Dbq Alien And Sedition Act Essay

613 Words3 Pages

The Alien and Sedition Acts that were designed and passed by Congress in 1798 established a range of restrictions on the society. Among those laws, the Naturalization Act made the process of gaining American citizenship longer and the Sedition Act was designed to forbid publishing the materials against the government. While those documents “were in conflict with the Bill of Rights”, the Congress considered them appropriate (Roark 281). The positions of people within the society regarding these laws differed.
From the point of view of a recent immigrant, these laws were inappropriate for the American democratic society. While the Naturalization and Alien Friends Acts extended the period for gaining citizenship and allowed to deport people from …show more content…

Respectively, insofar as the act posed threat to the editors in overall, a Republican editor would have totally been against the act.
As for John Adams, his position in respect to this article was a bit ambivalent. While at that period, “criticism of his foreign policy reached an all-time high”, this act was useful for the President since it allowed to avoid disapproval of his policies (Roark 282). However, from the other point of view, the act extended the power of the central government to a large extent. Nevertheless, he considered such measures necessary in the conditions of war preparation since the act provided more rights not only to the federal government but also to President himself.
From the point of view of a slave and rebel leader, this act could be considered inappropriate. According to a leader of rebel, the Sedition Act might be seen as violating “individual protections under the first amendment of the Constitution” ("The Alien And Sedition Acts [Ushistory.Org]"). The slaves and rebels were not directly impacted by those acts, so their position towards the passing could be unidentified. Nevertheless, the Kentucky Resolutions that were taken with regard to the acts was later used against the Fugitive Slave

Open Document