Reclaiming the American Revolution : the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy

Reclaiming the American Revolution examines the struggles for political ascendancy between Federalists and the Republicans in the early days of the American Republic. Watkins views the struggle through the lens of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, charters written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison respectively, that were responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by Federalists that, among other things, made criticism of the federal government a crime. Viewing those acts as a threat to states' rights, as well as indicative of a national government that sought supreme power, the Resolutions restated the principles of the American Revolution and sought to return the nation to the tenets of the Constitution, in which rights for all were protected by checking the power of the national government. "The history of liberty is, in many respects, a history of great charters and the events leading to their adoption. Consequently, revered documents include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Conspicuously absent from this list however are Thomas Jefferson's and James Madison's Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, eloquent protests against the Federalist-sponsored Alien and Sedition Acts, restrictive legislation that persecuted immigrants and made criticism of the federal government a crime. Reclaiming the American Revolution examines the struggles over the use of government power between the Federalists and the Republicans from the early days of the American Republic and applies their lessons to current disputes regarding privacy, civil liberties, and individual rights. Although penned over 200 years ago, the Resolutions remain more relevant today than ever, as the role of government in society is fiercely debated."--Book jacket of hardcover edition Front Matter....Pages I-XXIV Monocrats and Jacobins....Pages 1-25 Legislation and Persecution....Pages 27-54 The Principles of 1798....Pages 55-82 Influence of the Resolutions....Pages 83-118 Consolidation....Pages 119-136 Lessons for Today....Pages 137-163 Back Matter....Pages 165-238 The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, written over two decades after the colonies declared independence from Great Britain, represent a reaffirmation of the spirit of 1776.