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The '''Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions''' (or '''Resolves''') were important political statements in favor of [[states' rights]] written secretly by Vice President [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]] (then in retirement) in 1798.  They were passed by the two states in opposition  to the federal [[Alien and Sedition Acts]]. Though often mentioned as a pair in modern historical discussions, they were actually two separate documents. The '''Kentucky Resolutions''' (plural) were written by Jefferson and passed by the state legislature on [[November 16]], [[1798]], with one more being passed the following year on [[December 3rd]], [[1799]]. The '''Virginia Resolution''' (singular) was written by Madison and passed by the state legislature on [[December 24]], [[1798]]. Jefferson and Madison collaborated on the writing of the two documents, but their authorship was not known for many years. The resolutions attacked the Sedition Act, which extended the powers of the federal government over individuals inside the states. The resolutions declared that the Constitution was a "[[compact theory|compact]]." That is, it was an agreement among the states. The federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it; should the federal government assume such powers, its acts under them would be void. Thus it was the right of the states to decide as to the constitutionality of such laws passed by Congress.
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{{dambigbox|Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions|Kentucky}}
'''Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions''' or '''Virginia and Kentucky Resolves''' were two separate but similar influential statements that state governments could stop certain actions of the federal U.S. government. It was overwhelmingly rejected at the time and since.  They were resolutions passed by the state legislatures of [[Kentucky (U.S. state)|Kentucky]] and [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]], respectively, in 1798. The secret author of Virginia Resolutions was [[James Madison]], while the Kentucky Resolutions were secretly written by [[Thomas Jefferson]]. The two documents were written in opposition of the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]] and established the theory of nullification and interposition.


The resolutions were submitted to other states for approval but with no success. In [[New Hampshire]], newspapers treated them as military threats and replied with sinister foreshadowings of civil war. "We think it highly probable that Virginia and Kentucky will be sadly disappointed in their infernal plan of exciting insurrections and tumults," proclaimed one. The other states legislature's unanimous reply was blunt:
==Background==
<blockquote>
Resolved that the Legislature of New Hampshire unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. That the State Legislatures are not the proper tribunals to determine the Constitutionality of the laws of the General Government—that the duty of such decision is properly and exclusively confided to the Judicial department. <ref>[http://www.constitution.org/rf/vr_04.htm Counter-Resolutions of Other States]</ref>
</blockquote>


At a more serious level, [[Alexander Hamilton]], then building up the army, suggested sending it into Virginia, on some “obvious pretext.” Measures would be taken, he hinted an ally in Congress, “to act upon the laws & put Virginia to the Test of resistance.” <ref>Feb. 2, 1799, ''Hamilton Papers'' vol 22 pp 452-53.</ref>
The Alien and Sedition Acts was passed by Congress in 1798 during the undeclared [[Quasi War]] with France (called the "Quasi War" because it was not officially declared). The acts made a federal crime to criticize the government, and restricted aliens. [[Enemy aliens]] (that is foreigners owing loyalty to a country at war with the U.S.) could be rounded up by the president; this latter authority is still in effect in 2007.  The [[Federalist Party]] passed the act, warning of the dangers of French subversion. [[Jeffersonian]] Republicans complained the laws were not needed and that their friends and allies were the target.  Jefferson at one point drafted a threat for Virginia to secede, but dropped it from the text. In January 1800, the Virginia General Assembly passed the [[Report of 1800]], a document by Madison affirming the principles of the Resolutions and responding to criticism they had received.


