kentucky virginia resolution

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The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were authored in secret by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in response to the repressive Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798. In the opinion of Jefferson and Madison, the Acts were unjust. They also represented a major victory for the Federalists. By writing the Resolutions, Jefferson and Madison spearheaded the protests of those against the Alien and Sedition Acts and those in support of stronger states' rights. Although the Resolutions were successful in the two originating states, they did not have much success in the other states. Still, the new ideas presented in the Resolutions were almost revolutionary. Although the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 were not very successful, they were important because they provided necessary arguments for the supporters of greater states' rights against the proponents of a stronger central government.

The Alien and Sedition Acts played major roles in the coming about of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Passed in early 1798, the Acts laid down a number of harsh restrictions on foreigners. The Alien Act stretched the minimum years for eligibility for naturalization from five y

Although the Resolutions did enjoy successes in Kentucky and Virginia, they did not fare so well in the other states. Ten of the fourteen states voiced opposition to the Resolutions (5 / p. 115). This somewhat unexpected opposition was bad news for Jefferson and Madison; their efforts in attacking the repressive actions of the Adams administration had received a strong counterattack. Some of the states even went as far as praising the Alien and Sedition Acts as just and necessary (4 / p. 173-174). Such staunch defenses of the constitutionality of acts of Congress came mainly from the New England states. The series of rejections definitely hampered the Republicans' campaign for the repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

ears to fourteen years. It also gave the President the power to expel any alien from the country. The Sedition Act was even harsher; it gave the government the right to arrest anyone accused of seditious activities. The Sedition Act thus cracked down on many Jeffersonian newspapers which criticized the government. Of course, Jefferson criticized these Acts; he even called them "worthy of the 8th and 9th century" (2 / p.174). With these laws the Federalists were thought to be stifling the power of the Jeffersonians.

As said before, Jefferson and Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as rebuffs to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Resolutions stated several new theories in the relationship between the federal government and the states. The first and most important was the "compact theory." In Jefferson and Madison's interpretation, the Constitution was nothing more than a compact between sovereign states which gave explicitly defined powers to the central government and retained all other powers (1 / p. 3). Here, Jefferson and Madison took the "strict construction" theory of the Republicans and defined it even further. Thus the Resolutions stated that the states had all residual powers and not the federal government. The second theory in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions was that the states were the true judges of a law's constitutionality and not the legislative or judicial branches of the federal government (4 / p. 170). If the legislative

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Approximate Word count = 1491
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History