Many democratic-republicans continued to sympathize with france. federalist was angry and called them democrats, mobocrats and all other kinds of rats. the federalist-controlled congress passed four laws known as the alien and sedition acts. these laws were said to protect the united states. the federalist intended them to crush opposition to the war. jefferson and madison viewed these acts as a misuse of government power. they attacked the problem at the state level and wrote resolutions that said the acts were unconstitutional. they stated that they can not pass these acts because they interfered with the state government. the kentucky and virginia resolutions did not have the force of the national law, but they supported the idea. they challenged the federal government. this idea grew later and had a tremendous impact later in the 1800s.