"Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by compact... they constituted a general government for special purposes... and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." — Kentucky Resolutions, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, November 1798
The most immediate cause of these resolutions was:
- Acheck_circle
The Federalist-passed Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
- B
The chartering of the First Bank of the United States in 1791
- C
The Whiskey Rebellion's suppression in 1794
- D
The ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804
Explanation
Jefferson and Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions specifically to resist the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional federal overreach. The Bank and Whiskey Rebellion were earlier disputes; the Twelfth Amendment came years later.