The debate over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 revealed bitter controversies on a number of issues that had been developing since the penning of the Constitution. The writers of the document knew that over time the needs of the nation and its people would change, and therefore provided for its amendment. But by not expressly delegating powers to specific organizations, whether the federal government, state governments, or the people themselves, they inadvertently created a major problem in the years to follow: Constitutional interpretation. Shortly after the Constitution"s ratification, two distinct camps formed, each believing in opposite manners of...
appointed panel of justices approved it. Knowing that they could do nothing to change the Sedition Act in the federal government, the republicans turned to the states. They argued that the federal government had stepped beyond its powers, powers delegated to it by the states via the Constitution Jefferson"s "compact" theory. Thus the states had the right to repeal the act, or at the very least, ignore it. Only two states followed the republicans, Virginia and Kentucky. Although the Sedition Act went out of effect in 1801, it kept alive the old debate of states" rights and central authority.