So bitter were the political differences between the Federalists and the Republicans in the 1790s that the late historian Page Smith wrote in his People's History of the Young Republic that it was "most fortunate that Jefferson and the Republicans triumphed" in the election of 1800. Had they not, the country might have torn itself apart. The cause of the bitterness was the distribution of power between the federal government and the states. It is easy for us to forget, so revered is our Constitution, that it was anything but a sure thing that the country would prosper under that historic document. Many people continued to believe even after ratification that the Constitution did not contain sufficient guarantees that the federal government would not become too powerful, and any tendencies to increase federal power were viewed with much skepticism. The Sedition Act of 1798, an attempt by the Federalists to squelch criticism of President John Adams and his administration, was seen by the Republicans as a dangerous usurpation of power, not to mention a violation of the First Amendment. Under the Sedition Act a number of Federalist writers were prosecuted.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the two leading Republicans, wrote resolutions protesting the Sedition Act (as well as the Alien Enemies Act, which was scarcely used) and had them published by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. (Jefferson's contribution was anonymous because he was vice president.) It is one of the first shots fired in what will become a long struggle over states' rights, which of course ultimately led to civil war. The first paragraph of the Kentucky Resolutions contains the essence of the issue-mistrust of the federal government.
I. Resolved, that the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government. And that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each state acceded as a state and is an integral party; that 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 parties 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.
2. Resolved, that the Constitution of the United States having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the laws of nations, and no other crimes whatever; and it being true, as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared "that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people"; therefore, also, the same act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, and entitled "An Act in Addition to the Act Entitled 'An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States,'" as also the act passed by them on the 27th day of June, 1799, entitled "An Act to Punish Frauds Committed on the Bank of the United States" (and all other their acts which assume to create, define, or punish crimes other than those enumerated in the Constitution), are altogether void and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish, such other crimes is reserved, and of right appertains, solely and exclusively, to the respective states, each within its own territory.
3. Resolved, that it is true, as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people;" and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press, being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the states, or to the people; that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech, and of the press, may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses, which cannot be separated from their use, should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed. _
. . . That transferring the power of judging any person who is under the protection of the laws from the courts to the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same act concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which provides, that "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the courts, the judges of which shall hold their office during good behavior," and that the said act is void for that reason also. And it is further to be noted that this transfer of judiciary power is to that magistrate of the general government who already possesses all the executive, and a qualified negative in all the legislative powers.
. . .That it does also believe, that, to take from the states all the powers of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special government, and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of these states; and that, therefore, this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men, on earth; that, if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them.
. . .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 this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment to limited government, whether general or particular, and that the rights and liberties of their co-states will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked on a common bottom with their own; but they will concur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration, that the compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the general government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these states of all powers whatsoever. That they will view this as seizing the rights of the states, and consolidating them in the hands of the general government with a power assumed to bind the states, not merely in cases made federal but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, no, with their consent but by others against their consent. That this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its power from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-states, recurring to their natural rights not made federal, will concur in declaring these void and of no force, and will each unite with this commonwealth in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress.
World History
