d
of a cannon, fired as a salute to the President, had hit him on the rear
bulge of his breeches, was fined $100. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, while
canvassing for reelection to Congress, charged the President with
"unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and a selfish
avarice." This language cost him four months in jail and a fine of $1000.
But in general the law did not repress the tendencies at which it was
aimed but merely increased them.

The Republicans, too weak to make an effective stand in Congress, tried to
interpose state authority. Jefferson drafted the Kentucky Resolutions,
adopted by the state legislature in November, 1798. They hold that the
Constitution is a compact to which the States are parties, and that "each
party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of
the mode and measure of redress." The alien and sedition laws were
denounced, and steps were proposed by which protesting States "will concur
in declaring these Acts void and of no force, and will each take measures
of its own for providing that neither these Acts, nor any others of the
general Government, not plainly and intentionally authorized by the
Constitution, shall be exercised within their respective territories." The
Virginia Resolutions, adopted in December, 1798, were drafted by Madison.
They view "the powers of the federal Government as resulting from the
compact to which the States are parties," and declare that, if those
powers are exceeded, the States "have the right and are in duty bound to
interpose." This doctrine was a vial of woe to American politics until it
was cast down and shattered on the battlefield of civil war. It was
invented for a partisan purpose, and yet was entirely unnecessary for that
purpose.

The Federalist party as then conducted was the exponent of a theory of
government that was everywhere decaying. The alien and sedition laws were
condemned and discarded by the forces of national politics, and state
action was as futile in effect as it was mischievous in principle. It
diverted the issue in a way that might have ultimately turned to the
advantage of the Federalist party, had it possessed the usual power of
adaptation to circumstances. After all, there was no reason inherent
in the nature of that party why it should not have perpetuated its
organization and repaired its fortunes by learning how to derive authority
from public opinion. The needed transformation of charac