The Alien and Sedition acts were a series of laws passed by Congress in 1798. These acts where brought up to silence opposition to an expected war with France. It was supported by President Adams and his Federalist Party which controlled Congress. It was opposed by Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans such as James Madison. The Acts were unpopular with many people because it was seen as a violation of there freedom. Jefferson and Madison challenged the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. These Resolutions became part of the Democratic-Republic Party platform in the 1800 presidential election. In that election President Adams and the Federalists were defeated, then the acts expired in 1801.
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions where resolutions passed in opposition to the Alien and Sedition acts, which were enacted by the Federalists in 1798. The Jeffersonian Republicans first replied in the Kentucky Resolutions, adopted by the Kentucky legislature in Nov., 1798. Written by Thomas Jefferson himself, they were a severe attack on the Federalists' broad interpretation of the Constitution, which would have granted new power of the national government to the states. The resolutions declared that the Constitution established a compact between the states and that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it under the terms of the compact, should the federal government assume such powers, its acts under them would be un-authoritive and therefore gone. It was the right of the states and not the federal government to decide as to the fairness of such acts. A further resolution made in Feb. , 1799, provided a agreement by which the states could enforce their decisions by formal objection of the objectionable laws. A similar set of resolutions was adopted in Virginia in Dec. , 1798, but these Virginia Resolutions, written by James Madison, were a somewhat calmer expression of the strict construction of the Constitution and the strong idea of the Union. The resolutions were submitted to the other states for approval with no real result. Their chief importance lies in the fact that they were later considered to be the first notable statements of the states right in government.
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