ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS

In 1798 America's Federalists drafted the Alien and Sedition Acts to preserve the national government they had crafted and their own political power. These four laws violated rights guaranteed by the Constitution, inflated presidential power, and disenfranchised America's immigrants. Although the Federalist majority was able to enact and implement its legislative program, it could not silence the public outcry against these repressive measures or force the acceptance of its political beliefs. The Constitution of 1787 is a sparse document. This is in part because it was conceived as a blueprint for republican government, unencumbered with procedural minutiae, and in part because the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, lacking the time to hammer out the precise powers and roles of each branch of government, left the completion of their work to Congress. The Constitution of 1787 directed Congress to create a national judicial system, to establish a "uniform rule of naturalization," and to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper" to execute its enumerated powers. By restricting the Constitution to broad principles, delegates ensured its continued relevance. But the document's brevity also conferred great power on those who controlled the new national government in the 1790s—the men responsible for implementing the Constitution and filling in its gaps.

political differences

Congressional debates in the 1790s soon revealed differing political beliefs among Americans who had united to throw off British rule. As the decade progressed, two dominant groupings emerged. The Federalist Party, headed by the nation's first president, George Washington, and first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, styled itself the party of order or "Friends of Government." The Federalists advocated rule by "the better sort" and, using England as a model, strove to create a prosperous and powerful American nation. The Republican Party, headed by the nation's first secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, who led the opposition in Congress, called itself "Friends of the People," placed a stronger emphasis on the sovereignty of the people, and feared a distant and powerful government. The Jeffersonian Republicans also repudiated the British model of development, whether political, economic, or social. Alexander Hamilton's plan of economic development (1790–1791) triggered the first battle in the struggle to define America's political principles. Hamilton's plan was based on a broad reading of the Constitution and was designed to create a powerful national government. Although President Washington was won over by Hamilton's vision and arguments, the men who coalesced into the Jeffersonian opposition demanded a "strict construction" of the powers granted by the Constitution in order to prevent the creation of an elected despotism. International developments heightened the tensions between these divergent political philosophies. Many Americans who had initially seen the French Revolution as a copy of their own noble struggle against tyranny were disquieted by the escalation of violence and radical ideas in the 1790s—especially the execution of Louis XVI and France's declaration of war against Great Britain in 1793, the writings of Thomas Paine, and the French subversion of republican governments that had been established throughout Europe. In 1794 the Federalists, fearing the spread of French radicalism, negotiated Jay's Treaty, which secured peace with England, but only by surrendering America's claim to the right of neutral trade and by, in French eyes, abrogating America's 1778 Treaty with France. Publication of Jay's Treaty precipitated demonstrations by Americans who saw it as selling out to Great Britain; the prosecution of Benjamin Bache, editor of the Philadelphia Aurora, for publishing the terms of the treaty; and attacks on American shipping by France, which viewed the treaty as an alliance between the United States and England. The Quasi-War (1798–1800) with France that ensued increased popular support for the Federalists, especially after peace talks between France and the United States were scuttled by bribes demanded by three French officials, identified only as X, Y, and Z. Blaming the continued hostilities on French venality and the seditious activities of foreign agents and the Republican opposition, Federalist leaders took advantage of their new popularity to arm themselves with the weapons necessary to silence their critics and to perpetuate their political power and principles.

