The Federalist-majority Congress passed four pieces of legislation, known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were swiftly signed into law during the summer of 1798 by President John Adams, a Federalist himself. The acts, which ultimately curbed freedom of speech by criminalizing the writing, printing, speaking or publishing anything “false, scandalous, and malicious” about the government, quickly came under intense scrutiny. Among those critics were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Jefferson and Madison were alarmed at the federal overreach. Jefferson, the Father of the Declaration of Independence, and Madison, the Father of the Constitution, agreed to put their criticisms on paper and thus penned the Kentucky Resolves and the Virginia Resolves, respectively. It appears that in October, Madison had visited Jefferson at his Monticello home, where Jefferson presented his draft of resolutions. As much as Madison was alarmed by the actions of the federal government, he was apparently also somewhat alarmed by Jefferson’s wording.
