CHAPTER rowed partly from Jefferson's eighth resolution, for an XIIL expression of opinion as to the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798. and for their concurrence with Kentucky in declaring those laws void and of no force, and in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. In this shape the Nov. 14. resolutions passed the Kentucky Legislature with only two or three dissenting votes. A few weeks after, the same doctrine of nullification, nearly or quite to the full extent of Jefferson's original draft, its virulence, however, somewhat disguised by the Dec. 24. generality of the terms, was re-echoed by the Legislature of Virginia in a series of resolutions, drafted by Madison, and offered by that same John Taylor who had suggested but a few months before the idea of a separate confederacy, to be composed of Virginia and North Carolina. These resolutions began with expressing a warm attachment to the Constitution and the Union, after which they proceeded to assert that the powers of the Federal government result only from a compact to which the states are the parties, "and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are the parties thereto have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." Next came an expression of "deep regret at a spirit in sundry instances manifested by the Federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter, and of indications of a design to expound certain general phrases so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases," and "so to consolidate the states, by degrees, into one sovereignty, the obvious tend XIII. ency and inevitable result of which would be to trans- CHAPTER form the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy." The resolutions then wound up with a protest against the Alien and Sedition Laws, which, for certain reasons set forth, were pronounced "palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution ;" a protest in which the other states were called upon to join, and each "to take the necessary and proper measures for co-operating in each state in maintaining, unimpaired, the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." These resolutions were passed, after a warm debate, by a vote of one hundred to sixty-three in the House of Delegates, and of fourteen to three in the Senate. About a month after, they were sent out with an address, drawn probably by Madison, very able and adroit, containing the entire case of the opposition as against the Federal administration; to which an answer, not less able, was soon put forth, signed by fifty-eight of the minority. In the midst of these formidable preparations for bringing the state authorities into direct conflict with the Federal government, the fifth Congress came together for its third session. The president's speech began with some allusions to the yellow fever, and the propriety of establishing, in aid of the health laws of the states, some general system of quarantine compatible with the interests of commerce and the safety of the revenue. It next suggested, as an addition to the ordinary objects of "our annual oblation of gratitude," that spirit which had arisen against the menaces and aggressions of a foreign nation; a manly sense of national honor, dignity, and independence, which, if encouraged and invigorated by every branch of the 1798. CHAPTER rowed partly from Jefferson's eighth resolution, for an XIII. expression of opinion as to the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798. and for their concurrence with Kentucky in declaring those laws void and of no force, and in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. In this shape the Nov. 14. resolutions passed the Kentucky Legislature with only two or three dissenting votes. A few weeks after, the same doctrine of nullification, nearly or quite to the full extent of Jefferson's original draft, its virulence, however, somewhat disguised by the Dec. 24. generality of the terms, was re-echoed by the Legislature of Virginia in a series of resolutions, drafted by Madison, and offered by that same John Taylor who had suggested but a few months before the idea of a separate confederacy, to be composed of Virginia and North Carolina. These resolutions began with expressing a warm attachment to the Constitution and the Union, after which they proceeded to assert that the powers of the Federal government result only from a compact to which the states are the parties, "and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are the parties thereto have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." Next came an expres sion of "deep regret at a spirit in sundry instances manifested by the Federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter, and of indications of a design to expound certain general phrases so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases," and "so to consolidate the states, by degrees, into one sovereignty, the obvious tend XIII. ency and inevitable result of which would be to trans- CHAPTER form the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy." The resolutions then wound up with a protest against the Alien and Sedition Laws, which, for certain reasons set forth, were pronounced "palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution ;" a protest in which the other states were called upon to join, and each "to take the necessary and proper measures for co-operating in each state in maintaining, unimpaired, the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." These resolutions were passed, after a warm debate, by a vote of one hundred to sixty-three in the House of Delegates, and of fourteen to three in the Senate. About a month after, they were sent out with an address, drawn probably by Madison, very able and adroit, containing the entire case of the opposition as against the Federal administration; to which an answer, not less able, was soon put forth, signed by fifty-eight of the minority. In the midst of these formidable preparations for bringing the state authorities into direct conflict with the Federal government, the fifth Congress came together for its third session. The president's speech began with some allusions to the yellow fever, and the propriety of establishing, in aid of the health laws of the states, some general system of quarantine compatible with the interests of commerce and the safety of the revenue. It next suggested, as an addition to the ordinary objects of "our annual oblation of gratitude," that spirit which had arisen against the menaces and aggressions of a foreign nation; a manly sense of national honor, dignity, and independence, which, if encouraged and invigorated by every branch of the 1798. XIII CHAPTER rowed partly from Jefferson's eighth resolution, for an expression of opinion as to the Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798. and for their concurrence with Kentucky in declaring those laws void and of no force, and in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. In this shape the Nov. 14. resolutions passed the Kentucky Legislature with only two or three dissenting votes. A few weeks after, the same doctrine of nullification, nearly or quite to the full extent of Jefferson's original draft, its virulence, however, somewhat disguised by the Dec. 24. generality of the terms, was re-echoed by the Legislature of Virginia in a series of resolutions, drafted by Madison, and offered by that same John Taylor who had suggested but a few months before the idea of a separate confederacy, to be composed of Virginia and North Carolina. These resolutions began with expressing a warm attachment to the Constitution and the Union, after which they proceeded to assert that the powers of the Federal government result only from a compact to which the states are the parties," and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who are the parties thereto have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them." Next came an expression of "deep regret at a spirit in sundry instances manifested by the Federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter, and of indications of a design to expound certain general phrases so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases," and "so to consolidate the states, by degrees, into one sovereignty, the obvious tend |