The Federalist Party passed the Alien and Sedition Acts to suppress political opposition during the Quasi-War (1798-1800) with France. After the French began to seize United States shipping and stumbled into the diplomatic fiasco of the XYZ affair (1797-98), the threat of war strengthened the hand of the Federalist Party in dealing with the Democratic-Republican Party (Jeffersonians). Not only did the Federalist Party push legislation that expanded the army and navy and increased taxes, they also sought the means to stifle political opposition. The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in June and July 1798, were intended to further the party's political agenda. Federalist Party leaders believed that the majority of immigrants, many of whom were from Ireland, were pro-French and pro-Republican. Any restrictions they could place on immigrants, therefore, would aid their cause.

There were three Alien Acts. The first of these, called the Naturalization Act, was passed on June 18 and changed the citizenship process for immigrants. Previous legislation in 1795 allowed an immigrant to become a citizen after five years of residence, having declared his intent to do so three years before becoming a citizen. The Naturalization Act increased the residence requirement to 14 years, with a five-year time lag between declaring intent and citizenship. The idea was to restrict immigrant citizenship to limit the impact of these voters at the polls. Oddly, the law actually convinced many immigrants to seek citizenship before the new rules came into effect, thus strengthening the Democratic-Republican vote in the crucial election of 1800.

The second measure, called the Alien Friends Act, was passed on June 25, 1798, and empowered the president to deport any alien he deemed a threat to the country. This law was set to expire after two years and was never used by President John Adams.

The third part of the legislation was the Alien Enemies Act, passed on July 6, 1798. It declared that any person born in a country at war with the United States, or that invaded the United States, was liable to being "apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed, as enemy aliens." Since the United States never declared war against France, this measure was not used at this time.

Perhaps the most controversial law was the Sedition Act of July 14, 1798, which made it unlawful to combine with others to oppose measures of the government. More significantly, it stated that "if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish ..... Any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States ..... with the intent to defame said government," they could be brought to trial by the federal government and could be assessed up to $2,000 in fines and sentenced to two years in prison. This law has sometimes been held as a violation of civil liberties and contrary to the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech and the press. However, it merely put into writing what was common-law practice in England and the United States at the time. It actually protected some rights since it stipulated that "the truth of the matter contained in the publication" could be used as defense in any criminal trial resulting from the law.

The law governing sedition was set to expire at the end of the Adams administration in March 1801, and the government used it to prosecute several Democratic-Republican editors and politicians. At least 14 Democratic-Republican editors were jailed under the law, including Benjamin Franklin's grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache, and federal courts convicted Congressman Matthew Lyon of sedition and sentenced him to four months in prison and a $1,000 fine. Ultimately, the Sedition Act was a political failure since, despite the closing of some significant opposition newspapers, large numbers of printers decided to abandon their nonpartisanship and began to publish more politically inspired newspapers.

Democratic-Republican leaders believed that these laws were unwarranted and outrageous. Vice President Thomas Jefferson and Congressman James Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798) in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Once Jefferson was elected president, the two laws that had time limits were not renewed. The Alien Enemies Act was irrelevant as long as the country was not at war. The Republicans repealed the Naturalization Act shortly after Jefferson's election, reinstating the previous rule of the five-year residence period before qualifying for citizenship.

Bibliography:

1) Jeffrey L. Pasley, "The Tyranny of Printers": Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001)

2) James Morton Smith, Freedom's Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1956)

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on American Revolution at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to American Revolution and other relevant topics.