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225. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1798~99.
225．弗吉尼亚州和肯塔基州的决议（1798~1799年）
In the exciting years before the Revolutionary War the colonial legislatures had passed many resolutions condemning the acts of the British government. Following this example Jefferson and Madison now brought it about that the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures passed resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts. They declared that the Constitution was a compact between the states. It followed from this that any state could determine for itself whether any act of Congress were constitutional or not. It followed from, this, again, that any state could refuse to permit an Act of Congress to be enforced within its limits. In other words, any state could make null or nullify any Act of Congress that it saw fit to oppose. This last conclusion was found only in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799. But Jefferson wrote to this effect in the original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions called the voter's attention to the Federalist abuse of power and did much to form public opinion.
在革命战争之前的令人激动的几年间，殖民地立法机关通过了许多谴责英国政府的议案。以此为榜样，杰佛逊和麦迪逊如法炮制，鼓动弗吉尼亚州和肯塔基州的立法机关通过法律反对《客籍法案》和《惩治煽动叛乱法案》，他们宣称宪法是各个州都要遵守的合约，由此可以知道任何一个州自身都可以决定国会的举措是否符合宪法，而且，由此可以知道任何一个州都可以拒绝接受国会在其职能范围内给以强化的任何法案，换言之，只要认为有反对的必要，任何一个州都可以使得国会做出的某个议案无效或作废。最后一个结论只在《1799年肯塔基州决议》中兑现，但杰斐逊在1798年肯塔基州决议的原稿中写出了这个大意，弗吉尼亚州和肯塔基州的决议提醒了投票者注意联邦党人对职权的滥用，并为形成公共舆论做出了贡献。
