Alien

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Alien Sedition Acts
Presentation by Robert L. Martinez Primary
Content Source The New Nation by Joy
Hakim. Images as cited.
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• In 1798, the Federalist Congress passed laws
  called the Alien and Sedition acts, and President
  John Adams signed them.

http//www.americanrevolution.com/ppl_john_adams.h
tml
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• There were three Alien acts. One made it
  difficult for aliens (foreigners) to become U.S.
  citizens. Another said the president could throw
  anyone he wanted out of the U.S., if he thought
  them dangerous.

President John Adams
http//www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/54502
9809/
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• The acts were aimed at the French, many of who
  were fleeing from the violence of the French
  Revolution.

http//libcom.org/history/1789-1989-revolutionary-
song-in-france
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• France and England were at war. The
  Federalists supported the English. Thomas
  Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans
  supported the French.

Thomas Jefferson
http//nibiryukov.narod.ru/nb_pinacoteca/nbe_pinac
oteca_philosophers_j.htm
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• The Federalists acted as if the French were
  all villains. Religious prejudice was at work,
  too. Most people in the U.S. were Protestants.
  Most French people were Catholics.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/22715572_at_N08/21792046
67/
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• Unfortunately, some Americans wanted to keep
  Catholics out of the country. They supported the
  Alien acts.

http//www.etss.edu/hts/hts5/info2.htm
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• The Alien acts were bad enough, but the
  Sedition Act may have been worse. It made it a
  crime to criticize the government.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/kill_yoshee/274954693
4/
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• Some people got arrested for doing just that.
  One was Ben Franklins grandson. Another was
  Congressman Lyon of Vermont, a revolutionary war
  veteran.

http//law.jrank.org/pages/2396/Alien-Sedition-Act
s-1798.html
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• Congressman Lyon attacked President Adams in
  the Rutland Gazette, saying Adams was trying to
  act like a king. He said Adams should be sent to
  a mad house.

http//www.multied.com/NN/Alien.html
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• Article I of the Bill of Rights says Congress
  shall make no law respecting an establishment of
  religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
  thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or
  of the press

http//illuminatela.com/whose-bill-of-rights
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• Congress and the president had done something
  the Constitution said they couldnt do. They were
  restricting freedom of speech and of the press.

http//huquq.com/WordPress?p19
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• If Congress were to pass Alien and Sedition
  acts today, the Supreme Court would declare them
  unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court was just
  getting organized during Adams term as president.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/37621686/

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• The court was not very strong. No one was
  quite sure what to do. But, the Virginia and
  Kentucky state legislatures declared the Alien
  and Sedition laws unconstitutional.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/grco61/187630891/
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• Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky
  resolutions, while James Madison wrote the
  Virginia resolutions. They argued that if a state
  believed a law unconstitutional, it had the right
  to say so and not obey the law.

James Madison
http//www.encyclopedie-enligne.com/j/ja/james_mad
ison.html
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• Remember the Alien and Sedition acts when you
  read about the Civil War. The South will say the
  states have a right not to follow lays they think
  unconstitutional
• ( remember the Nullification Crisis.)

http//web.olivet.edu/gradusers/mmossber/Top20Pag
e.htm
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• But just imagine if each state had the right
  to declare laws unconstitutional. Things would
  get very combative in this 50-state country (like
  the Civil War.)

http//www.flickr.com/photos/howardh/259876896/
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• Massachusetts responded, stating it had agreed
  to the Constitution and were bound by that
  agreement. It was not up to the states to say if
  a law was unconstitutional or not.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/neal1960/1017190356/
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• In the end, the Alien and Sedition acts
  expired, but they were not renewed.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/mireille/49161827/
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• The Constitution was a great beginning, but
  there were things to be worked out. It was not
  until 1803 that the Supreme Court first claimed
  the right to decide if a law is unconstitutional
  (Marbury v. Madison).

http//www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/02_03/AG/mar/ak.htm
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• The men who wrote the Constitution were afraid
  of political power. So they set up a government
  with a separation of powers, with three branches
  executive, legislative, and judicial.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/28768887_at_N07/26839981
45/
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• The three branches were supposed to be equal
  partners to check and balance each other.

Checks and Balances
http//steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/person
al
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• But at first the Supreme Court didnt seem to
  know what to do. There was no check and balance
  at all. The court was so weak it was hard to get
  good people even to serve as justices.

http//www.loc.gov/rr/mss/guide/concord.html
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• Then President Adams made a brilliant choice.
  He appointed John Marshall as chief justice of
  the Supreme Court.

http//www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/John_Mar
shall
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• As a young congressman, John Marshall voted
  against the Sedition Act and against his own
  Federalist Party. That took courage.

http//www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/marshal
l
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• Marshall would make the Supreme Court powerful
  and the judiciary an equal third branch of the
  government.

http//www.flickr.com/photos/angelrays/310393764/