The Alien and Sedition Acts

France had been an ally of the Americans in their Revolution – a relationship that is commemorated by the Statue of Liberty.   France had its own revolution in 1789, which took it in an increasingly radical direction through the 1790s and engulfed Europe in war.

Against this background, the Federalist Party under John Adams passed four different laws that became known as the "Alien and Sedition Acts":

1.  An "Alien Enemies Act" giving the president the power to detain or deport any alien (non citizen) from a nation with whom the US was at war. 

2.  An "Alien Friends Act" giving the president the power to deport any non citizen he thought might be dangerous, even in times of peace.

3.  A "Naturalization Act" which raised from 5 to 14 years the period of time an alien had to live in the United States before becoming a citizen.

4.  A "Sedition Act" making it a crime to publish "false, scandalous or malicious" statements against the government or one of its officials.   

Read the Sedition Act: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson thought the acts were unconstitutional.  They compiled the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions to argue that states had the duty to nullify them – or prevent them from operating within state borders.  This doctrine of "nullification" became associated with the theory of states' rights which Southern states invoked when they seceded from the Union some sixty years later.