University:
Arizona State University
Course:
HST 200 | Historical Themes
Academic year:

2024
Views:

397

Pages:

1
Author:

Thuyoul US

Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790-1820 SEDITION AND ALIEN ACTS The Quasi-War-era outburst of hostility toward France prompted Congress to enact a number of laws that eventually weakened Federalist authority. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were war measures designed to strengthen national security against what most people believed to be the French threat. The Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act, which empowered the president to deport new immigrants deemed to pose a threat to national security, specifically targeted French refugees escaping the West Indies. When the legislation came to an end in 1800, no immigrants had been sent back. The Sedition Act established severe penalties on anybody found guilty of speaking or writing "in a scandalous or malicious" way against the US government, including up to five years in jail and a hefty $5,000 fine in 1790 US dollars. Ten of the twenty-five Democratic- Republican men who were indicted under the statute were found guilty. Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, who had started his own journal, The Scourge of Aristocracy and Repository of Important Political Truth, was one of these. The First Amendment's guarantee of press freedom was called into doubt by the Sedition and Alien Acts. Democratic-Republicans contended that the actions demonstrated the Federalists' intention to stifle individual liberty and, via expanding the authority of the federal government, subjugate state sovereignty. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, written by Jefferson and Madison, organized the opposition to the measures by claiming that they were unlawful and unconstitutional. The resolutions advanced the case of states' rights and established the concept of nullification-the ability of states to invalidate acts of Congress. But other states did not come out in favor of the resolutions. In fact, the majority of other states rejected them, arguing that a powerful federal government was essential. The Treaty of Mortefontaine, secured by President Adams in 1800, put an end to the quasi-war with France. The Federalist Party was split over his willingness to hold negotiations with France, but the treaty restored trade between the two nations and put a stop to the French custom of boarding American ships at sea.