Do unelected officials promoting fear among the population, mandating rules from on high, and crushing dissent bother you? This accurately describes the world of tyranny in which we find ourselves now; and yet this is not the first time this has happened in the United States. Most Americans are not familiar with the Alien and Sedition Acts [https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/alien-and-sedition-acts] and the subsequent successful effort to nullify the overt unconstitutional power grab. It happened in 1789. Fewer still are familiar with the Tenth Amendment. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison used it to stop the power grab and ensure the States retained their dearly fought for rights, particularly the right of sovereignty. So, how do we regain our sovereignty and stomp out these petty tyrants?  Our Constitution and our history provide a pathway to lift these chains and ensure they are not applied again.

Background

Fundamentally, fear drove citizens to give up collective and individual sovereignty. The shocking part about the COVID-19 pandemic is not the virus or even the petty tyrants who rapidly used it to gain power. Americans abdicated their responsibility to understand and enforce the Tenth Amendment and ceded power to unelected administrators. Our easy abdication of our sovereignty is the “Black Swan” [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackswan.asp] event, not the pandemic.

Americans hold the power conveyed through the United States Constitution — not the Supreme Court, the President, Congress and certainly not the confederacy of unelected officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), and other U.S. government bureaucracies. Who provided anyone in the U.S. federal government the right to mandate vaccinations, inane social distancing and masking rules, and draconian measures for children to attend school and medical staff to work? Where does the power arise to approve experimental vaccines for babies, children, and young- and middle-aged adults who are perfectly healthy and have a less than one percent chance of dying from COVID?  It is not in the Constitution.

The Constitution and legacy documents such as The Federalist Papers clearly demonstrate that there are a few limited, enumerated powers. What is not allowed in the Constitution is limited in the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States.” [https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-x] Citizens of those states weld the power, not unelected administrators in the District of Columbia.  Why would the states agree to a federal authority with unlimited power after fighting a bloody war to free themselves from such tyranny?

Does the Following Sound Familiar?

You lost your job, your career, because you were not granted a vaccine exemption. Your industry and colleagues canceled you. Your family refuses to allow you to attend family gatherings.  You cite evidence; you cite scientific papers; you provide opinion pieces by medical experts; but that is not enough. The damage is done, the fear has gripped all whom you love.

Due to fear, have we done more damage than good? Sadly, evidence grows that damage done by COVID mRNA vaccines is much more catastrophic than the so-called pandemic was. Excess mortality rates climb higher and faster than from any other vaccine in history. [https://vaersanalysis.info/2021/10/07/a-more-comprehensive-symptom-breakdown-covid-19-vaccines-vs-all-other-vaccines-combined/] Yet health officials, who are charged with protecting Americans’ health, suggest we get booster shots every few months. And our schools, companies, and institutions seem ready to mandate compliance. I did not sign up for that. Did you? How did America fold and accept tyranny so easily?

Masks, lockdowns, mandates…check, check, check…all derived from the expansion of unconstitutional federal power, the concentration of authority, severe limits on free speech, and general denial of our First Amendment right to express dissent. Those in power tell us that dissent has become “…false, scandalous, or malicious” or “misinformation.” [https://bombthrower.com/when-dissent-is-misinformation-fallacies-become-facts/] Social media outlets are colluding with federal institutions to stifle free speech. Ask Naomi Wolf about the collusion among the CDC and social media sites. [https://dailyclout.io/internal-documents-show-cdc-colluded-with-big-tech-to-deplatform-naomi-wolf/] But these actions, these power grabs, are not at all new.

Does the following sound familiar, “…any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the Government of…with intent to defame…bring them (leaders) into “contempt or dispute” …or “excite against them” the “good people of the United States …for opposing or resisting any law of the United States… then such person shall be convicted, fined, imprisoned…” [https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/alien-and-sedition-acts] Can you not readily recall that time, that language?

Our History, Our Humanity

The Alien and Sedition Acts (1789) enabled the imprisonment of dissenters, closed publishers, and stifled dissent. “Committees of Surveillance” were formed to find infringers. [https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Sedition_Act_cases.pdf]

It turns out the Founding Fathers acutely understood human nature and the very real risk of a descent into totalitarianism. They lived through it. We forgot it over time and are re-learning the hard way. Exactly what the Framers feared would happen happened. Benjamin Franklin Bache called the Alien and Sedition Acts an unconstitutional power grab, he was charged, jailed, and ironically died of yellow fever before he could be tried. [https://www.founderoftheday.com/founder-of-the-day/ben-frank-bache] Have you ever heard of Matthew Lyon? He was a Vermont Representative who wrote dissenting comments about John Adams regarding the Acts. He was thrown in prison and fined. While in prison, he won re-election in a landslide. [https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1442/matthew-lyon]

The U.S. government has devolved into an administrative state [https://brownstone.org/articles/mozart-mediocrity-and-the-administrative-state/] that effectively is instituting the Alien and Sedition Acts right before our eyes.

So How Do We the People Regain Our Power?

