Five-minute digest
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
Summary
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were the state legislatures' protests against the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed by a Federalist Congress and signed by President John Adams in June and July 1798 during the undeclared naval war with France. The Alien Friends Act let the President order dangerous aliens out of the country without trial; the Sedition Act made it a crime to publish false, scandalous and malicious writing against the government, Congress or the President. Vice President Thomas Jefferson and his ally James Madison regarded both acts as beyond the powers granted by the Constitution and the Sedition Act as a violation of the First Amendment. Each drafted resolutions in secret, and their authorship was not acknowledged publicly for years. Jefferson's draft reached the Kentucky legislature through Wilson Cary Nicholas and John Breckinridge, who introduced a revised version; the Kentucky House passed it on 10 November 1798 and the Senate concurred on 13 November. Its nine resolutions argue that the states formed the Constitution as a compact for special purposes, delegating certain powers and reserving the rest; that the general government is not the final judge of its own powers, so each party to the compact may judge infractions and the mode of redress; and that the Sedition Act, the Alien Friends Act and an act on crimes against the federal government exceed those powers and are void. The ninth resolution asks the other states to join in declaring the acts void and warns that confidence in rulers is the parent of despotism, while free government is founded in jealousy. Breckinridge's text left out the word nullification that Jefferson's draft had used. Madison's Virginia Resolutions, introduced by John Taylor of Caroline and agreed to by the Virginia Senate on 24 December 1798, are shorter and more measured. They affirm attachment to the Union and the Constitution, describe federal powers as resulting from a compact among the states, and declare that the states have the right and duty to interpose against a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of powers not granted. They protest the two acts, defend free examination of public men and measures as the guardian of every other right, and invite the other states to join Virginia in declaring the acts unconstitutional. Several northern legislatures replied that the federal courts, not the states, should decide such questions. In November 1799 Kentucky answered with a further resolution, also in the library text, declaring that nullification by the states is the rightful remedy for unauthorized acts while promising to bow to the laws of the Union and oppose them only in a constitutional manner. Madison defended Virginia's position in his Report of 1800.
Top Lessons
Who judges the limits of a delegated power?
The first Kentucky resolution says the general government cannot be the exclusive judge of its own powers, or its discretion rather than the Constitution would measure them. The northern states answered that the federal courts settle such questions. The resolutions are a sustained argument over where the final word on constitutional meaning should lie.
Free communication as the guardian of every other right
Virginia's fifth resolution argues that the right of freely examining public characters and measures protects all other rights, because a people who cannot criticize their rulers cannot hold them to account. The Sedition Act, which punished criticism of Congress and the President, struck at that right directly.
Jealousy, not confidence, in questions of power
The ninth Kentucky resolution argues that confidence in rulers, even rulers of one's own choosing, is the parent of despotism, and that limited constitutions exist because free people are rightly watchful of those they trust with power. The point is not personal distrust but a rule of prudence about power itself.
Interposition and nullification
Madison's Virginia text speaks of the states' duty to interpose; Kentucky in 1799 names nullification as the rightful remedy. Madison later explained interposition as concerted protest and appeal by the states, while South Carolina in 1832 read the resolutions as warrant for a single state to annul a federal law, a reading Madison rejected.
Verified Quotes
“That this assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the Union of the States, to maintain which it pledges all its powers”
Frequently cited
“in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil”
Frequently cited
“that right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right.”
Frequently cited
“this government, created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.”
“confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence”
Frequently cited
“In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
“That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy”
Medical Lens
The resolutions are constitutional and political arguments about delegated powers, aliens, and the freedom of speech and press; they contain no medical material.