PREFACE.


  The administration of Mr. John Adams was a dark day for the
Republic. Then, Alien and Sedition acts were let loose upon us:
the purity of the Constitution itself was violated by the madness
of party: and those Rights which had been respectively reserved
to the States and to the People, were exposed to the most fearful
jeopardy by the usurpations of the Federal Government.
  But, the friends of the Constitution did not " despair of the Re-
public." Though the liberty of Speech and of the Press were in-
vaded; though the power and patronage of the Government were
exerted to intimidate or seduce the people; the Republicans did
not abandon the cause of their Country.  Their resistance conti-
nued with the crisis: the form of it only was varied. While Mr.
Jefferson remained in the Senate of the United States, and Mr.
Gallatin in the House of Representatives, most of their most able
and active friends, in some of the States, retired from the walks of
the General Government, and retreated to the State Legislatures;
in which great citadels of the public Liberty, they proposed to re-
assert the true principles of the Government. The Republicans
succeeded; and the Constitution was saved.
  Among the most memorable productions of those times, were
the Resolutions and Reports, which were adopted by the Legisla-
tures of Kentucky and Virginia. These were penned bv Jefferson
and Madison. To Mr. Madison is due, the honor of having draft-
ed the Virginia Resolutions of the 21st December, 1798; and that
masterly Vindication of them, which was adopted by the Legisla-
ture of Virginia during the session of '99-1800: a paper, which is
familiarly known by the name of ". Madison's Report," and which
deserves to last as long as the Constitution itself.
  The Resolutions of Kentucky, were submitted to the Legisla-
ture of that State, by Mr. John Breckenridge, and adopted by them
on the 10th November, 1798. They had the honor of being pen-
ned by the Author of the Declaration of American Indepen ence.
  Both these esteemed Productions are scarce, and out of print.
They are frequently asked for.  They are again wanting, to re-
establish the land-marks of the Constitution; and to stay that
flood of encroachment which threatens to sweep our Country.
The Rights of the States and of the People, are again assailed in
an alarming manner.   D)octriiies are preached in high places,
which are directly at war with the principles of our Government.
The Centripetal power is assuming a new and fearful energy.
Under the authority of great names, great errors are maintained.
Is it not time, then, for the friends of Truth to rally together, and
to re-assert her principles P Where can we find these principles
more clearly stated, or the arguments in their defence more pow-
erfully developed, than in the celebrated Productions which the
Publisher of this Pamphlet now lays before his readers 
  Richmond,(Va.) February, 1826.