The Gullification Of Virginia And Kentucky Resolutions

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were passed by the state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts enacted by Congress in 1798. The resolutions introduced the idea that individual states could declare federal legislation null and void when that legislation went beyond the powers given to the federal government when the states joined together to form a compact. Although the other states rejected Kentucky and Virginia’s invitation to join their challenge of federal authority at the time, the concept of nullification was applied in later disputes involving states’ rights.
In the Virginia Resolution, written by James Madison, the word “nullification” never appears in the document. The section reading,

It was written not only as another response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, but also to the rejection of the Virginia Resolution by other states. This document differs from the other in that Jefferson posits the notion of nullification based on state sovereignty, and therefore installs the concept of nullification into the minds of southerners. He acknowledges from the start that the other states are inconvincible of his viewpoint, but continues to express his judgment in ways such as this: “That the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.” Here, Jefferson is pressing the fact that the states are entitled to judge against the unconstitutional acts of the federal government, and that they all must take unnamed action. He confirms Madison’s viewpoint by refusing to beat around the bush and firmly naming his stance and beliefs regarding the federal government’s current unconstitutional

The southerners had originally expected Andrew Jackson to reduce tariffs, considering he was from the south, but he instead made a compromise that gained the support of most northerners and about half of southern Congress members. South Carolina, however, was not satisfied with this. They were quick to call for nullification on the tariff, especially after John C. Calhoun wrote anonymously the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, and that is how the 1832 Ordinance of Nullification came about. This action taken by South Carolinians was most likely swayed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson’s theories of nullification in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Jefferson’s charged rhetoric had introduced to the people the evidence that nullification is part of their given rights, which stayed present in the South