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The American Nation, Volume 29th EditionPrentice Hall 865 solutions In response to fears of war with France, President John Adams and Congress pushed through four laws– known as the Alien and Sedition Acts– that limited the freedom of speech and of the press and represented some of the first federal deportation laws. The Alien and Sedition Acts authorized the detention or deportation of persons seen as posing political threats to the
United States and those who emigrated from “hostile” nations and imposed more demanding requirements for naturalization. While the Sedition Act led to the prosecution and conviction of several newspaper owners, the deportation laws were generally not actively enforced at the time. The Adams administration also faced widespread criticism for these harsh laws. Nevertheless, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorized the President to detain, relocate, or deport immigrants from hostile
countries in a time of war, is still in force in modified form. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States at any time during the continuance of this act, to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds
to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States . . . And in case any alien, so ordered to depart, shall be found at large within the United States after the time limited in such order for his departure, and not having obtained a license from the President to reside therein, or having obtained such license shall not have conformed thereto, every such alien shall, on conviction thereof, be
imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, and shall never after be admitted to become a citizen of the United States. An Act Respecting Alien EnemiesSECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.
Passed by a Federalist-controlled Congress on July 14, the Sedition Act of 1798 (shown in this image) was part of a series of measures, commonly known as the Alien and Sedition Acts, ostensibly designed to deal with the threats involved in the “quasi-war” with France. The clash over the Sedition Act yielded the first sustained debate over the meaning of the First Amendment. (Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) Passed by a Federalist-controlled Congress on July 14, the Sedition Act of 1798 was part of a series of measures, commonly known as the Alien and Sedition Acts, ostensibly designed to deal with the threats involved in the “quasi-war” with France. Critics viewed the act as a thinly disguised partisan effort to control political debate until the next presidential election. The clash over the Sedition Act yielded the first sustained debate over the meaning of the First Amendment. Democratic-Republicans were targets of the Alien and Sedition ActsThe three so-called Alien Acts made it difficult to become a naturalized citizen and gave the president power to deport without trial aliens he considered threatening. The sweeping language of the Sedition Act made it illegal, among other actions, to “write, print, utter or publish...any false, scandalous and malicious writing...with intent to defame the...government” or “to stir up sedition within the United States.” The acts were set to expire on March 3, 1801. Federalist judges enforced the law with vigor. There were twenty-five arrests, fifteen indictments, and ten convictions, many upon charges so flimsy as to be comical. Targets of the act tended to be the editors of Democratic-Republican newspapers who criticized the Federalist administration of President John Adams. (Image via Wikimedia Commons, painted by Charles Wilson Peale between 1791 and 1794, public domain) Federalists thought seditious libel law was part of common lawFederalists genuinely worried that the French threat, both military and ideological, might be enough to topple the infant republic. To them, a seditious libel law was part of the English common law, constitutional under the necessary and proper clause, and an obvious instrument of defense. They believed the First Amendment embodied only the common law protection of forbidding prior restraint. Leading Federalists thought that it was impossible to attack members of the government without attacking the very foundation of government itself. The Federalists argued that the Sedition Act in reality expanded civil liberties. The act allowed “the truth of the matter contained in publication” as evidence in defense and gave the jury “a right to determine the law and the fact.” This contrasted with English common law, which did not admit truth as a defense and limited the role of the jury to establishing the fact of publication. Republicans argued that regulatory speech powers were not necessary, properRepublicans countered that the Constitution expressly delegates no power to regulate speech or the press and that such powers are in no sense necessary and proper. The First Amendment, they argued, specifically prohibits the making of any law whatsoever regarding speech or the press. In some instances, the Republicans’ arguments were directed more fully in support of the case for states’ rights, as in the case of Thomas Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions. James Madison, in his Virginia Resolutions and more fully in the report he authored for the Virginia Assembly in 1800, stressed the necessity of completely free and vigorous political debate for republican governments. The common law, he argued, had evolved to meet the needs of hereditary systems, not those of an elective system that necessarily requires the continuous critical examination of public officials and policies. Madison’s argument called into question not just the constitutionality of a national seditious libel law but the need for such a law at any level of government in an elective system. Backlash to Sedition Act swept Federalists from powerThe prosecutions and subsequent convictions under the Sedition Act galvanized opposition to the Federalist administration. The prosecuted Republican printers and editors became folk heroes. In the election of 1800, the Federalists were swept from power—never to return—and Jefferson subsequently pardoned those who had been convicted under the law. Almost 170 years later, the Supreme Court wrote in the celebrated libel case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964): “Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history.” Today, the Sedition Act of 1798 is generally remembered as a violation of fundamental First Amendment principles. This article was originally published in 2009. Peter McNamara is a Professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. Send Feedback on this article |
