73. THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT

The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution was adopted to prevent the possibility of states being sued by private persons in the courts of the United States. It went into effect January 8, 1798.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 1, p. 22.

ART. XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.

74. THE ALIEN ACT

The so-called "XYZ" affair and the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and France seemed to the Federalists, who ardently desired a war with France, to be an excellent opportunity to scotch their Republican opponents. The so-called Alien Act, approved June 25, 1798, was aimed at aliens with Republican sympathies.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 570572.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States at any time during the continuance of this act, to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States... to depart out of the territory of the United States, within such time as shall be expressed in such order, which order shall be served on such alien... by the marshal or other person to whom the same shall be directed. And in case any alien, so ordered to depart, shall be found at large within. the United States after the time limited... and not having obtained a license from the President to reside therein,.. every such alien shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, and shall never after be admitted to become a citizen of the United States. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that if any alien so ordered to depart shall prove to the satisfaction of the President,.. that no injury or danger to the United States will arise from suffering such alien to reside therein, the President may grant a license to such alien to remain within the United States for such time as he shall judge proper, and at such place as he may designate...

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every master or com

mander of any ship or vessel which shall come into any port of the United States after the first day of July next, shall immediately on his arrival make report in writing to the collector... of all aliens, if any, on board his vessel, specifying their names, age, the place of nativity, the country from which they shall have come, the nation to which they belong and owe allegiance, their occupation and a description of their persons, as far as he shall be informed thereof, and on failure, every such master and commander shall forfeit and pay three hundred dollars...

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force for and during the term of two years from the passing thereof.

APPROVED, June 25, 1798.

75. THE SEDITION ACT

The Sedition Act, passed July 14, 1798, represented another attempt on the part of the Federalists to silence alien criticism by Republican journalists. Prosecution of Republican editors under the Sedition Act in which the Justices of the Supreme Court displayed a decided Federalist bias, had an important part in bringing about the downfall of the Federalist party.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 596–

597.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted... That if any persons shall unlawfully ... conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure...of the government of the United States, . . or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place... under the government of the United States, from...performing... his trust or duty; and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall... advise... any insurrection,.. or combination... he... shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction, before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term not less than six months nor exceeding five years; and further, at the discretion of the court may be holden to find sureties for his good behaviour... as the said court may direct. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall write, print,.. or publish,.. any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United

States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign. nation against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force until the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and one, and no longer: Provided, that the expiration of the act shall not prevent or defeat a prosecution and punishment of any offence against the law, during the time it shall be in force.

APPROVED, July 14, 1798.

76. THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1798

The answer of the Republicans to the Alien and Sedition Acts were resolutions expressing a Republican doctrine of the limitation of the powers of government and announcing the right of the states to check manifestly unconstitutional acts of the Federal government. This series of resolutions was later made by John C. Calhoun the basis of his doctrine of nullification which he sought to link with the names of Jefferson and Madison. The following resolutions, drafted by Jefferson, were adopted November 19, 1798.

Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions, Vol. 4, pp. 540

544.

1. 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, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each

state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party; that this government, created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. 2. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the laws of nations, and no other crimes whatever; and... one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared "that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people," therefore, also, the same act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, and entitled An Act in Addition to the Act entitled 'An Act for the Punishment of certain Crimes against the United States;

...

are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish, such other crimes is reserved, and of right appertains, solely and exclusively, to the respective states, each within its own territory.

3. Resolved, That... special provision has been made by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," thereby guarding, in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, insomuch that whatever violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others,.. That therefore the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the 14th of July, 1798, entitled “An Act in Addition to the Act entitled 'An Act for the Punishment of certain Crimes against the United States,"" which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force.

4. Resolved, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction and protection of the laws of the state wherein they are; that no power over them has been delegated to the United States... the act of the Congress of the United States, passed the 22d day of June, 1798, entitled "An Act concerning Aliens," which assumes power over alien friends not

delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force...

6. Resolved, That the imprisonment of a person under the protection of the laws of this commonwealth, on his failure to obey the simple order of the President to depart out of the United States, as is undertaken by the said act, entitled, "An Act concerning Aliens," is contrary to the Constitution... the same act undertaking to authorize the President to remove a person out of the United States who is under the protection of the law, on his own suspicion, without jury, without public trial, without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defence, without counsel contrary to these provisions also of the Constitution — is therefore not law, but utterly void, and of no force...

8. Resolved, That the preceding resolutions be transmitted to the senators and representatives in Congress from this commonwealth, who are enjoined to present the same to their respective houses, and to use their best endeavors to procure, at the next session of Congress, a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts.

9. Resolved, lastly, That the governor of this commonwealth be, and is, authorized and requested to communicate the preceding resolutions to the legislatures of the several states, to assure them that this commonwealth considers union for special national purposes, and particularly for those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness, and prosperity, of all the states... and that, .. this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men, on earth... That these and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these states into revolution and blood... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go...

In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not... but they will concur with this common