Frankfort Heritage Lecture Series: Thomas Jefferson and the Kentucky Constitution

Name: Frankfort Heritage Lecture Series: Thomas Jefferson and the Kentucky Constitution
Start: 2025-09-13T13:00:00-04:00
Location: 319 Wapping St, Frankfort, KY, United States, Kentucky 40601

Schedule

Sat, 13 Sep, 2025 at 01:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

319 Wapping St, Frankfort, KY, United States, Kentucky 40601 | Frankfort, KY

For the first time, Denis Fleming's book demonstrates the influence of Thomas Jefferson on Kentucky's Constitution from direct references to Jefferson in the rarely if ever used papers of George Nicholas at the University of Chicago Library. Nicholas was chair of Kentucky's constitutional convention in Danville in 1792 and his handwritten notes at this convention show the influence of Jefferson on Kentucky's separation of powers clauses. These clauses are not found in our federal constitution and the influence of Jefferson on Kentucky's Constitution has long been in doubt.
One Kentucky Supreme Court opinion asserted Nicholas met Jefferson at Monticello where Jefferson gave him the draft clauses but later opinions question that account with one calling it "a hoax”. But Fleming found in the Nicholas papers, including handwritten drafts of his speeches to the convention, direct attribution of these clauses to Jefferson from his book Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1787
Fleming traces how these clauses were used in the modern era to uphold Kentucky's greatest public policy wins, including education and criminal justice reform. He also discusses the work of Jefferson with Nicholas and John Breckinridge and Jefferson's secret authorship of the "Kentucky Resolutions" passed by Kentucky's legislature in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. There were riots across Kentucky in opposition to these acts and Fleming's tale of these turbulent times in central Kentucky makes for compelling history.
Denis Fleming, Jr., a native of Louisville, Kentucky, received his bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Kentucky and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law. After receiving his law degree, he practiced law throughout Kentucky with the firm Barnett & Alagia.
Later, he served in Kentucky state government as general counsel to the Economic Development Cabinet under Governors Wallace Wilkinson and Brereton Jones (1988-93), general counsel to the governor and deputy secretary of the executive cabinet under Governor Paul Patton (1995-2003), and chief deputy attorney general under Attorney General Greg Stumbo (2003-2004).
In 2004, Fleming was appointed chief of staff to Congressman Ben Chandler (Ky-6th) in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. House of Representatives. After the 2012 elections, Fleming worked with Almost Family, Inc. a Kentucky-based homecare provider that later merged with LHC Group where he now works as senior vice president and legislative counsel.
He resides in Washington D.C. and Miami, enjoys travel and running, and has written published book reviews. This is his first book.
Please register at https://www.pspl.org/event/fhls-fleming. For more information, contact Diane Dehoney at (502) 352-2665 x100 or [email protected].