Issues Of Sedition Essay Research Paper

Issues Of Sedition Essay, Research Paper

“The debate over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 revealed bitter controversies on a number of issues.” Immigration was a major issue of debate in congress over the Alien Acts. The Nation was afraid of losing its culture to the pouring in of thousands of other nations. With the overwhelming number of immigrants many officials felt official action needed to be taken. The war between France and England created controversy because parties from the same nation sided with different countries. Nationalism was one thing that the United States had a great lack of and for the two major political parties of America to not side together tore our nation apart. Partisanship was heavily argued over in every issue and separately. The Democratic and Federalist Factions were both responsible for the Alien and Sedition Acts, neither side would ever back down no matter what was best for the country. The insecurity of the two political parties was a large result in the destructive force of the two factions. If the two parties were more focused on the nation than on each other the sedition acts would not have had to have been prescribed to control the disenfranchised. The Alien acts were an important factor in judging the true character of the Federalist Party. It was effortless to see what was important to the Federalist Party because they acted in their best interests instead of the countries.

Immigration was a primary component in the war between Federalists and Democrats.

The Alien Laws themselves required a fourteen-year period for aliens prior to naturalization as a citizen, gave the President power to deport “all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States” and allowed the restraint and removal in time of war of resident adult aliens of the hostile nation. The 1798 Acts passed by Congress were simply weapons of the Federalist Party. The true purpose of the Alien Sedition Acts was to secure the power of the Democratic opposition by controlling population growth of the Anti-Federalist Union (doc P). The Federalist Party had realized most immigrants were Jefferson supporters and wished to disenfranchise these new members of the Democratic Party. The Alien Laws took pro-Jeffersonian immigrants from the already minute Jeffersonians (the American Pageant). The Acts also gave the current Federalist president a monarchal power, it was the president which would have the only authority in removal of an immigrant whom “presented danger to safety” in the U. S. (Doc Q). Immigration was greatly feared by Washington because he saw his nation losing its culture (doc A); even Jefferson feared the large amounts of immigrants overwhelming the populace, despite this group being his main source of Jeffersonian members (doc B). Immigration played an important role in the fight for supremacy between the two parties, equally as important if not more than the fight between Britain and France.

The war between Britain and France was a major issue over the formation of the Alien Sedition Acts. Nationalism was a large problem during the late seventeen hundreds, the country was torn between England and the former American ally of France (The American Pageant). The two political parties that controlled the nation each supported different countries, the Democrats supporting France and the Federalist Party with England. Hamilton would try to manipulate the country by stating that it was unpatriotic to support France (Doc I). Hamilton was attempting to undermine Democratic authority by manipulating the guilt of the countries populace to support its mother country (England). When Hamilton stated that it was unpatriotic to support France he was saying that it was unpatriotic to support the Democratic Party. It was obvious that each party had taken its sides in the war and both unions would again attempt to undermine its opposition. James Madison would attempt to twist the views of John Adams by stating that because Adams did not support all of the views of the French Revolution that he supported the monarchal institution (Doc N). In 1792 Hamilton accused Jefferson of being a French supporter among other things, further separating the Democratic and Federalist Parties (Doc D). Each political union made attempts to overthrow their opposing parties. France was illustrated negatively to the American public, an American cartoon about the XYZ affair portrayed the French as irrational and prodigal (Doc M). France was seen dissentingly in the cartoon to more strongly affirm the American fatalistic view of the French nation. There were large attempts by the Federalist Party to undermine the Democratic Republicans through France. Warring between two European nations developed a large distinction among the two political parties when they each chose to support separate sides. Agreement of the Democratic and Federalist alliances over the European war was nonexistent and unlikely to ever change. The nation was caught in the crossfire in the war not only in the war between Britain and France but now it would also have to endure the battle between Federalists and Democrats.

The Alien and sedition acts would not have existed if not for the role of partisanship in the American Political System. The Federalist and Democratic Parties were the cause of the Alien Sedition Acts because the 1798 Acts were simply weapons of the party i