The Resolutions joined the foundational beliefs of Jefferson's party and were used as party documents in the 1800 election.  They became part of the heritage of the "Old Republicans."  Their long-term importance lies not in their attack on the Sedition law, but rather in their strong statements of states' rights theory, which led to rather different concepts of [[nullification]] and [[interposition]]. Jefferson at one point drafted a threat for Virginia to secede, but dropped it from the text. 
==The Resolutions==


Although the New England states all immediately issued dissents in response to the resolutions, some of them soon found occasion to voice their assent to the principles of interposition and/or nullification. The state governments of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island all threatened to ignore the [[Embargo Act of 1807]] based on the authority of states to stand up to laws deemed by those states to be unconstitutional (but they did not in fact try to nullify the laws). Rhode Island's justification for its position after the embargo was based on the explicit language of [[interposition]].<ref>Thomas E. Woods, Jr.; [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods44.html "The States' Rights Tradition Nobody Knows"], 2005</ref>  Within five years, Massachusetts and Connecticut again asserted the right of the states to their own test of constitutionality when they were instructed to send their own militia to defend the coast during the [[War of 1812]]. Another embargo passed in 1813 that hurt New England trade was questioned once again by Connecticut and Massachusetts; the supreme courts of both states issued their objections, including this statement from the Massachusetts General Court:
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison secretly collaborated in writing different resolutions of protest.<ref> The authorship of Jefferson and Madison remained secret for years. </ref> These were given to allies and passed by the state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky, but other states refused to pass similar resolutions.  Indeed several states denounced the resolutions as unconstitutional.  Both resolutions not only condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional They went to claim that individual states could nullify federal laws deemed to be unconstitutional. Madison's Virginia Resolutions, which pronounced the [[compact theory]], were relatively milder in terms than Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions, which explicitly stated states' rights to [[nullification]].


<blockquote> A power to regulate commerce is abused, when employed to destroy it; and a manifest and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance, as much as a direct and palpable usurpation. The sovereignty reserved to the states, was reserved to protect the citizens from acts of violence by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation. We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent State of Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, without power to protect its people, and to defend them from oppression, from whatever quarter it comes. Whenever the national compact is violated, and the citizens of this State are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized laws, this Legislature is bound to interpose its power, and wrest from the oppressor its victim.<ref>[http://www.constitution.org/hames/sdfr.htm The General Court of Massachusetts on the Embargo, February 22, 1814]</ref></blockquote>
The Alien and Sedition Acts either expired or were repealed from 1800 to 1802, after Jefferson was elected to the presidency.
==Rejection==
The resolutions were submitted to other states for approval but with no success. In [[New Hampshire (U.S. state)|New Hampshire]], newspapers treated them as military threats and replied with sinister foreshadowings of civil war. "We think it highly probable that Virginia and Kentucky will be sadly disappointed in their infernal plan of exciting insurrections and tumults," proclaimed one. The other states legislature's unanimous reply was blunt:  


Decades after the Resolutions were published, during the "[[nullification crisis]]" of 1828–1833, [[South Carolina]] threatened to nullify a federal law regarding tariffs.  [[Andrew Jackson]] issued a resounding proclamation against the doctrine of nullification, stating: "I consider...the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."  He also denied the right of secession: "The Constitution...forms a government not a league...To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation."<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/proclamations/jack01.htm President Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification]</ref> Later, [[Abraham Lincoln]] also rejected the compact theory saying the Constitution was a binding contract among the states and no contract can be changed unilaterally by one party.
{{cquote|Resolved that the Legislature of New Hampshire unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. That the State Legislatures are not the proper tribunals to determine the Constitutionality of the laws of the General Government—that the duty of such decision is properly and exclusively confided to the Judicial department. <ref>[http://www.constitution.org/rf/vr_04.htm Counter-Resolutions of Other States]</ref>}}


Historians have been divided on the importance of the resolutions. Some have been ambivalent because of their long-term impact. As Jefferson's biographer explains:
At a more threatening level, [[Alexander Hamilton]], then building up the army, suggested sending it into Virginia, on some “obvious pretext.” Measures would be taken, Hamilton hinted to an ally in Congress, “to act upon the laws & put Virginia to the Test of resistance.” <ref>Feb. 2, 1799, ''Hamilton Papers'' vol 22 pp 452-53.</ref>


