Alien &
Sedition acts
President John Adams
The controversial foreign policy of the Federalists prompted
domestic protest and governmental repression.
Presentation created by Robert Martinez
Primary Source Content: America’s History
Images as cited.
As the U.S. fought an undeclared
maritime war against France,
immigrants from Ireland attacked
Adams’s pro-British foreign policy.
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To silence the critics, the Federalists
controlled Congress enacted three
coercive laws that threatened
individual rights and the fledgling
party system.
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The Naturalization Act lengthened
the residency requirement for
American citizenship – and so the
right to vote – from five to fourteen
years.
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The Alien Act authorized the
deportation of foreigners.
www.historycentral.com
The Sedition Act prohibited the
publication of insults or malicious
attacks on the president or members
of Congress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazette_of_the_United_States
“He that is not for us is against
us,” read the Federalist Gazette
of the United States.
pasleybrothers.com
It was the Sedition Act that generated the
most controversy. Prosecutors arrested
more than twenty Republican newspaper
editors and politicians, accused them of
sedition, and convicted and jailed a
number of them.
Political cartoon of Congressman Lyon
(holding tongs), and later arrested
under the Sedition Acts,brawling
with Congressman Roger Griswold.
www.encyclopedia.com
What developed was a constitutional
crisis. With justification, Republicans
charged that the Sedition Act violated the
First Amendment’s prohibition against
“abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press.”
www.anh-usa.org
Republicans did not appeal to the
Supreme Court because the Court’s
power to review congressional
legislation was uncertain and
because most of the justices were
Federalists.
etc.usf.edu
Instead, Madison and Jefferson looked to
state legislatures for a solution. At their
urging, the Kentucky and Virginia
legislatures issued resolutions in 1798
declaring the Alien and Seditions Acts to
be “unauthoritative, void, and of no
force.”
www.nj.com
The resolution set forth a states’
rights interpretation of the
Constitution, asserting that the
states had a “right to judge” the
legitimacy of national laws.
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The debate over the Sedition Act
set the stage for the presidential
election of 1800.
www.encyclopedia.com
With Republicans strongly
supporting Jefferson’s bid for
the presidency, President Adams
reevaluated his foreign policy.
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Rejecting Hamilton’s advice to
declare war against France,
President Adams put country ahead
of party and entered into diplomatic
negotiations that ended the fighting.
Alexander Hamilton
Despite Adams’s statesmanship, the
campaign of 1800 degenerated into
name-calling. The Federalists
attacked Jefferson’s values,
branding him an “irresponsible proFrench radical....”
Thomas
Jefferson
…. and because he opposed
state support of religion in
Virginia, “the arch-apostle of
irreligion and free thought.”
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Thanks to a low Federalist turnout in
Virginia and Pennsylvania and the threefifths rule (which boosted electoral votes
in the southern state), Jefferson won a
narrow 73 to 65 victory over Adams in the
Electoral College.
bill.ballpaul.net
However, the Republican electors
also gave 73 votes to Aaron Burr of
New York, who was Jefferson’s vice
presidential running mate.
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The Constitution specified that in
the case of a tie vote, the House of
Representatives would choose the
president.
todaysdocument.com
For thirty-five ballots, Federalists in
the House blocked Jefferson’s
election, prompting a new rumor
that Virginia was raising a military
force to put Jefferson in office.
www.ushistory.org
Ironically, it was arch-Federalist
Alexander Hamilton who ushered
in a more democratic era by
supporting Jefferson.
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Calling Burr an “embryo Caesar” and
the “most unfit man in the United
States for the office of president,” he
persuaded key Federalists to allow
Jefferson’s election.
thehonestlyblog.wordpress
Jefferson called the election the
“Revolution of 1800.” The bloodless
transfer of power demonstrated that
governments elected by the people could
be changed in an orderly way, even n
times of bitter partisan conflict.
etext.virginia.edu
In his inaugural address in 1801,
Jefferson praised this achievement,
declaring, “We are all Republicans,
we are all Federalists.”
www.web-books.com
Defying the predictions of European
conservatives, the republican
experiment of 1776 had survived a
quarter-century of economic and
political turmoil.
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