KENTUCKY
RESOLUTIONS

(November 16, 1798), stated:

III. Resolved, that it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments of the Constitution 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”;

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 lawful power 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 many be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather that the use be destroyed;

and thus also they guarded against all abridgement by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed on the general demand of its citizens, has already protected them from all human restraint or interference. … 2130