556-613: The Shawnee , who migrated from the east and the Ohio River valley. A persistent myth, perpetuated in many popular and scholarly works, alleges that Native Americans never lived permanently in Kentucky, but rather used it only as a "hunting ground." According to early Kentucky historians, early European settlers encountered extensive evidence of permanent, advanced settlements, including numerous burial mounds, copper and stone artifacts , and what early historians describe as "fortifications:" large sites consisting of extensive walls enclosing

4690-807: The Texas National Guard to secure the state's southern border. The Biden administration Justice Department wrote Abbott in July 2023 to assert he was exceeding his authority. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December 2023 that Texas must remove 1,000 feet of floating barrier the state had placed in the Rio Grande river earlier in the year. The United States Supreme Court in January ruled 5-4 that

4824-485: The federal Border Control could remove razor wire that the Texas National Guard had installed. Abbott responded that the ruling infringed on state sovereignty and that Texas had a right to secure the border that superseded federal authority. Abbott's argument was nearly identical to that of the 1860 South Carolina Declaration of Secession . Abbott then sought to impede border patrol agents, precipitating

4958-468: The " nullification crisis " of 1828–1833, South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification purporting to nullify two federal tariff laws. South Carolina asserted that the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832 were beyond the authority of the Constitution, and therefore were "null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens". Andrew Jackson issued a proclamation against

5092-661: The "Convention of the People of Kentucky" and passed an Ordinance of Secession on November 20, 1861. They established a Confederate government of Kentucky with its capital in Bowling Green , and Kentucky was officially admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861, as the 13th Confederate state with full recognition in Richmond. The Confederate shadow government was never popularly elected statewide, though 116 delegates were sent representing 68 Kentucky counties which at

5226-457: The "interposition" it contemplated was "a concurring and cooperating interposition of the States, not that of a single State. ... [T]he Legislature expressly disclaimed the idea that a declaration of a State, that a law of the U. S. was unconstitutional, had the effect of annulling the law." Madison went on to argue that the purpose of the Virginia Resolution had been to elicit cooperation by the other states in seeking change through means provided in

5360-552: The 14th and youngest-ever Vice President was born in Lexington, Kentucky at Cabell's Dale Farm. Breckenridge was expelled from the U. S. Senate for his support of the Confederacy. Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, coined the term New South in 1874, urging transformation from an agrarian economy to a modern industrial one. On January 30, 1900, Governor William Goebel , flanked by two bodyguards,

5494-430: The 1799 Resolutions declared that Kentucky "will bow to the laws of the Union" but would continue "to oppose in a constitutional manner" the Alien and Sedition Acts. The 1799 Resolutions concluded by stating that Kentucky was entering its "solemn protest" against those Acts. The Virginia Resolution did not refer to "nullification", but instead used the idea of " interposition " by the states. The Resolution stated that when

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions - Misplaced Pages Continue

5628-488: The Articles of Confederation" only, but not "under the Constitution", and so declined to take action. On December 18, 1789, Virginia again gave its consent to Kentucky statehood. The United States Congress gave its approval on February 4, 1791. (This occurred two weeks before Congress approved Vermont 's petition for statehood. ) Kentucky officially became the fifteenth state in the Union on June 1, 1792. Isaac Shelby ,

5762-771: The Confederate Government " to explaining the Compact Theory. Still concerned that people would not understand what the Compact Theory was, he wrote a second book, " A Short History of the Confederate States of America ", to explain it once more. During the Mexico–United States border crisis of 2023-24, Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott asserted the federal government had "broken the compact" by not acting adequately to end what he characterized as an "invasion" of migrants. He ordered

5896-483: The Confederation Congress in early July 1788. Unfortunately, its consideration came up a day after word of New Hampshire 's all-important ninth ratification of the proposed Constitution , thus establishing it as the new framework of governance for the United States. In light of this development, Congress thought that it would be "unadvisable" to admit Kentucky into the Union, as it could do so "under

