Final answer:
Thomas Jefferson's involvement in lawmaking and nullification is ironic because he owned slaves and benefited from slavery, despite opposing it ideologically. He supported the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions providing for nullification of federal laws, which could also serve to protect slavery. This juxtaposes with his belief in limited government and individual freedoms.
Step-by-step explanation:
The irony behind Thomas Jefferson’s participation during the period with regard to lawmaking and nullification lies in his conflicting stances. As a prominent figure of the Virginia slaveholding aristocracy, Jefferson himself owned slaves and benefited from the institution he philosophically opposed based on Enlightenment principles. Paradoxically, Jefferson advocated for states’ rights to nullify federal laws through the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which he authored in secret. These resolutions provided legal ground for the rejection of objectionable federal laws and were viewed as a means to protect slaveholding interests, among others.
During the crisis over the Tariff of 1828, these notions of nullification intensified among Southerners, including Jefferson’s contemporaries, who saw it as a defense against federal overreach. Jefferson stepped into contradiction as he had envisioned a government that allowed citizens to pursue life, liberty, and happiness with minimal federal interference, yet his opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts and his support for the right of states to nullify national laws could serve to protect the very institution of slavery he philosophically opposed.