In 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
penned, the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions -
formally articulating the principles of
nullification for the first time.
During the summer of 1798, Congress passed four
laws together known as the Alien and Sedition Acts.
These laws represented a gross exercise of
power never delegated to Congress.
In response, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Kentucky resolutions,
and the state Legislature passed a revised
version of them on November 10th, 1798.
Asserting that “the several States composing, the
United States of America, are not united on the
principle of unlimited submission
to their general government,”
Jefferson proclaimed that nullification was the
proper response to deal with all federal overreach.
In his original draft, he wrote:
“Where powers are assumed which have not been delegated,
a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy:
that every State has a natural right in cases not
within the compact to nullify of their own
authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits:
that without this right, they would be under the
dominion, absolute and unlimited,
of whosoever might exercise this right
of judgment for them.”
On December 24, 1798, the Virginia Senate passed
similar resolutions
penned by James Madison,
further asserting not just the right,
but the duty of states to step in and stop
the federal government. He wrote:
“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,
and for maintaining within their respective limits,
the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
Taken together, the Kentucky and Virginia
resolutions lay out the principles of
nullification;
that is, state-level resistance as a duty
to stop federal power.