6030-399: The Constitution is a compact between State governments. The Constitution itself, in its very front, refutes that idea; it, declares that it is ordained and established by the people of the United States . So far from saying that it is established by the governments of the several States , it does not even say that it is established by the people of the several States; but it pronounces that it

6164-432: The Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations, and no other crimes, whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that "the powers not delegated to

6298-464: The Constitution was "to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves;" and "the act of the people, as forming so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate nation, is obvious from this single consideration." Likewise, as noted in Article VII of the Constitution, ratification took place not by

6432-572: The Constitution was established directly by the people. Jay noted the language of the Preamble of the Constitution, which states that the Constitution was ordained and established by "We the people," and he stated: "Here we see the people acting as sovereigns of the whole country, and, in the language of sovereignty, establishing a Constitution by which it was their will that the State governments should be bound." This view has been repeatedly affirmed by

6566-474: The Constitution, characterized the Articles of Confederation as a compact among states, and stated that the Constitution was established by not the states but the people. Likewise, in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court stated that the federal Constitution proceeded directly from the people and was not created by the states. It stated that the Constitution was binding on and could not be negated by

6700-405: The Constitution, such as an amendment. The Supreme Court rejected the compact theory in several nineteenth century cases, undermining the basis for the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions. In cases such as Martin v. Hunter's Lessee , McCulloch v. Maryland , and Texas v. White , the Court asserted that the Constitution was established directly by the people, rather than being a compact among

6834-521: The Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. Meanwhile, James Madison had asserted in Federalist No. 39 that "the people" were not as individuals composing one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong;"

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6968-423: The Constitution. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 were written secretly by Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , respectively. The principles stated in the resolutions became known as the " Principles of '98 ". Adherents argued that the states could judge the constitutionality of federal government laws and decrees. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 argued that each individual state has

7102-435: The Court. In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816), the Supreme Court explicitly rejected the idea that the Constitution is a compact among the states: "The Constitution of the United States was ordained and established not by the States in their sovereign capacities, but emphatically, as the preamble of the Constitution declares, by 'the people of the United States.'" The Court contrasted the earlier Articles of Confederation with

7236-469: The Kentucky and Virginia resolutions was "deep and lasting, and was a recipe for disunion". George Washington was so appalled by them that he told Patrick Henry that if "systematically and pertinaciously pursued", they would "dissolve the union or produce coercion". The influence of Jefferson's doctrine of states' rights reverberated right up to the Civil War and beyond. Future president James Garfield , at

7370-486: The Massachusetts legislature, or General Court: A power to regulate commerce is abused, when employed to destroy it; and a manifest and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance , as much as a direct and palpable usurpation. The sovereignty reserved to the states, was reserved to protect the citizens from acts of violence by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation. We spurn

7504-514: The Mississippi, there is no evidence French or Spanish explorers set foot in the lands south of the Ohio, notwithstanding speculations about Hernando de Soto and Robert de la Salle. The terrain in those days was not surveyed, so there is some uncertainty whether and to what extent the early English explorers out of Virginia set foot on the land. Confounding the issue is that the region south of the Ohio/Allegheny later known as Kentucky country

7638-470: The North Carolina border (today Tennessee) extending to the Mississippi River, previously most of what was known as Kentucky (or Kentucke) country , was split off into its own county of Kentucky . Harrod's Town (Oldtown as it was known at the time) was named the county seat. A 1790 U.S. government report states that 1,500   Kentucky settlers had been killed by Native Americans since the end of

7772-446: The Ohio River and continued to maintain only small or transient settlements. This upheaval likely led the settlers to believe that Kentucky was a hunting ground contested by multiple tribes but not permanently inhabited, when in reality it had only recently been abandoned due to social and political turmoil. European explorers arrived in Kentucky possibly as early as 1671. While French explorers surely spied Kentucky during expeditions on

7906-414: The Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles (3 km). Ellis Park , a thoroughbred racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the only land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a non-contiguous part known as Kentucky Bend , at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee , and

