Alien+and+Sedition+Acts

=Alien and Sedition Acts=

toc

The Alien and sedition act were known as laws. The federalists pushed these laws through Congress in the summer of 1798. They were trying to control the anger and scare of the war that had happened before this. The war was against Americans and France. France had a military genius for their leader. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. These acts took away most of the foreigners rights. They had to live in America for 14 years to be a true citizen, the president could put a foreigner in jail for any wrong, and it was a crime to say anything bad about our government.

How It Started
These acts all started when the war between America and France began. The federalists pushed these laws through Congress in 1798 just to stop the anger of the war. These laws were mostly pointed out for the French peolpe coming into America. They were trying to take most of the rights to the peolpe who weren't citizens in America. These laws made it so that if foreigners came into America, such as the French, they could arest them for about anything.

Avoiding France
France had the most powerful army in the world. Adams wanted to try to avoid a fight with them. Another reason to avoid them is they had the worlds greatest military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte. The French Navy was also a lot better then the U.S. The Federalists didn't like the French and wanted to get rid of the "internal enemies", but the Democratic-Republicans had //tried// to support France.

The Laws
The Federalists took advantage of the war scare within the citizens. They were able to pass these laws: laws against foreigners in the U.S. who could be helping the French, increased time in U.S. to become a citizen from 5 to 14 years. Other laws they were able to pass other laws like: the President can imprison anyone he thinks could be dangerous, out laws conspiracies against the government, and it was a crime to write, print, speak, or publish anything bad or against the government.

Differences
These acts or laws tried to silence the Democratic-Republicans. Then they remembered that the President was a Ferderalist and the Vice President was a Democratic-Republican. So, they made new laws making it illegal to question the president but not the Vice President. This could have destroied the government because the Vice President and the President have WAY differant opinnions.

How it Ends
The Sedition Act ended in 1801 along with Adams terms in office. The Alien and Sedition Acts was so great that they helped for the election of Thomas Jefferson,who was a Republican, to the presidency in 1800. These laws were the first to test the limits of freedom in the U.S. These acts ended very well for the U.S. and they got everything they needed to do done.