In March 1797, John Adams (1735–1826; served 1797–1801) entered
office as the second president of the United States. His term was marked
by challenges both internationally, with a war between France and Great
Britain, and domestically as political differences grew between members
of the Federalist Party and Democratic-Republican Party, the country’s two main political parties. In 1798, both tensions culminated in the
passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts by the Federalist-controlled
Congress.
Conflict on the high seas
Great Britain and France were at war over issues related to colonization
and commerce. The United States was officially neutral in the war. In
1795, however, the United States had signed a commerce and alliance
treaty with Britain called Jay’s Treaty. France believed Jay’s Treaty was a
breach, or violation, of treaties of commerce and alliance that America
had signed with France during the American Revolution (1775–83).
In angry response, France began seizing American merchant ships
bound for British ports. France forced the sailors on those ships to serve
France in its war with Great Britain. American attempts to negotiate
peace with France in 1797 resulted in the XYZ Affair. Diplomatic dispatches revealed that three French agents, referred to as X, Y, and Z in
the reports, had demanded bribes from the American peace envoy before
opening negotiations.
Party politics
Domestic reaction to these foreign affairs emphasized growing philosophical differences between the Federalists and the DemocraticRepublicans. While the actions of the French were not popular, many
Democratic-Republican Americans still distrusted England and sympathized with the ideals of the French Revolution, by which the people of
France overthrew its monarchy in 1789.
Federalists, maintaining their history of antiforeign sentiment, became suspicious of the loyalty of the thousands of French West Indian
refugees who flocked into the United States in an effort to escape revolutionary terror. The refugees often aligned themselves with the
Democratic-Republicans.
Congress acts
Rallying behind the anti-French sentiment in the wake of the XYZ
Affair, in June and July 1798 the Federalists of Congress passed four acts
of legislation known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. The laws were intended to suppress both alien and domestic subversives, people who opposed the federal government. The Alien and Sedition Acts proved to be
convenient tools for undermining the strength of the DemocraticRepublican Party as well.
The first of the four laws, called the Naturalization Act, increased
the length of residency required before an alien, or foreigner, could apply
for American citizenship. Previously the probationary period had been
five years. By increasing the period to fourteen years, the Federalists successfully suppressed immigrant citizenship and hence immigrant votes in
America, which hurt mostly the Democratic-Republican Party.
Two of the acts were specifically aimed at removing aliens from
America. The Alien Friends Act allowed the president to deport any alien
suspected of threatening the peace and safety of the United States. The
Alien Enemies Act authorized the president to seize, imprison, or deport
any aliens, dangerous or not, who were citizens of a country at war with
the United States. Neither act was ever enforced, and both expired in
1800.
The Sedition Act proved to be the most controversial and powerful
of the acts. Aimed at citizens and aliens alike, the act made it illegal to
write, publish, or speak anything of “a false, scandalous, and malicious
nature” against the government or the president “with intent to defame
… or to bring them into contempt or disrepute.” Acting on behalf of the
Adams administration, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering
(1745–1829) brought more than a dozen indictments, or formal accusations, under the Sedition Act. Ten resulted in convictions, including
those against Matthew Lyon (1749–1822), a Democratic-Republican
congressman from Vermont, and the editors of eight major DemocraticRepublican newspapers.
Backlash
With no public way to criticize the administration or to challenge the
Sedition Act, its opponents turned to state legislatures for relief. Thomas
Jefferson (1751–1836), who was then vice president, anonymously
penned the Kentucky Resolutions as James Madison (1751–1836)
drafted the Virginia Resolutions. Both documents emphasized the rights
of the states to declare federal laws unconstitutional and to decide when
the federal government had overstepped its proper bounds.
While no other states passed official statements of opposition, public support for the Sedition Act eventually began to wane. The trials
under the Sedition Act marked an early American confrontation between
the power of the federal government and the liberties and free speech
that people expected to enjoy in their new nation.
Recognizing that the Federalists may have gone too far, President
Adams fired Pickering by May 1800 and no longer urged prosecutions
under the Sedition Act. Although he managed to secure peace with
France by October 1800, the effects of the Alien and Sedition Acts were
profound enough to affect public opinion of the Federalist Party. Vice
President Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican candidate for president
in the election of 1800, won and was inaugurated the day after the
Sedition Act expired by its own terms, on March 3, 1801.