8040-445: The Resolutions and three other states passed resolutions expressing disapproval, with the other four states taking no action. No other state affirmed the resolutions. At least six states responded to the Resolutions by taking the position that the constitutionality of acts of Congress is a question for the federal courts, not the state legislatures. For example, Vermont's resolution stated: "It belongs not to state legislatures to decide on

8174-498: The Resolutions to support their calls on Northern states to nullify what they considered unconstitutional enforcement of the law. The resolutions opposed the federal Alien and Sedition Acts , which extended the powers of the federal government . They argued that the Constitution was a " compact " or agreement among the states. Therefore, the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it. If

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8308-432: The United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," therefore the act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, and intitled "An Act in addition to the act intitled An Act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States," as also the act passed by them on the—day of June, 1798, intitled "An Act to punish frauds committed on

8442-535: The Virginia General Assembly, delegate John Mathews was said to have objected to the passing of the resolutions by "tearing them into pieces and trampling them underfoot." In January 1800, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Report of 1800 , a document written by Madison to respond to criticism of the Virginia Resolution by other states. The Report of 1800 reviewed and affirmed each part of

8576-406: The Virginia Resolution, affirming that the states have the right to declare that a federal action is unconstitutional. The Report went on to assert that a declaration of unconstitutionality by a state would be an expression of opinion, without legal effect. The purpose of such a declaration, said Madison, was to mobilize public opinion and to elicit cooperation from other states. Madison indicated that

8710-617: The acts of other branches of the federal government, but cannot takeover the ultimate decision-making power from the states which are the "sovereign parties" in the Constitutional compact. According to Madison states could override not only the Congressional acts, but also the decisions of the Supreme Court: Madison later strongly denied that individual states have the right to nullify federal law. Although

8844-442: The bank of the United States," (and all their other acts which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution,) are altogether void, and of no force whatsoever. The Virginia Resolution of 1798 also relied on the compact theory and asserted that the states have the right to determine whether actions of the federal government exceed constitutional limits. The Virginia Resolution introduced

8978-590: The bluegrass heartland of Kentucky. While the Cherokee did not settle in Kentucky, they hunted there. They relinquished their hunting rights there in an extra-legal private contract with speculator Richard Henderson called Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775. On December 31, 1776, by an act of the Virginia General Assembly , the portion of Fincastle County west of the Big Sandy River (including today's Tug Fork tributary) terminating at

9112-662: The boycott. Governor Augustus E. Willson declared martial law and deployed the Kentucky National Guard to end the wars. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South . A significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia . Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast . West Virginia lies to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to

9246-409: The case of Cooper v. Aaron , the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Arkansas' effort to use nullification and interposition . The Supreme Court held that under the Supremacy Clause , federal law was controlling and the states did not have the power to evade the application of federal law. The Court specifically rejected the contention that Arkansas' legislature and governor had the power to nullify

9380-448: The close of the Civil War, said that Jefferson's Kentucky Resolution "contained the germ of nullification and secession, and we are today reaping the fruits". Kentucky Kentucky ( US : / k ə n ˈ t ʌ k i / , UK : / k ɛ n -/ ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky , is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Illinois , Indiana , and Ohio to

9514-475: The compact theory to justify secession and argued that the northern states had violated the compact by undermining and attacking the institution of slavery and the slaveholders' property rights. The Southern states stated that they were therefore justified in withdrawing from the compact among the states. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was an avid supporter of the Compact theory, and devoted large portions of his two volume book " The Rise and Fall of

9648-448: The constitutionality of laws made by the general government; this power being exclusively vested in the judiciary courts of the Union." In New Hampshire , newspapers treated them as military threats and replied with foreshadowings of civil war. "We think it highly probable that Virginia and Kentucky will be sadly disappointed in their infernal plan of exciting insurrections and tumults," proclaimed one. The state legislature's unanimous reply

9782-455: The constitutionality of the laws of the general government; that the duty of such decision is properly and exclusively confided to the judicial department. Alexander Hamilton , then building up the army, suggested sending it into Virginia, on some "obvious pretext". Measures would be taken, Hamilton hinted to an ally in Congress, "to act upon the laws and put Virginia to the Test of resistance". At

