Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

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The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (or Resolves) were important political statements in favor of states rights written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 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 secretly by Thomas 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 was secretly written by James Madison and passed by the state legislature on December 24, 1798. Jefferson and Madison collaborated on the writing of the two documents. 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." That is, it was an agreement between the central government and the states—-not an agreement among the states ^{([Disputed statementdisputed]—see [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 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. [Counter-Resolutions of Other States]

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.” Feb. 2, 1799, Hamilton Papers vol 22 pp 452-53.

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.

Decades after the Resolutions were published, during the "nullification crisis" of 1828–1832, 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."[President Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification] 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.

Historians have been ambivalent about the resolutions because of their long-term impact. As Jefferson's biographer explains:

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. Merrill D. Peterson; Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography 1975.

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