History of the United States of America, Volume 1 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas JeffersonAdams, Henry
History
History of the United States of America, Volume 1 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas Jefferson
Adams, Henry
United States -- History -- 1801-1809; United States -- History -- 1809-1817
These Virginia Resolutions, which were drawn by Madison, seemed strong
enough to meet any possible aggression from the national government;
but Jefferson, as though not quite satisfied with these, recommended
the Kentucky legislature to adopt still stronger. The draft of the
Kentucky Resolutions, whether originally composed or only approved by
him, representing certainly his own convictions, declared that “where
powers are assumed which have not been delegated a nullification of the
Act is the rightful remedy,” and “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.” Jefferson
did not doubt “that the co-States, recurring to their natural right
in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void
and of no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing
that neither these acts, nor any others of the federal government not
plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be
exercised within their respective territories.”
In the history of Virginia thought, the personal opinions of Jefferson
and Madison were more interesting, if not more important, than the
official opinion of State legislatures. Kentucky shrank from using
language which seemed unnecessarily violent, but still declared,
with all the emphasis needed, that the national government was not
“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 each party had an
equal right to judge for itself as to an infraction of the compact, and
the proper redress; that in the case of the Alien and Sedition Laws the
compact had been infringed, and that these Acts, being unconstitutional
and therefore void, “may tend to drive these States into revolution
and blood;” finally, the State of Kentucky called for an expression
of sentiment from other States, like Virginia not doubting “that the
co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made federal,
will concur in declaring these Acts void and of no force.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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