The Virginia resolutions of 1798 : a study of the contemporary debate

The Virginia Resolutions of 1798 have been praised as a defense of the basic freedoms of person, speech, and press and equally denounced as an early precedent for the principles of states rights, nullification and interposition. Involved in the crisis which arose over the Alien and Sedition Laws were such outstanding Virginians and national figures as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Taylor, William Branch Giles, John Marshall, Patrick Henry, and Henry Lee. Without major emphasis upon the contributions or activities of these statesmen or the historical implications of the Resolutions, the purpose of this paper is to examine the contemporary situation, more specifically the enactment of the Resolutions by the Republican majority and the Federalist reaction the document