The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, respectively authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which were enacted during the Quasi-War with the French Republic. This was an undeclared naval war that resulted from economic considerations of the Jay Treaty with Britain that followed the American declaration of neutrality and further inflamed a French government already upset by America's refusal to pay its war debt under the auspices that the obligation was to the French monarchy, not the Republic. Consequently, the French began seizing American ships that were trading with Britain and Congress issued "An Act further to protect the commerce of the United States" which authorized military action against France.