9916-470: The conversion of natural habitat to farmland and coal mining . Kentucky has an expansive park system, which includes one national park, two National Recreation Areas, two National Historic Parks, two national forests , two National Wildlife Refuges, 45 state parks , 37,896 acres (153 km ) of state forest, and 82 wildlife management areas . Kentucky has been part of two of the most successful wildlife reintroduction projects in United States history. In

10050-441: The doctrine of nullification, stating: "I consider ... the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." He also denied the right to secede: "The Constitution ... forms

10184-548: The eighteenth century, epidemics of disease had destabilized and changed the indigenous groups that inhabited Kentucky, causing some to reassemble into multi-tribal towns, and others to disperse further from the sphere of European influence. Around the end of the French and Indian War, as European settlers began to claim parts of the Bluegrass State, Native Americans abandoned their larger, more permanent villages south of

10318-455: The far north as an average annual temperature and of 60 °F (16 °C) in the extreme southwest. In general, Kentucky has relatively hot, humid , rainy summers, and moderately cold and rainy winters. Mean maximum temperatures in July vary from 83 to 90 °F (28 to 32 °C); the mean minimum July temperatures are 61 to 69 °F (16 to 21 °C). In January the mean maximum temperatures range from 36 to 44 °F (2 to 7 °C);

10452-411: The federal government assumed such powers, its acts could be declared unconstitutional by the states. So, states could decide the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress . Kentucky's Resolution 1 stated: 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

10586-525: The first resolution on November 16, 1798, and the second on December 3, 1799. Jefferson wrote the 1798 Resolutions. The author of the 1799 Resolutions is not known with certainty. Both resolutions were stewarded by John Breckinridge who was falsely believed to have been their author. James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolution . The Virginia General Assembly passed it on December 24, 1798. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 stated that acts of

10720-593: The flat tops of bluffs, cliffs or mountains, constructed from stone that was quarried in the surrounding valleys and brought up to the summit. These sites and artifacts were sometimes explained as being the remnants of a "lost" white race, or some variously identified ethnic group predating and distinct from the Native Americans. More recent scholarship identifies the mound builders as the Mississippian and Fort Ancient peoples, which were distinct from

10854-532: The freezing point vary from about sixty days in the southwest to more than a hundred days in the far-north and far-east. Kentucky has the second-most navigable miles of water among U.S. states, second to Alaska . Kentucky is the only state to have a continuous border of rivers running along three of its sides – the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and

10988-487: The grants enumerated in that compact; and that, in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties, appertaining to them. There were two sets of Kentucky Resolutions . The Kentucky General Assembly passed

11122-585: The heritage of the " Old Republicans ". Taylor rejoiced in what the House of Delegates had made of Madison's draft: it had read the claim that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional as meaning that they had "no force or effect" in Virginia—that is, that they were void. Future Virginia Governor and U.S. Secretary of War James Barbour concluded that "unconstitutional" included "void, and of no force or effect", and that Madison's textual change did not affect

11256-406: The idea that the free, sovereign and independent State of Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, without power to protect its people, and to defend them from oppression, from whatever quarter it comes. Whenever the national compact is violated, and the citizens of this State are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized laws, this Legislature is bound to interpose its power, and wrest from

11390-425: The idea that the states may "interpose" when the federal government acts unconstitutionally, in their opinion: That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no further valid than they are authorized by

11524-511: The indigenous cultures encountered by settlers, although sharing the same origin in Paleoindian groups that inhabited the area for at least 12,000 years. Beginning in the seventeenth century, before indigenous groups in Kentucky made direct contact with Europeans, articles of European origin such as glass beads entered the region via trade routes , and the appearance of mass graves suggests that European diseases were also introduced. By

11658-440: The interior of the state. French explorers in the 17th century documented numerous tribes living in Kentucky until the Beaver Wars in the 1670s; however, by the time that European colonial explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in greater numbers in the mid-18th century, there were no major Native American settlements in the region. The Chickasaw had territory up to the confluence of Mississippi and Ohio rivers. During

