Alien and Sedition Acts’ Significance

What is the Alien and Sedition Acts’ significance? A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams.

The Republicans versus the Federalists Round One: The Alien and Sedition Acts Significance of 1798

Amid the naval skirmishes and diplomatic tension in America’s quasi-war with France, the Federalists managed to enact legislation that would become notorious: the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Federalists, a political party to which Hamilton belonged, generally favored a strong central government and broad construction of the Constitution—the very oppo-
site of Jefferson’s Republicans, who were anxious to defend the rights of the states and insisted upon a strict construction of the Constitution. The alien legislation, which authorized the president to deport resident aliens who had “treasonable” leanings, was a source of concern to Jefferson and other Republicans; Jefferson believed the legislation was aimed at Albert Gallatin, the important Pennsylvania Republican who had been born in Geneva. (He later became Jefferson’s own Treasury secretary.)

But it was the prohibition of seditious libel that they found most objectionable. For Jefferson, the problem wasn’t simply that this prohibition would be enforced in a partisan way—though of course, it was, with numerous Republican newspapers and spokesmen targeted for harassment, fines, and even jail time. (Correspondence between Jefferson and Madison at the time includes concerns that their mail was being tampered with.) And it wasn’t that seditious libel could be arbitrarily or loosely defined—although, again, in practice, it was: One poor soul, who expressed the fond wish that the presidential saluting cannon would “hit [President John] Adams in the ass,” was fined $100.

The primary issue was the acts’ dubious constitutionality. Jefferson based part of his objection on their violation of the First Amendment, though the point was arguable. He added that the acts violated the Tenth Amendment, to him the foundation on which the entire Constitution was based. Nowhere had the states delegated any authority to the federal government to pass legislation on the freedom of speech or press. In enacting such legislation, then, the federal government had encroached on a state prerogative. For Jefferson, who spoke of binding men by the chains of the Constitution, immediate action was necessary lest such federal usurpations begin to multiply.