<blockquote>
The Resolutions joined the foundational beliefs of Jefferson's party and were used as party documents in the 1800 election and became central to the "Old Republicans."  
Called forth by oppressive legislation of the national government, notably the Alien and Sedition Laws, they represented a vigorous defense of the principles of freedom and self-government under the United States Constitution.  But since the defense involved an appeal to principles of state rights, the resolutions struck a line of argument potentially as dangerous to the Union as were the odious laws to the freedom with which it was identified. One hysteria tended to produce another. A crisis of freedom threatened to become a crisis of Union. The latter was deferred in 1798-1800, but it would return, and when it did the principles Jefferson had invoked against the Alien and Sedition Laws would sustain delusions of state sovereignty fully as violent as the Federalist delusions he had combated. <ref>Merrill D. Peterson; ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography'' 1975.</ref></blockquote>
 
 
==Historical significance==
 
The Resolutions later became landmark documents supporting the concept of [[states' rights]]. They were invoked during the [[Nullification Crisis]] by [[John C. Calhoun]] to justify [[South Carolina (U.S. state)|South Carolina]]'s nullification of the federal tariff. The ideas underlying the Resolutions also influenced the Southern secession in the 1860s, which resulted in the [[American Civil War]]. The underlying ideas were decisively rejected during the war and did not resurface afterwards.


==Notes==
==Notes==
<references />
<references/>
==References==
* Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. ''The Age of Federalism'' (1995)
* Koch, Adrienne.  and Harry Ammon. "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson's and Madison's Defense of Civil Liberties," ''William and Mary, Quarterly'' April 1948, pp. 145-76. online at JSTOR
* Koch, ''Jefferson and Madison: The Great Collaboration'' (1950), ch. 7.
* Watkins, William. ''Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy'' (2004), an encomium of the resolutions.


==External links==
==Primary Sources==
* [http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm Text of Kentucky Resolutions]
*[http://www.closeup.org/ky-va.htm Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 1798]
* [http://www.constitution.org/cons/virg1798.htm Text of Virginia Resolution]


[[Category:Law Workgroup]]
==Bibliography ==
[[category:History Workgroup]]
* Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. ''The Age of Federalism'' (1995), the standard history of the era; [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-age-of-federalism-by-stanley-elkins-eric-mckitrick.jsp online edition]
[[category:Politics Workgroup]]
*Gutzman, K. R. Constantine, "'O, What a Tanled Web We Weave ...':  James Madison and the Compound Republic," ''Continuity'' 22 (1998), 19-29.
*Gutzman, Kevin R., "A Troublesome Legacy:  James Madison and the 'Principles of '98,'"  ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 15 (1995), 569-89.
* Gutzman, K[evin] R. Constantine, "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions Reconsidered:  'An Appeal to the _Real Laws_ of Our Country,'" ''Journal of Southern History'' 66 (2000), 473-96. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(200008)66%3A3%3C473%3ATVAKRR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F online at JSTOR]
* Koch, Adrienne.  and Harry Ammon. "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson's and Madison's Defense of Civil Liberties," ''William and Mary, Quarterly'' April 1948, pp. 145-76. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597(194804)3%3A5%3A2%3C145%3ATVAKRA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q online at JSTOR]
* Koch, Adrienne. ''Jefferson and Madison: The Great Collaboration'' (1950), ch. 7.
* Watkins, William. ''Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy'' (2004), a tract praising the resolutions

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https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=Kentucky_and_Virginia_Resolutions&printable=yes
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This article is about Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. For other uses of the term Kentucky, please see Kentucky (disambiguation).

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions or Virginia and Kentucky Resolves were two separate but similar influential statements that state governments could stop certain actions of the federal U.S. government. It was overwhelmingly rejected at the time and since. They were resolutions passed by the state legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia, respectively, in 1798. The secret author of Virginia Resolutions was James Madison, while the Kentucky Resolutions were secretly written by Thomas Jefferson. The two documents were written in opposition of the Alien and Sedition Acts and established the theory of nullification and interposition.

