Differences Between Alien And Sedition Acts

At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between proslavery and antislavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress came up with a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

George Washington was unanimously elected as the first President of United States of America in 1789 and again in 1792. No political parties existed in America during that time. Founding Fathers including George Washington believed that political parties would be harmful for the young America. They envisioned the politics in the young nation to be cooperative and not competitive. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, political parties had become a reality in the form of Federalist Party and Democratic - Republican Party. The two parties differed in a variety of ways but they especially differed in terms of their foreign relations with European powers. Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton wanted to create a stable economy built on trade favoring the wealthy business owners. Democratic Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, had the interests of poor farmers, and immigrants in their mind. Federalists supported the British against the radical French whereas Republicans preferred to maintain friendly relations with the democratic French against the British. Earlier, in 1794, President George Washington had angered the French leaders when he signed the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1794 settling the differences between the two countries. John Adams, a federalist, was elected the second President of the United States of America in 1797. After taking over as President, he sent American envoys to

Signed into law by President John Adams in 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress as America prepared for war with France. These acts increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years, authorized the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" and restricted speech critical of the government. These laws were designed to silence and weaken the Democratic-Republican Party. Negative reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts helped contribute to the Democratic-Republican victory in the 1800 elections. Congress repealed the Naturalization Act in 1802, while the other acts were allowed to expire.

The Alien and Sedition Acts were laws passed by the 5th Congress in 1798 in preparation for an undeclared naval war with France, later known to be the Quasi-War. The Acts passed, signed by then-President John Adams, aimed to limit the power of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party, who was at the time supportive of the French and to create a barrier against aliens and immigrants who were feared to sympathize with the French. Brought upon to restrict the public activities of political radicals who had sympathized with the French Revolution, as well as those who challenged Adams’ Federalist policies, The Alien and Sedition Acts were created not for the intention to promote national security but rather to uphold the image of power created by the Federalists in hopes of suppressing the views of opposing parties.

How did the Plessy decision change the way laws were made in the North and South?

Because of the anti- French feelings across America, President John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, which were four laws to help America prepare for the anticipated war with France, also known as Quasi-war. The president was given the right to imprison or deport aliens who were potentially dangerous to the Americans. Alien Acts aimed at poor, supposedly pro-Jeffersonian,

In 1798, John Adams and many other Federalists alongside him help create an idea that changed the way many Americans viewed the U.S. government. Adams and his group of Federalist introduced the Alien and Sedition Acts to Congress during his first term as President. The ideas of these Acts from Adam’s point of view were to be simple; “the first being an Alien Act, which focused on making the United States more secure from alien (foreign) spies and domestic traitors” . Alongside the Alien Act is the Sedition Act, which would make it illegal for anyone to express any false scandals at or against the United States government. Overall, these Acts had a great impact on not only the citizens of the U.S. but also Congress itself. These Acts greatly

After the development of the Constitution in 1787, President George Washington opposed political parties, although his Vice President, John Adams, and Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, were enthusiastic Federalists who actively contributed to the creation of parties. The Democratic-Republicans opposed a centralized government and believed that the states should hold more power than the national government. Federalists believed in creating a national bank, while the Democratic-Republicans were opposed to it. The government proposed acts and laws that affected domestic and foreign relations in hopes to stabilize the newly founded country. Foreign and domestic relations in the 1790s led to the final split into the two political parties,

This required territories being created, which led to argument regarding “whether the territories would be a slave or free area”(Kansas-Nebraska Act). Senator Stephen Douglas initially intended to organize the Louisiana Purchase land as the Nebraska Territory. However, according to the Missouri Compromise, the area would consist of free states. This would turn the Southern votes against the bill, which then wouldn’t pass Congress. Therefore, Douglas wrote a new bill, known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The Kentucky resolutions were drafted sometime between July and October of 1798 by Thomas Jefferson. The resolutions were passed later that year by the Kentucky legislature in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. There are about nine different resolutions, which primarily describe how Jefferson argued the fact that individual states have the right to assess the validity of the laws passed by the general government.

Because of the passage of the compromise, the North had to enforce the law which it hated.

The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by Congress in 1798 in preparation for an expected war with France. Interpreting the prominent participation of immigrants in the Republican opposition party as evidence of a relationship between foreigners and disloyalty, Federalists defended tighter restrictions for foreigners and critics of their policies. The Naturalization Act of 1798 increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years, required aliens to declare their intent to acquire citizenship five years before it could be granted, and made persons from opponent nations ineligible for naturalization. The act consequently poor Republicans of an important source of political support. Aliens were specifically

The Kansas Nebraska Act was passed by Stephen Douglas in 1854. The Act allowed the states of Kansas and Nebraska to desighted for themself if the were going to allow slavery in their territories. It was made to replace the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Why Stephen made this Act was to make sure that the transcontinental railroad would go threw Illinois. To do this he wanted to introduce a bill organizing the territory of Nebraska under the control of the people. There were objections from the south that Nebraska was under the 36*30 degree line. Nebraska would a state of Popular sovereignty or in other words ruled by the people. The south was very happy with this act because they did not like that if Slaves passed

The commission denied their suggestion and sent a report to John Adams who called the three agents X,Y, and Z and it’s how the affair got it’s name. After John Adams informed congress about the attempted blackmail it infuriated them as well as the public. This led to an undeclared naval war between French and the U.S during 1798 to 1800. Considering declaring war against France the U.S then created the Alien and Sedition acts. These acts basically lengthened the waiting time for “aliens” to be able to live in the U.S.

People would consider the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional because they went, maybe not in a direct form, against many aspects of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Sedition Act contraposed the first article of the Bill of Rights because it prohibited any expression that went against the government and the first article states that congress shall make no law abridging peacefully manifest against the govern. Into the article sixth of the Bill of Rights, it is written that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury and the Alien Act counteracts it, by giving power to the president to deport any alien he