Every State from Maryland north replied to the Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions, rejecting the constitutional principles set forth by Jefferson
and Madison. The following are brief excerpts of the responses of
the legislatures of Rhode Island and New Hampshire. As you read,
consider Rhode Island and New HampshireÌs response to the "doctrine of
nullification" proposed in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
Why would Rhode Island and New Hampshire have felt compelled to respond
to Kentucky's assertion that states have the power to rule federal laws
unconstitutional?
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (February 1799):
1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this legislature, the second section
of the third article of the Constitution of the United States, in these
words, to wit, - " The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising
under the laws of the United States," vests in the Federal Courts,
exclusively, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, ultimately,
the authority on the constitutionality of any act or law of the Congress
of the United States.
2. Resolved, That for any state legislature to assume that authority
would be
1st. Blending together
legislative and judicial powers;
2nd. Hazarding an interruption
of the peace of the states by civil discord, in a case of a diversity of
opinions among the state legislatures; each state having, in that case,
no resort for vindicating its own opinions, but the strength of its own
arm;
3rd. Submitting most
important questions of law to less competent tribunals; and
4th. An infraction of the
Constitution of the United States....
3. Resolved, That, although, for the above reasons, this legislature...
do not feel themselves authorized to consider and decide on the constitutionality
of the Alien and Sedition laws... [do] declare that in their private opinions,
these laws are within the powers delegated to Congress.
New Hampshire Resolution on the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (June 1799):
The legislature of New Hampshire unequivocally expresses a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States... against every aggression, either foreign or domestic....
The state legislatures are not the proper tribunals to determine the constitutionality of the laws of the general government... the duty of such decision is properly and exclusively confided in the judicial department.
If the legislature of New Hampshire, for mere speculative purposes were
to express an opinion on the... Alien and Sedition Bills, that opinion
would unreservedly be that those acts are constitutional.