the acts

Although part of the Federalist program to protect the United States from foreign saboteurs and domestic dissidents, the Alien Enemies Act, passed on 6 July 1798, was supported by most members of Congress, who recognized the need to control unnaturalized immigrants whose governments were at war with the United States. The only provision challenged by the Jeffersonian opposition was the "very extraordinary power" given to the president to decide when the threat of "predatory incursion" was sufficient to invoke the act and to specify the treatment of enemy aliens. From a Federalist standpoint, this act was a complete failure. Because war was never declared between France and the United States, the Alien Enemies Act could not be used to apprehend or restrain French radicals. Instead, much to the chagrin of Federalist Anglophiles, the provisions of the Alien Enemies Act would be used against unnaturalized British immigrants during the War of 1812. The remainder of the Federalist program sparked far more controversy. The Naturalization Act, passed on 18 June 1798, was designed to disenfranchise immigrants, by increasing residency requirements from five to fourteen years, and to identify potential troublemakers, by requiring the registration of all unnaturalized aliens residing in the United States in 1798 and of all future arrivals. Penalties for immigrants who refused to report themselves and for all who failed to register aliens in their charge ranged from a monthly fine of two dollars for each infraction, to incarceration until the reports were made. The Naturalization Act of 1798 was, by Federalist standards, a great success. The new requirements virtually ended naturalization activity throughout the United States until the act's repeal on 14 April 1802. (See table 1.) The Alien Act, passed on 25 June 1798 (also known as the Alien Friends Act), and the Sedition Act, passed on 14 July 1798, were temporary measures designed to silence the political opposition. This Alien Act gave President John Adams the power to deport any unnaturalized foreigner he considered "dangerous to the peace and public safety of the United States." Aliens who defied a deportation order would be imprisoned for up to three years and permanently excluded from U.S. citizenship; any deportee who returned could be imprisoned for "so long as, in the opinion of the President, the public safety may require." The furor generated by the Alien Act focused on the "inquisitorial power" conferred on the American president, the Federalists' extraordinarily broad interpretation of the power granted to Congress by the Constitution, and the violation of rights guaranteed to all "persons"—including unnaturalized immigrants. Members of the Republican opposition warned their colleagues of the dangerous precedent that the Alien Act would set and predicted that, if passed, it would be followed by a similar attack on the rights of American citizens. And indeed, the Sedition Act was enacted less than three weeks after the Alien Act. The Sedition Act was a flagrantly partisan measure designed to ensure the reelection of a Federalist majority in 1800. The act's provisions, to remain in force until 31 March 1801, made it a crime for anyone, foreign- or native-born, to "write, print, utter or publish," or to "knowingly … assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writings" concerning the members of Congress or the President; those who did so could be fined two thousand dollars and imprisoned up to two years. Conspicuously excluded from the act's protection was Vice President Thomas Jefferson—the leader of the Republican opposition. During the election of 1800, no one could, or would, be charged under the Sedition Act for "uttering or publishing" any criticism of Jefferson, no matter how false or scurrilous. Ironically, despite its repressive implementation, the Sedition Act can be considered a progressive development in the law of libel because it allowed truth as a defense and because juries, rather than judges, were allowed to decide whether the publication or statement violated the law. Although some defendants were acquitted under the law, most were convicted by partisan judges and juries who ignored the Act's more progressive provisions.

the federalist "reign of terror"

The Federalist campaign to silence, vilify, and weaken the political opposition made full use of the powers conveyed by the Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Acts of 1798. The fourteen-year residence requirement prevented foreigners from casting (legal) votes for members of the Jeffersonian opposition. Immediately after the passage of the Alien Act, Federalist officials drew up lists of "dangerous" immigrants and prepared deportation orders for President Adams's signature. But official measures proved unnecessary, as hundreds of immigrants, most of them French refugees from Saint Domingue (the earlier name of Haiti), set sail from America's inhospitable shores in the summer of 1798; other immigrants went into hiding. News of the treatment awaiting them also reduced the number of English and Irish radicals emigrating to America. In the end, no foreigners were deported under the provisions of the Alien Act. The Sedition Act resulted in the arrests of twenty-five Americans. The most prominent of these was Matthew Lyon, a Republican Congressman from Vermont. Since his election in 1797, Federalists had portrayed the Irish-born Lyon as a savage and seditious "beast," a promoter of anarchy, and a tool of the French government. In October 1798 a jury, acting on the blatantly partisan charge of Supreme Court Justice William Paterson, found Lyon guilty of making remarks that heaped contempt and odium on the government and president of the United States. Sentenced to a four-month jail term and fined one thousand dollars for deriding President John Adams's "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation" and his "continual grasp for power," Lyon conducted his successful reelection campaign from jail. In New Jersey an inebriated Republican and two drinking companions were found guilty of seditious libel for hoping that one of the artillery shots that accompanied John Adams's procession through town might lodge itself in the president's posterior. The Sedition Act's harshest penalties were meted out by the Massachusetts Circuit Court on Daniel Brown, a semiliterate "wandering apostle of sedition" who, after advocating the "downfall of the Tyrants of America, peace and retirement to the President," and long life to "the Vice-President and the Minority," hoped that "moral virtue" would become "the basis of civil government." Most of the others indicted under the Sedition Act were editors of Republican newspapers. Of those arrested, ten were found guilty; untimely deaths and disappearances allowed others to evade Federalist "justice." After his election President Jefferson pardoned the men who remained incarcerated for violations of the newly expired Sedition Act. Ultimately the Alien and Sedition Acts destroyed the Federalist Party. By the end of 1798, the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures had passed resolutions denouncing the acts as unconstitutional and refusing to aid in their enforcement. The Kentucky Resolution, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, went even further, claiming that each state had the right to nullify any federal law it found unconstitutional. At the beginning of 1799, petitions signed by thousands of citizens across the country were presented in Congress, "praying" for the repeal of the "impolitic, tyrannical, and unconstitutional" Alien and Sedition Acts. The election of Thomas Jefferson and a Republican congressional majority in 1800 was the ultimate rejection of Federalist policies and principles.

the legacy

bibliography

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