Alien and Sedition Acts

Alien and Sedition Acts
Four laws passed by the U.S. Congress in 1798, in anticipation of war with France.

The acts, precipitated by the XYZ Affair, restricted aliens and curtailed press criticism of the government. Aimed at French and Irish immigrants (who were mostly pro-France), they increased the waiting period for naturalization and authorized expulsion of aliens considered dangerous. The Alien and Sedition Acts were opposed by Thomas Jefferson and others and helped propel Jefferson to the presidency. They were repealed or had expired by 1802.

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▪ American history
      (1798), four internal security laws passed by the U.S. Congress, restricting aliens and curtailing the excesses of an unrestrained press, in anticipation of an expected war with France. After the XYZ Affair (1797), war appeared inevitable. Federalists, aware that French military successes in Europe had been greatly facilitated by political dissidents in invaded countries, sought to prevent such subversion in the United States and adopted the Alien and Sedition Acts as part of a series of military preparedness measures.

      The three alien laws, passed in June and July, were aimed at French and Irish immigrants, who were mostly pro-French. These laws raised the waiting period for naturalization from 5 to 14 years, permitted the detention of subjects of an enemy nation, and authorized the chief executive to expel any alien he considered dangerous. The Sedition Act (July 14) banned the publishing of false or malicious writings against the government and the inciting of opposition to any act of Congress or the president—practices already forbidden in some cases by state libel statutes and the common law but not by federal law. The federal act reduced the oppressiveness of procedures in prosecuting such offenses but provided for federal enforcement.

      The acts were mild compared with later wartime security measures in the United States, and they were not unpopular in some places. Jeffersonian Republicans (Democratic-Republican Party) vigorously opposed them, however, as drastic curtailments of liberty in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which the other state legislatures either ignored or denounced as subversive. Only one alien was deported, but there were 25 prosecutions, resulting in 10 convictions, under the Sedition Act. With the war threat passing and the Republicans winning control of the federal government in 1800, all the Alien and Sedition Acts expired or were repealed during the next two years.

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