rannical
nature of the Federalists seemed to be complete. It was an
unpardonable political blunder.

Equally damaging to the prosperity of the Federalist party was the fact
that the French Republic, instead of accepting the issue, showed a
complete unwillingness to fight, and protested in public that it was
having a war forced upon it. Talleyrand showered upon the United
States, through every channel, official or unofficial, assurances of
kindly feelings, and, so soon as he learned of Adams's demand for a
suitable reception for an American Minister, gave the required
assurance in his exact words. Under the circumstances, the war
preparations of the Federalists became visibly superfluous, especially
a provisional army which Congress had authorized under Hamilton as
active commander. The opposition press and speakers denounced this as
a Federalist army destined to act against the liberties of the people;
and the administration could point to no real danger to justify its
existence.

{178}

So high ran party spirit that the Virginian leaders thought or affected
to think it necessary to prepare for armed resistance to Federalist
oppression; and Madison and Jefferson, acting through the State
legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky respectively, caused the adoption
of two striking series of resolutions stating the crisis in Republican
phraseology. In each case, after denouncing the Alien and Sedition
laws as unconstitutional, the legislatures declared that the
constitution was nothing more than a compact between sovereign States;
that the Federal government, the creature of the compact, was not the
final judge of its powers, and that in case of a palpable usurpation of
powers by the Federal government it was the duty of the States to
"interpose," in the words of Madison, or to "nullify" the Federal law,
as Jefferson phrased it. Such language seemed to Washington, Adams,
and their party to signify that the time was coming when they must
fight for national existence; but to the opposition it seemed no more
than a restatement of time-hallowed American principles of government,
necessary to save liberty from a reactionary faction. Party hatred now
rivalled that between revolutionary Whigs and Tories.

Under these circumstances the election of 1800 took place. The
Federalist party {179} leaders, feeling the ground quaking under them,
clung the more desperately to the continuance of the French "quasi-war"
as their sol