![]() ![]() ![]() Jefferson’s response in the Kentucky Resolution advanced the compact interpretation of the federal Constitution. In their reaction to the arbitrary assumption of power in the Alien and Sedition Acts, Thomas Jefferson and Madison argued for state annulment of this legislation. And paradoxically, Madison found himself involved with those who seemed to threaten separation. The very thing that Madison feared took on a concrete form during the party battles of the Washington and Adams administrations. Yet much of the charter was drawn up in general terms and was susceptible to interpretation that might vary with time and circumstance. By virtue of the fact that it was a legal document and in most respects enumerated the powers of the central government, the division was weighted toward the states. The Constitution as framed and finally accepted by the states divided the exercise of sovereign power between the states and the national government. In debate over other points, Madison repeatedly warned that secession or “disunion” was a major concern. He sought at the convention a clause that would prohibit secession from the proposed union once the states had ratified the Constitution. Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and the British Commonwealth Men argued this theme, and it played a prominent role in the American Revolution.Īny federal republic by its very nature invited challenge to central control, a danger that James Madison recognized. Theoretically, secession was bound up closely with Whig thought, which claimed the right of revolution against a despotic government. Secession had been a matter of concern to some members of the Constitutional Convention that met at Philadelphia in 1787. Secession in this instance and throughout the antebellum period came to mean the assertion of minority sectional interests against what was perceived to be a hostile or indifferent majority. South Carolina threatened separation when the Continental Congress sought to tax all the colonies on the basis of a total population count that would include slaves. The term secession had been used as early as 1776.
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