by Rachel Stockton

Created on: August 07, 2008

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The above is part of the 10th amendment of the United States. As with any new endeavor, there were certain issues that needed to be addressed at the national Constitutional Convention, but which weren't given the right amount of attention at the time. One such concept was that of states' rights.

The tenth amendment was a bit nebulous, to be sure. Many states' rights advocates asserted that any issue not specifically addressed by the Constitution came under the states' jurisdictions, and that the federal government would have no recourse in such situations.

On the other side were the Federalists, who favored a more centralized government, one that left little power in the hands of the states. The issue begged to boil over into a major problem, and the simmering began toward the end of the18th century, in the quarter century following the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1798, a piece of legislation posed by the Federalists called the Alien and Sedition Acts, which basically alleged that foreigner who criticized the federal government could be extradited back to where he came from.

In response to this, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison crafted the Kentucky Virginia Resolutions, which stated that states themselves could decide whether or not federal legislation was constitutional. An addendum to the resolutions in 1799 extended power to the states by allowing them to actually "nullify" legislation they voted on as unconstitutional. The Kentucky Virginia Resolutions were obviously in direct response to a specific piece of legislation. However, they opened the door for Southerners in the next century to focus on nullification, and ultimately secession.

A senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, took the idea of states' rights to the extreme. Later serving as vice president under Andrew Jackson, Calhoun was openly hostile to proposed tariff laws. A pro-slavery plantation holder, he held the position that the South could nullify the laws if they found them unconstitutional. Jackson, in retaliation, threatened to wage war against South Carolina if Calhoun didn't back down from his position. Henry Clay stepped in and tried to work out a compromise by allowing California to enter as a free state, and new territories the right to decide whether or not to allow slavery. Clay's proposal nullified

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