11792-510: The judiciary, on the other hand, are carried into immediate effect by force. The former may lead to a change in the legislative expression of the general will; possibly to a change in the opinion of the judiciary; the latter enforces the general will, whilst that will and that opinion continue unchanged. Madison then argued that a state, after declaring a federal law unconstitutional, could take action by communicating with other states, attempting to enlist their support, petitioning Congress to repeal

11926-415: The law in question, introducing amendments to the Constitution in Congress, or calling a constitutional convention. However, in the same document Madison explicitly argued that the states retain the ultimate power to decide about the constitutionality of the federal laws, in "extreme cases" such as the Alien and Sedition Act. The Supreme Court can decide in the last resort only in those cases which pertain to

12060-622: The location of fields to maintain plots of land in various stages of ecological succession . In about the 10th century, the Kentucky native people's variety of corn became highly productive, supplanting the Eastern Agricultural Complex and replacing it with maize-based agriculture in the Mississippian era . As of the 16th century, what became Kentucky was home to tribes from diverse linguistic groups. The Kispoko , an Algonquian-speaking tribe, controlled much of

12194-457: The mean minimum temperatures range from 19 to 26 °F (−7 to −3 °C). Temperature means vary with northern and far-eastern mountain regions averaging five degrees cooler year-round, compared to the relatively warmer areas of the southern and western regions of the state. Precipitation varies north to south with the north averaging of 38 to 40 inches (970 to 1,020 mm), and the south averaging of 50 inches (1,300 mm). Days per year below

12328-545: The meaning. Madison himself strongly denied this reading of the Resolution. The long-term importance of the Resolutions lies not in their attack on the Alien and Sedition Acts , but rather in their strong statements of states' rights theory, which led to the rather different concepts of nullification and interposition . The resolutions were submitted to the other states for approval, but with no success. Seven states formally responded to Kentucky and Virginia by rejecting

12462-562: The mode and measure of redress. A key provision of the Kentucky Resolutions was Resolution 2, which denied Congress more than a few penal powers by arguing that Congress had no authority to punish crimes other than those specifically named in the Constitution. The Alien and Sedition Acts were asserted to be unconstitutional, and therefore void, because they dealt with crimes not mentioned in the Constitution: That

12596-489: The most of any lake in the Tennessee Valley Authority system. Kentucky's 90,000 miles (140,000 km) of streams provides one of the most expansive and complex stream systems in the nation. Kentucky hosts multiple habitats with a high number of endemic species, including some of the most extensive cave systems in the world. 102 known species are endemic to the state. The Bluegrass region, which

12730-436: The national government acts beyond the scope of the Constitution, the states "have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties, appertaining to them". The Virginia Resolution did not indicate what form this "interposition" might take or what effect it would have. The Virginia Resolutions appealed to

12864-413: The national government beyond the scope of its constitutional powers are "unauthoritative, void, and of no force". While Jefferson's draft of the 1798 Resolutions had claimed that each state has a right of " nullification " of unconstitutional laws, that language did not appear in the final form of those Resolutions. Rather than purporting to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts, the 1798 Resolutions called on

12998-566: The national government, notably the Alien and Sedition Laws, they represented a vigorous defense of the principles of freedom and self-government under the United States Constitution. But since the defense involved an appeal to principles of state rights, the resolutions struck a line of argument potentially as dangerous to the Union as were the odious laws to the freedom with which it was identified. One hysteria tended to produce another. A crisis of freedom threatened to become

13132-426: The north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west. Its northern border is defined by the Ohio River . Its capital is Frankfort and its most populous city is Louisville . As of 2020, the state's population was approximately 4.5 million. Previously part of Virginia, Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the fifteenth state on June 1, 1792. It

13266-620: The northern portion of the state, above the Knobs . Much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills sub-region, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The alluvial plain of the Ohio River is another geological region, as is the area south and east of Pine Mountain, part of the Ridge and Valley Belt of Appalachia. Most of Kentucky has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa ), with small Appalachian highland areas of