Have you heard of the “Principles of ’98”? [https://mises.org/library/3-principles-98] Me either. They came out of Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions developed in late 1798. These Resolutions began the process of nullification as a “rightful remedy” when the federal government oversteps its’ authority. [https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/virginia-and-kentucky-resolutions]

Who was behind the “Principles of ’98” effort? Some men named Jefferson and Madison realized that the Alien and Sedition Acts were a power grab. What many do not know is that citizens’ ire rose to a level where militias and protests formed. That is how seriously the States took it that the source of power should reside as expressed in the Constitution. Civil war was a possibility. Do we have a monarchy or a republic? As Ben Franklin said, “A republic if we can keep it.” [https://ericmetaxas.com/blog/a-republic-if-we-can-keep-it/]

The Challenge to the Acts Begins

Significantly, the fight against the Alien and Sedition Acts did not arise out of political opportunism; rather, it was from the indignation of the people, of the citizenry. The push-back was immediate. Thomas Jefferson wrote in opposition within 30 days of the passing of the Acts pointing out that several States were not united on the matter. [https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/kentucky-and-virginia-resolutions/]

Unlike today, in 1798 citizens greatly feared unlimited submission to the federal government. Remember, this was a more perfect union of states that had to come together, after much debate and a bloody revolution, to form a limited federal government. They did not trust a central government, and the Alien and Sedition Acts provided just such top-down tyranny.

The Alien and Sedition Acts and COVID Mandates

Again, does this sound familiar? Federal leadership generated fear to consolidate power. Top-down tyranny was used to allegedly protect the citizenry. Fear of the French drove creation of the Acts, as did fear of dissent from within. Today’s lockdowns, mask mandates, social distancing, contact tracing, digital passports, and travel restrictions – all put forth by unelected administrators in the name of so-called science to purportedly protect us – hold eerie similarities to drivers of the Alien and Sedition Acts. And, starting in March 2020, formerly free people willingly gave up their rights.

“If you look at the curves of outbreaks, they go big peaks, and then come down. What we need to do is flatten that down,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters… “That would have less people infected. That would ultimately have less deaths. You do that by trying to interfere with the natural flow of the outbreak.” – Anthony Fauci, (March 11, 2020) [https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/11/flattening-curve-coronavirus/]

That same day, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally called the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32191675/] Fast forward to July 25, 2022, and Deborah Birx, who was on the President’s COVID-19 Task Force, admitted that she lied on what was needed to “flatten the curve.” “No sooner had we convinced the Trump administration to implement our version of the two-week shutdown than I was trying to figure out how to extend,” Birx boasted in her memoir. [Birx, Deborah L. Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, COVID-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late. Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.] This type of power grab is exactly why the Founders adopted a constitution that delegated power to the States and not to unelected administrators like Birx and Fauci.

What Is the Antidote?

Per the Constitution, Americans’ rights are delegated to the States and the citizenry in those States. That’s why Thomas Jefferson wrote in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, “…whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force…” Further, Jefferson wrote, “…where powers are assumed which not have been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy…” Jefferson is not alone, James Madison [https://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Kentucky_Resolutions_of_1798] asserted that the “States have an obligation to act against egregious federal exercises of undelegated power…,” as quoted by Michael Maharrey, in his recent publication, Constitution Owner’s Manual. [Maharrey, Michael. “Constitution Owner’s Manual.” Michael Maharrey | Decentralizing for Peace and Freedom, Michael Maharrey, https://www.michaelmaharrey.com/books-by-michael/constitution-owners-manual/.]

It is clear that “…the states…have the rights, and are in duty bound to interpose for the arresting the progress of evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.” – Madison. [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-17-02-0128] Most people are not stupid. They understand the usurpation of power, of their sovereign rights, when it comes knocking on their doors.

So, citizens exercised their sovereignty to overturn the Acts through the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The Alien and Sedition Acts did not stay in force. The ire of the people did not rise to civil war. What their ire did lead to was nullification — state nullification in lieu of popular nullification (i.e., civil war). Our beautiful Constitution enables peaceful nullification to render egregious power grabs “null, void and of no force or effect.” [https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/01/13/null-void-of-no-effect/] People of the States have the final authority to determine the constitutionality of an act.

How Do We Stop the Insanity?

To be clear, what we are seeing and living through now is not new. As you just learned, it goes back to at least 1789. Human nature is human nature. The raw power grab based upon the fear promulgated by government agencies and media is unlawful.  As Maharrey points out in his publication, even the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause contains a condition that any legitimate federal law must be in “pursuance” of the Constitution or else it will be “unauthoritative, void and of no force.” [Maharrey, “Constitution Owner’s Manual.”] There is no enumerated power to mandate vaccines or to close businesses and houses of worship while allowing liquor and hardware stores to stay open. Can you find an enumerated power in the Constitution that addresses “essential businesses?” Me either. So, how do we combat this lawlessness?

There are only three options: force, submission, and non-compliance or non-cooperation. We cannot reasonably use force – that would be armed conflict, another civil war. We are seeing in real-time the havoc, tragedy, and ruination submission has caused; so, we must no longer submit. We must not comply. We have a duty to loudly, overtly, and publicly refuse to comply. Just say no. Do not social distance. Do not wear a mask. Do not get another COVID vaccine or booster.

Tell you doctor’s administrator, your school board, and your state and local officials that you will not comply. Do not allow your city, county, or state to lock down anyone. Email, write, and call your local leadership. Do not let them off the hook. Get involved. And do not let anyone, family or otherwise, coerce you into violating your own personal sovereignty. We are all essential.

Simply put, the federal government cannot force the States to enforce federal laws. It is unconstitutional. But we do not have time to trust and test the courts. We must impede and obstruct in a peaceful, non-confrontational way now. And we must pursue nullification now, nullification tomorrow, nullification until the insanity stops. Let us lawfully remove the tyrants and ensure they never, ever secure positions of power again. We do not obey. We nullify the tyranny just like Jefferson and Madison did in 1789.