1798 U.S. laws restricting immigration and outlawing criticism of the government
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States.[a] The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship, the Alien Friends Act allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens, the Alien Enemies Act gave the president additional powers to detain non-citizens during times of war, and the Sedition Act criminalized false and malicious statements about the federal government. The Alien Friends Act and the Sedition Act expired after a set number of years, and the Naturalization Act was repealed in 1802. The Alien Enemies Act is still in effect.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were controversial. They were supported by the Federalist Party, and supporters argued that the bills strengthened national security during the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France from 1798 to 1800. The acts were denounced by Democratic-Republicans as suppression of voters and violation of free speech under the First Amendment. While they were in effect, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Sedition Act in particular, were used to suppress publishers affiliated with the Democratic-Republicans, and several publishers were arrested for criticism of the Adams administration. The Democratic-Republicans took power in 1800, in part because of backlash to the Alien and Sedition Acts, and all but the Alien Enemies Act were eliminated by the next Congress. The Alien Enemies Act has been invoked several times since, particularly during World War II. The Alien and Sedition Acts are generally received negatively by modern historians, and the U.S. Supreme Court has since indicated that aspects of the laws would likely be found unconstitutional today.
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and 24 Related for: Alien and Sedition Acts information
The AlienandSeditionActs were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization...
forefathers many years of toil, privation, and blood to establish. In response to the 1798 AlienandSeditionActs—advanced by the Federalist Party—John Taylor...
Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial AlienandSeditionActs, and built up the Army and Navy in the undeclared naval war with France. He was...
passed the AlienandSeditionActs in 1798. The Alien Act empowered the President to deport such aliens as he declared to be dangerous. The Sedition Act made...
384. National Archives, Transcript of the AlienandSeditionActs. Library of Congress: AlienandSeditionActs. Powell, 1967, p. 28. Lee, 1917, pp. 102–103...
foreign and domestic, the 5th Congress passed four bills, collectively known as the AlienandSeditionActs. Signed into law by the president, these acts made...
position that the federal AlienandSeditionActs were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that the states had the right and the duty to declare unconstitutional...
Amendment at the time, adopted the AlienandSeditionActs. The laws prohibited the publication of "false, scandalous, and malicious writings against the...
Quasi-War with France, the AlienandSeditionActs were passed by Congress. The Acts were overwhelmingly supported by the Federalists and mostly opposed by the...
constitutional rights by passing the AlienandSeditionActs, and they increasingly came to view Adams as a monarchist. Both Madison and Jefferson, as leaders of...
France, and many Americans rallied to Adams. In the wake of these foreign policy tensions, the Federalists imposed the AlienandSeditionActs to crack...
unpopular taxes and vicious Federalist infighting over his actions in the Quasi-War. Democratic-Republicans pointed to the AlienandSeditionActsand accused...
thought to have contributed to passage of the AlienandSeditionActs by the 5th United States Congress and signed by President John Adams in 1798. The...
Sedition Act may refer to: AlienandSeditionActs, including the Sedition Act of 1798, laws passed by the United States Congress Sedition Act 1661, an...
documents, or explain the reasons for their actions. Related law AlienandSeditionActs (late 18th century) Defense Secrets Act of 1911 (precursor) Venona...
and attacked the AlienandSeditionActs as violations of states' rights and the Constitution. "High Federalists" considered Adams too moderate and would...
petition against the Adams-era AlienandSeditionActsand taken to jail in chains; massive protests from Peck supporters and opponents of the administration...
(England) The Aliens Act 1905 (UK) The Aliens Act of 1937 (South Africa) The AlienandSeditionActs (USA) The Aliens Act of 2005 (Sweden) (Utlänningslagen [sv])...
immigrants. The AlienandSeditionActs gave the President of the United States the power to arrest and subsequently deport any alien that he deemed dangerous...
the AlienandSeditionActs, together with three other laws passed contemporaneously in 1798 (the Alien Friends Act, Alien Enemies Act, andSedition Act)...
negotiations with France, and the AlienandSeditionActsand Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The campaign leading up to this election and the election itself...
administration also grew over the AlienandSeditionActs. Cabot defended John Marshall, a Federalist opponent of the Acts, to the shock of Cabot's friend...
specific condemnation of the AlienandSeditionActs, with the concept of the limited delegated power of the general government, and even with the proposition...
occasions to regulate speech in wartime, beginning with the AlienandSeditionActs of 1798. During and following World War I, a series of statutes addressed...
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