Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 Still Apply | by Keith Allen Lehman

Before I begin this article, I would like to direct your attention to some great collage photo artwork by Erica Thunderpaws in a recent short article that challenges Tea Patriots to come up with something that the media cannot ignore (and is peaceful dissension) and the Progressives can understand, as well as make the Obama Nation administration and his associates in Congress to understand what part of the word NO is not understood. Of course, the main issue being directed with this artwork, a picture worth a thousand words, is the Obama healthcare that is being forced down the throats of US citizens whose majority says NO! Now to the gist of what I intended to write ...

I recently wrote two articles concerning the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution:

Second Amendment is Quite Clear, at least those with Common Sense and Second Amendment: “Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms” in ALL States.

Thomas Jefferson is well known for his letters and being the principal author of The Declaration of Independence. He also was the 3^rd President of the United States; but before he was elected for that office, he held the office of Vice President during the administration of the 2^nd President of the United States, John Adams. Previous to that, Thomas Jefferson served as an elected member of the Virginia legislature, Mister of France and Secretary of State for President George Washington. After losing to John Adams, Federalist, in the 1796 presidential election by only three electoral votes, he became the Vice President. In 1800 he became the President of the United States after a tie-breaking election with his opponent Aaron Burr, who became Jefferson’s Vice President.

While the Declaration of Independence is a well known American government document, few know that Thomas Jefferson was the author of another important document – The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Mr. Jefferson drafted the document in secret while he was serving as vice president. It was written in response to the unpopular Alien and Seditions Acts that passed Congressed and President John Adams signed during an undeclared war with France.

The acts demonstrated how quickly men of government had forgotten the principles that caused the American Revolutionary War and the foundation of the law of the United States – the US Constitution and its amendments. It authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States, and criminalized any speech which might defame Congress, the President, or bring either of them into contempt or disrepute. It was as popular as the Patriot Act signed by President George W. Bush, but really worse than that.

10th Amendment

In protested and argued citing the Tenth Amendment:

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.

The acts were also in violation of the First Amendment, freedom of speech.

States Rights

Thomas Jefferson stated that the federal government had over stepped its bounds and was exercising powers which belonged to the states. Thomas Jefferson corresponded with James Madison in private letters, and the two gentlemen suspected that their letters were secretly being opened and ready by the government. However, the letters developed a series of resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts and was passed by the Virginia legislature in 1798 and 1799. In the Kentucky Resolutions, Thomas Jefferson explained the nature of the relationship between the federal government and the state governments:

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 a 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, 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 part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other 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 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.

Over a period of time in American history, states would invoke what is called The Principles of ’98 to oppose unconstitutional embargoes 1807 to 1809, misuse of the state militia during the War of 1812, the Second Bank of the United States issue in 1825, and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850.

Today those principles are being used to address unconstitutional federal laws and executive orders that concern firearm regulations, Cap and Trade, the push for REAL ID, Obamacare and other abuses of the Constitution of the United States that are too numerous to mention here.

Sheep & Sheeple

The Principles of ’98 apply today just as they did in 1798. But the sheeple, the American people who allowed themselves to become apathetic, allowed teachers and professors teach their children an alternate reality of American history and insert their Marxist principles into the curriculum that is supposed to be engineered to teach young people to grow up as productive citizens, adults who will carry on that which Thomas Jefferson and others of his day strove so hard to create and to keep.

I read an article written by a fellow veteran that brings me back to the days of discussion with professors and peers regarding any imaginable thought in the universe, I came to the conclusion that society is made up of three entities: sheep, shepherds, and wolves.

Unfortunately we have chosen shepherds or a resemblance of in the form of elected officials that are supposed to be serving as statesmen and stateswomen in Congress and the Executive Branch Administration.

Sheep, Sheepdogs and Wolves

The article that reminded me of this was posted at Human Events’ Guns & Patriots blog written by LTC (RET) Dave Grossman, who instead of shepherds replaced the word with sheepdogs. LTC Grossman wrote a letter to a student Senate Leader at the University of Washington who did not want to honor the Medal of Honor winner USMC Colonel Greg Boyington [On Combat and On Killing] because she felt that members of the armed forces are not good role models. Excerpts …

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me:  "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. … We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep. … 

"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. 

There is no safety in denial. 

"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed. …

We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools. … The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial. 

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. … Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. …

Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero? Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. … The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed, right along with the young ones. Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. … In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. … If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door. …

Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up. Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear, helplessness and horror at your moment of truth. … On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from "sheephood" and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

There are those who cringe at the thought of owning or having to use a firearm have the right to that train of thought or philosophy, it is part of the freedom, liberties and rights in our established principles of a representative democratic republic. However, too many think by taking firearms away all together and thus against others' rights, the means of protecting themselves and others around them, away from the sheepdogs will prevent crime. 

The wolf enjoys prey that can’t fight back or is timid.

The Second Amendment was written in plain and simple language, as well as the 4^th, 10^th and 14^th Amendments; and they were written for good reason.

It is the duty of every American citizen, no matter what creed, race, color or sex; to keep a watchful eye on the wolves in government and ensure they are not elected in the first place, and not stand in the way of sheepdogs who serve and protect and those sheep that will turn to the sheepdog when it is called for.