13400-822: The number of automobiles and trucks assembled. It is one of several states considered part of the Upland South . The state is home to the world's longest known cave system in Mammoth Cave National Park , the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States , and the nation's two largest artificial lakes east of the Mississippi River . Cultural aspects of Kentucky include horse racing , bourbon , moonshine , coal mining , My Old Kentucky Home State Park , automobile manufacturing, tobacco, Southern cuisine , barbecue , bluegrass music , college basketball , Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and Kentucky Fried Chicken . Prior to 1769, Botetourt County and successor counties in

13534-403: The oppressor its victim. Massachusetts and Connecticut, along with representatives of some other New England states, held a convention in 1814 that issued a statement asserting the right of interposition. But the statement did not attempt to nullify federal law. Rather, it made an appeal to Congress to provide for the defense of New England and proposed several constitutional amendments. During

13668-482: The other states for agreement and cooperation. Numerous scholars (including Koch and Ammon) have noted that Madison had the words "void, and of no force or effect" excised from the Virginia Resolutions before adoption. Madison later explained that he did this because an individual state does not have the right to declare a federal law null and void. Rather, Madison explained that "interposition" involved

13802-400: The other states to join Kentucky "in declaring these acts void and of no force" and "in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress". The Kentucky Resolutions of 1799 were written to respond to the states who had rejected the 1798 Resolutions. The 1799 Resolutions used the term " nullification ", which had been deleted from Jefferson's draft of the 1798 Resolutions, resolving: "That

13936-471: The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment . Kentucky ranks fifth nationally in goat farming, eighth in beef cattle production, and fourteenth in corn production. While Kentucky has been a long-standing center for the tobacco industry, its economy has diversified into non-agricultural sectors including auto manufacturing, energy production, and medicine. Kentucky ranks fourth among US states in

14070-449: The power to declare that federal laws are unconstitutional and void. The Kentucky Resolution of 1799 added that when the states determine that a law is unconstitutional, nullification by the states is the proper remedy. The Virginia Resolutions of 1798 refer to " interposition " to express the idea that the states have a right to "interpose" to prevent harm caused by unconstitutional laws. The Virginia Resolutions contemplated joint action by

14204-710: The power to make binding constitutional determinations remained in the federal courts: It has been said, that it belongs to the judiciary of the United States, and not the state legislatures, to declare the meaning of the Federal Constitution. ... [T]he declarations of [the citizens or the state legislature], whether affirming or denying the constitutionality of measures of the Federal Government ;... are expressions of opinion, unaccompanied with any other effect than what they may produce on opinion, by exciting reflection. The expositions of

14338-443: The prairie" (cf. Mohawk kenhtà:ke , Seneca gëdá'geh ( phonemic /kɛ̃taʔkɛh/ ), "at the field"). Another theory suggests a derivation from the term Kenta Aki , which could have come from an Algonquian language , in particular from Shawnee . Folk etymology translates this as "Land of Our Fathers". The closest approximation in another Algonquian language, Ojibwe , translates as "Land of Our In-Laws", thus making

14472-573: The residuary 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; that the Government 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

14606-463: The several states who formed [the Constitution], being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." The 1799 Resolutions did not assert that Kentucky would unilaterally refuse to enforce the Alien and Sedition Acts. Rather,

14740-741: The small number of inhabitants of the area at the time, the Kentucky Bend is the result of a surveying error, not the New Madrid earthquake. Kentucky can be divided into five primary regions: the Cumberland Plateau in the east, which is wholly underlain by coal and constitutes the Eastern Coal Field; the north-central Bluegrass region , where the major cities and the capital are located; the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau (a Mississippian-age plateau that

14874-410: The southeast of the state having an oceanic climate ( Cfb ). Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F (31 °C) to the winter low of 23 °F (−5 °C). The average precipitation is 46 inches (1,200 mm) a year. Kentucky has four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The state's highest recorded temperature

