Debate over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 Essay Example for Free

Debate over the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 EssayOnce they arrived a French spokesman demanded 32 million florins and 250,000 for talking to Talleyrand. This did not include any promise of a resolution. Furious, the American delegates left. Once they got back to America, the rest of the nation was ready for war. That undeclared war was mainly fought on the seas for two and a half years. President Adams Alien and Sedition Acts were proposed to punish the French but also to ruin the republican Party. Adams knew that immigrants made up the Republican Party in large part from France, England and Ireland. By halting the immigration of those people, Adams could slowing get rid of Jeffersons Party. The debates for these acts were between the Federalists and the Republicans. Along with needing these immigrants to support their party, Republicans found these acts wrong. As Thomas Jefferson once said, l am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to t he creed of any party of men any(prenominal) in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself.Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and clean agent. On the other said, the Federalists felt that they should not feel bad for France even if it is morally wrong. Alexander Hamilton said, The man who shall be the apologist of France, and who attacks his own government, is not an American. The picking for him lies between being deemed a fool, a madman, or a traitor. The new American position on immigration violated its policy of friendly fitting to immigrants.Due to the Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act immigrants were afraid to live in America fearing deportation or imprisonment. The Alien Act gave the President reason to deport all such aliens as he shall Judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the Untied States. The Alien Enemies Act allowed the restraint and removal in time of war or resident adult aliens o f the hostile nation. The Sedition Act caused the most uproar among Americans. It infringed upon two freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.The freedoms, both include in the first amendment, were freedom of speech and freedom of press. The law said that anyone who spoke out against any government officials, including the president, would be imprisoned and fined. The act immure a number of Democratic Republican editors, publishers and politicians. Politicians looked to use the Acts to rid themselves nd the country ot political scourges and those who expressed contrary views. Ultimately this was seen as a threat to freedom that Americans had fought so hard to win.Thomas Jefferson was afraid that if they were able to remove freedom of speech and freedom of press, they would eventually take away other original promises. Jefferson could not openly protest these acts because he feared prosecution. He secretly created resolutions, which Kentucky approved in 1789 and 1799. History vie wed these Acts to be the biggest blunder of Adams presidency and could have overshadowed what was considered a super effective tenure.