Meet the Resolutions
The Sedition Act was seen by Jefferson and Madison as a direct and blatant violation of this Constitutional amendment.
What is the First Amendment?
The theory that the Constitution was an agreement among sovereign states, not a document by "the people" as a single mass.
What is the Compact Theory?
Calhoun's view of the Union as a voluntary partnership of sovereign states.
What is a "compact"?
Calhoun's "remedy" for an unconstitutional federal law.
What is "nullification"?
The power established by Marbury that allows the Supreme Court to strike down unconstitutional laws.
What is judicial review?
This act made it a crime to "write, print, utter, or publish" malicious criticism of the president or Congress.
What is the Sedition Act?
This body, according to Calhoun, had the right to declare a federal law null and void within a state's borders.
What is a "special sovereign convention" (of the state)?
Jackson argued that states had done this to essential parts of their sovereignty when they ratified the Constitution.
What is "surrendered" (their sovereignty)?
Jackson branded nullification as "absurd," "unconstitutional," and "incompatible with the existence of the Union," warning that disunion by force was this.
What is "treason"?
The establishment of judicial review made the nullification doctrine legally and politically this.
What is weaker?
Jefferson's more radical Kentucky Resolutions introduced this concept: the right of a state to declare a federal law void within its borders.
What is nullification?
Jackson's forceful 1832 response to South Carolina's nullification ordinance.
What is the "Proclamation Against Nullification"?
Calhoun argued the states retained this, as they were the "principals" who created the "agent" (the federal government).
What is "ultimate sovereignty"?
Besides the courts, Jackson identified this democratic process as a way to challenge a law.
What is "the ballot box" (or "electing new representatives")?
This level of government had its power and supremacy reinforced by the Marbury decision.
What is the federal government?
The resolutions' arguments were famously used by Southern leaders during this 1830s crisis over federal tariffs.
What is the Nullification Crisis?
Jackson argued the Constitution was formed by this group, not by the states.
Who are "We the People of the United States"?
According to Jackson, sovereignty was vested in this group and divided between national and state governments.
Who are "the people"?
The group Calhoun believed was the final arbiter of the Constitution.
Who are "the states" (acting in sovereign conventions)?
Marbury reinforced the supremacy of this document as interpreted by the federal judiciary.
What is the federal Constitution?
Most significantly, the resolutions' arguments were used as a core legal and philosophical justification for this action in 1860-61.
What is secession?
This clause in Article VI was central to Jackson's argument that federal law is the "supreme Law of the Land."
What is the Supremacy Clause?
Jackson argued that this branch of the federal government was the proper channel for handling cases arising under the Constitution.
What is the "federal judiciary" (or "the Supreme Court")?
The institution Jackson identified as the final arbiter for legal disputes under the Constitution.
What is the "federal judiciary" (or "Supreme Court")?
Marbury offered a formal, constitutional process for challenging these.
What are bad (or unconstitutional) laws?