15008-563: The state capital. After the expulsion of Confederate forces after the Battle of Perryville, this government operated in-exile. Though it existed throughout the war, Kentucky's provisional government only had governing authority in areas of Kentucky under direct Confederate control and had very little effect on the events in the Commonwealth or in the war once they were driven out of the state. Kentucky remained officially "neutral" throughout

15142-437: The state. The northern parts tend to be about five degrees cooler than those in the western parts of the state. Somerset in the south-central part receives ten more inches of rain per year than Covington to the north. Average temperatures for the entire state range from the low 30s in January to the high 80s in mid-July. The annual average temperature varies from 55 to 60 °F (13 to 16 °C): of 55 °F (13 °C) in

15276-449: The states, as the parties to a compact, had the right to judge for themselves whether the terms of the compact were being honored. Calhoun described this "right of judging" as "an essential attribute of sovereignty," which the states retained when the Constitution was formed. Calhoun said the states had the right to nullify, or veto, any laws that were inconsistent with the compact. When the southern states seceded in 1860-61, they relied on

15410-485: The states. The Resolutions were produced primarily as campaign material for the 1800 United States presidential election and had been controversial since their passage, eliciting disapproval from ten state legislatures. Ron Chernow assessed the theoretical damage of the resolutions as "deep and lasting ... a recipe for disunion". George Washington was so appalled by them that he told Patrick Henry that if "systematically and pertinaciously pursued", they would "dissolve

15544-486: The states. Abraham Lincoln also rejected the compact theory saying the Constitution was a binding contract among the states and no contract can be changed unilaterally by one party. In 1954, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education , which ruled that segregated schools violate the Constitution. Many people in southern states strongly opposed the Brown decision. James J. Kilpatrick , an editor of

15678-454: The states. It again contrasted the Articles of Confederation, which was established by the states, to the Constitution, which was established by the people. After the Civil War, in Texas v. White (1869), a case discussing the legal status of the southern states that had attempted to secede, the Supreme Court stated that the union was not merely a compact among states but was "something more than

15812-498: The states. Under this view, the states are not parties to the Constitution and do not have the right to determine for themselves the proper scope of federal authority but instead are bound by the determinations of the federal government. The state of Vermont took that position in response to the Kentucky Resolutions . Daniel Webster advocated that view in his debate with Robert Hayne in the Senate in 1830: [I]t cannot be shown, that

15946-471: The subject, that a nullification of a law of the U. S. can as is now contended, belong rightfully to a single State, as one of the parties to the Constitution; the State not ceasing to avow its adherence to the Constitution. A plainer contradiction in terms, or a more fatal inlet to anarchy, cannot be imagined." Madison explained that when the Virginia Legislature passed the Virginia Resolution,

16080-496: The time made up a little over half the territory of the Commonwealth to the Russellville Convention in 1861, and were occupied and governed by the Confederacy at some point in the duration of the war, and Kentucky had full representation within the Confederate Government. Although Confederate forces briefly controlled Frankfort, they were expelled by Union forces before a Confederate government could be installed in

16214-438: The time. In writing the Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson warned that, "unless arrested at the threshold", the Alien and Sedition Acts would "necessarily drive these states into revolution and blood." Historian Ron Chernow says of this "he wasn't calling for peaceful protests or civil disobedience: he was calling for outright rebellion, if needed, against the federal government of which he was vice president." Jefferson "thus set forth

16348-693: The union or produce coercion". Their influence reverberated right up to the Civil War and beyond. In the years leading up to the Nullification Crisis , the resolutions divided Jeffersonian democrats , with states' rights proponents such as John C. Calhoun supporting the Principles of '98 and President Andrew Jackson opposing them. Years later, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 led anti-slavery activists to quote

16482-1043: The war due to the Southern Unionists sympathies of a majority of the Commonwealth's citizens who were split between the struggle of Kentucky's sister Southern States fully in the Confederate States of America and a continued loyalty to the Unionist cause that was prevalent in other areas of the South such as in East Tennessee, West Virginia, Western North Carolina, and others. Despite this, some 21st-century Kentuckians observe Confederate Memorial Day on Confederate leader Jefferson Davis ' birthday, June 3, and participate in Confederate battle re-enactments. Both Davis and U.S. president Abraham Lincoln were born in Kentucky. John C. Breckinridge ,

