Alien And Sedition Act Negative Consequences

The war fever made the political parties even more divided. People did not trust immigrants. Federalists thought the immigrants would back the Republicans. Congress passed the alien act that raised the time to live in the U.S. to be nationalized from 5 to 14 years (9 years longer) and gave the president the power to deport or imprison any alien he considered dangerous. People thought this was unfair, so Congress passed the sedition act (sedition is activity designed to overthrow government) that harshly limited free speech by making it illegal to write and say anything insulting, false, or with “bad intent” about the government. This law convicted about fourteen people, mostly Republican writers and newspaper editors (and one drunk who was

The Alien and Sedition Acts that were designed and passed by Congress in 1798 established a range of restrictions on the society. Among those laws, the Naturalization Act made the process of gaining American citizenship longer and the Sedition Act was designed to forbid publishing the materials against the government. While those documents “were in conflict with the Bill of Rights”, the Congress considered them appropriate (Roark 281). The positions of people within the society regarding these laws differed.

in 1798 the alien and seditions acts were signed into law by present John Adams in responce to fears of an impending war with France. These acts consisting of our four laws passed by the federalist controlled congress , increace the residency requirement for america citzizen to 14 years , authorized the present to imprison or deport aliens considered dangerous to the peace and safety to the united states and restricted speech critcal of the government. while the federalist led by Alexander Hamilton and Adams aruged that these laws were past to protect the united states from foregin invaders and propagandists , demdcratic republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , saw the alien and sedtion acts as a direct threat to individual liberty and the first amendment by a tyrannical government . the aliens and sedition acts were fiercely debatted in the press. which was overtly partisan at the time many editors of demoeratic republicans sponsored newspapers venemently opposed the new laws in particular the sedition act which made speaking openly againt the goverment a crime of libel punishable by fine and dissent by prosecuting those who violated the sedition act to the fullest extend of yhe law.

During the and after the framing of our nations constitution, between 1789-1819 the majority of the power lye in the hands of the state or colonies governing bodies. In the beginning and throughout the nineteenth century conflicts began to emerge about in whom had the powers and final say over laws, and the enforcements of laws. The fight over the need of the federal government to create a national bank plus, the debate over slavery end up dividing the country and in the process creating dual federalism. Dual federalism divided power and authority of each governing body but, left much authority to the states. This caused important laws like minimum wage and child labor laws to be overlooked by the states and considered unconstitutional.

The First Amendment was written because American citizens demanded a guarantee of their freedom. This led to James Madison writing the First Amendment. The First Amendment was established when the Founding Fathers wanted to guarantee that the Americans ' basic civil liberties would not be threatened by the government. The First Amendment was confirmed, along with nine other amendments,to the constitution of the United States. The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Freedom has been the center of American ideals since the United States gained independence from Great Britain. To protect these ideals, the Founding Fathers created the Bill of Rights; which contains the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The document grants American citizens their basic rights and freedoms. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the right to petition the government without retribution. It directly states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the

On July 14, 1798 the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed, marking the year that the United States dishonored the Constitution by violating the 1st Amendment of the United States of America. The 1st

Constitution: Preamble and Bill of Rights” the author is trying to secure the unalienable rights of the people. In the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution it states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” This Amendment gives power to the individual by prohibiting Congress from making new laws that will interfere with the freedom of speech of the people. The Preamble Constitution also reduces the power of the Federal Government by stating,” Secure the Blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” By saying this, the Constitution weakens the Federal Government by barring the government from making laws against these rights in not just the present but the future as well.

The Alien Act declared that if war sparked between the United States and another country, the President had the authority to announce the war. However, one important aspect of our Acts comprised of the nature of immigrants. We firmly believed that at times of war, all foreign males fourteen years old and older, who were not citizens of the United States, would have been removed as “alien enemies” (Alien Acts). This was necessary for the protection of our country and the success of our

The first amendment was limited with the Smith Act. The Smith Act prohibited the talk of violent overthrow of the United States government (Document D). This called to question whether the first amendment allowed for radical political speech the Supreme Court at the time ruled the law was justified though now a days it is considered a clear violation of freedom of speech. Later things worsened and people began to “ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism—the right to criticize; the

Take the first amendment for example “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Constitute 1, from U.S. Constitution). The reason modern american pulic have freedom of speech in that if someone opinion is different then they won’t be punished for it. While the whole point of the rights

This whole ordeal caused great upset in America and cause them to put up a bill that stated they would cut off trade with either Britain or France if the other dropped their trade restrictions. As well as this Britain was influencing native Americans against the settlers. All this dispute would cause America to go to war with their former cousin.

Influenced and manipulated by Hamilton - who wanted to destroy the Democratic party - Adams signed the Alien Act that gave him the power to deport undesirable aliens. At that time the Democratic Party was increasing the number of their supporters through the enrollment of more foreigners. The Sedition Act instead allowed the President to punish those who criticized the Federalist government. Although the creation of a powerful military system was well considered among the population, the Alien and the Sedition Acts caused Adams to start losing popularity among the American people and his own

This, surprisingly, was a very good move as now the Americans could support the French commercially against their war with England and the Americans maintained their policy of neutrality and not having alliances. Interestingly, as Gordon Wood further explains, this treaty would have most probably won Adams his reelection had Thomas Jefferson not the presidency right before the treaty was signed (Wood

Also, there was an activity designed to overthrow the government. There was also that the Sedition act limited the citizen's freedom of speech. One of the other things wrong with the Alien and Sedition Acts were the states rights. After the Alien and Sedition acts were passed there were Virginia and Kentucky resolutions made saying that the acts were unconstitutional. The Virginia resolution was written by James Madison and the Kentucky resolution was written by Thomas Jefferson.