Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions as a protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts approved by President John Adams. Both resolutions declared that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional and gave the federal government more power than it was stated in the Constitution, therefor the states had the power to declare those acts null. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were written anonymously, but later it was known that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky resolution even though he was Vice President of John Adams, and James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolution.