16616-483: The west, Illinois to the northwest, and Indiana and Ohio to the north. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more. Kentucky's northern border is formed by the north shore of the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River ; however, the official border is based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792. For instance, northbound travelers on U.S. 41 from Henderson, after crossing

16750-563: The winter of 1997, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources began to re-stock elk in the state's eastern counties, which had been extirpated from the area for over 150 years. As of 2009 , the herd had reached the project goal of 10,000 animals, making it the largest herd east of the Mississippi River . The state stocked wild turkeys in the 1950s, after reportedly having fewer than 900. Once nearly extinct, wild turkeys thrive throughout Kentucky. Hunters reported

16884-580: Was 114 °F (46 °C) in Greensburg on July 28, 1930, while its lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F (−38 °C) in Shelbyville on January 19, 1994 . The state seldom experiences the extreme cold of far northern states or the high heat of the states in the Deep South ; temperatures rarely drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit or rise above 100 degrees. Rain and snowfall averages about 45 inches per year. The climate varies markedly within

17018-585: Was abandoned during the conflict period of Dunmore's War, and resettled in March 1775, becoming the first permanent European settlement in Kentucky. It was followed within months by Boone's Station, Logan's Fort and Lexington before Kentucky was organized. This period was the time of Daniel Boone's legendary expeditions starting in 1767 through the Cumberland Gap and down the Kentucky River to reach

17152-428: Was blunt: Resolved , That the legislature of New Hampshire unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this state, against every aggression, either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. That the state legislatures are not the proper tribunals to determine

17286-500: Was described as an action to be taken by "the several states" who formed the Constitution. The Kentucky Resolutions thus ended up proposing joint action, as did the Virginia Resolution. The Resolutions joined the foundational beliefs of Jefferson's party and were used as party documents in the 1800 election. As they had been shepherded to passage in the Virginia House of Delegates by John Taylor of Caroline , they became part of

17420-419: Was established directly by the people, not the states, and that it constitutes supreme law, not a mere compact. In the years before the Civil War, the compact theory was used by southern states to argue that they had a right to nullify federal law and to secede from the union. For example, during the Nullification Crisis of 1828-1832, John C. Calhoun argued in his South Carolina Exposition and Protest that

17554-504: Was found insufficient, and inadequate to the public exigencies. The people were not satisfied with it, and undertook to establish a better. They undertook to form a general government, which should stand on a new basis; not a confederacy, not a league, not a compact between States, but a Constitution ; a popular government, founded in popular election, directly responsible to the people themselves, and divided into branches with prescribed limits of power, and prescribed duties. They ordained such

17688-559: Was indicted as a co-conspirator in Goebel's assassination . Goebel is the only governor of a U.S. state to have been assassinated while in office. The Black Patch Tobacco Wars , a vigilante action, occurred in Western Kentucky in the early 20th century. As a result of the tobacco industry monopoly, tobacco farmers in the area were forced to sell their crops at prices that were too low. Many local farmers and activists united in

17822-528: Was larger than the state of Kentucky today, encompassing most of today's West Virginia and (vaguely) part of southwestern Pennsylvania. Notable expeditions were Batts and Fallam 1671, Needham and Arthur 1673. Dr. Thomas Walker and surveyor Christopher Gist surveyed the area now known as Kentucky in 1750 and 1751. As more settlers entered the area, warfare broke out with the Native Americans over their traditional hunting grounds. June 16, 1774, James Harrod founded Harrod's Town (modern Harrodsburg). The settlement

17956-567: Was mortally wounded by an assassin while walking to the State Capitol in downtown Frankfort. Goebel was contesting the Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899 , which William S. Taylor was initially believed to have won. For several months, J. C. W. Beckham , Goebel's running mate, and Taylor fought over who was the legal governor until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in May in favor of Beckham. After fleeing to Indiana , Taylor

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