Background

The Alien and Sedition Acts was passed by Congress in 1798 during the undeclared Quasi War with France (called the "Quasi War" because it was not officially declared). The acts made a federal crime to criticize the government, and restricted aliens. Enemy aliens (that is foreigners owing loyalty to a country at war with the U.S.) could be rounded up by the president; this latter authority is still in effect in 2007. The Federalist Party passed the act, warning of the dangers of French subversion. Jeffersonian Republicans complained the laws were not needed and that their friends and allies were the target. Jefferson at one point drafted a threat for Virginia to secede, but dropped it from the text. In January 1800, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Report of 1800, a document by Madison affirming the principles of the Resolutions and responding to criticism they had received.

The Resolutions

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison secretly collaborated in writing different resolutions of protest.[1] These were given to allies and passed by the state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky, but other states refused to pass similar resolutions. Indeed several states denounced the resolutions as unconstitutional. Both resolutions not only condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional They went to claim that individual states could nullify federal laws deemed to be unconstitutional. Madison's Virginia Resolutions, which pronounced the compact theory, were relatively milder in terms than Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions, which explicitly stated states' rights to nullification.

The Alien and Sedition Acts either expired or were repealed from 1800 to 1802, after Jefferson was elected to the presidency.

Rejection

The resolutions were submitted to other states for approval but with no success. In New Hampshire, newspapers treated them as military threats and replied with sinister foreshadowings of civil war. "We think it highly probable that Virginia and Kentucky will be sadly disappointed in their infernal plan of exciting insurrections and tumults," proclaimed one. The other states legislature's unanimous reply was blunt:

“ Resolved that the Legislature of New Hampshire unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. That the State Legislatures are not the proper tribunals to determine the Constitutionality of the laws of the General Government—that the duty of such decision is properly and exclusively confided to the Judicial department. [2] ”

At a more threatening level, Alexander Hamilton, then building up the army, suggested sending it into Virginia, on some “obvious pretext.” Measures would be taken, Hamilton hinted to an ally in Congress, “to act upon the laws & put Virginia to the Test of resistance.” [3]

The Resolutions joined the foundational beliefs of Jefferson's party and were used as party documents in the 1800 election and became central to the "Old Republicans."


Historical significance

The Resolutions later became landmark documents supporting the concept of states' rights. They were invoked during the Nullification Crisis by John C. Calhoun to justify South Carolina's nullification of the federal tariff. The ideas underlying the Resolutions also influenced the Southern secession in the 1860s, which resulted in the American Civil War. The underlying ideas were decisively rejected during the war and did not resurface afterwards.

Notes

  1. ↑ The authorship of Jefferson and Madison remained secret for years.
  2. ↑ Counter-Resolutions of Other States
  3. ↑ Feb. 2, 1799, Hamilton Papers vol 22 pp 452-53.

Primary Sources

Bibliography

  • Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism (1995), the standard history of the era; online edition
  • Gutzman, K. R. Constantine, "'O, What a Tanled Web We Weave ...': James Madison and the Compound Republic," Continuity 22 (1998), 19-29.
  • Gutzman, Kevin R., "A Troublesome Legacy: James Madison and the 'Principles of '98,'" Journal of the Early Republic 15 (1995), 569-89.
  • Gutzman, K[evin] R. Constantine, "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions Reconsidered: 'An Appeal to the _Real Laws_ of Our Country,'" Journal of Southern History 66 (2000), 473-96. online at JSTOR
  • Koch, Adrienne. and Harry Ammon. "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson's and Madison's Defense of Civil Liberties," William and Mary, Quarterly April 1948, pp. 145-76. online at JSTOR
  • Koch, Adrienne. Jefferson and Madison: The Great Collaboration (1950), ch. 7.
  • Watkins, William. Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy (2004), a tract praising the resolutions
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