Dbq Alien And Sedition Act Essay

667 Words3 Pages

There are four laws associating with the Alien and Sedition acts of 1789 within America. Americans feared that the French were going to come and invade the 13 colonies that resided within the North American continent. John Adams, the president at the time, and his Federalist acquaintances, created these 4 laws that limited speech and could allow them to remove any immigrants. Thomas Jefferson argued that the laws were not needed because the French were too busy meandering with their own affairs with the Brits, but action was taken by the Federalist Party. The Acts contradicted the Bill of Rights and were completely unnecessary, even if the French actually invaded the U.S. The Alien and Sedition Acts contradicted the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Right states that “Congress shall not… prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people”. The Sedition Act opposes this because it states that the people cannot speak, write, or do anything that makes accusations against any governmental entity (McClellan, Source 4). This is abridging the freedom of speech because you cannot talk freely about the government and are severely …show more content…

They wanted utmost power and control of whatever happened within the country and showed their reign to the people. John Marshall stated that the Sedition Act was completely unnecessary and created protrusions in the harmony of union (McClellan, Source 7). Also stated was that the laws were unconstitutional, but that “true” Americans wouldn’t feel the need to clash with them (McClellan, Source 6). Furthermore, what if the person(s) didn’t actually mean what they said and were emotionally distressed or intoxicated when they were apprehended? As with the case of Luther Baldwin, he was jailed for seditious actions when he was at a bar and drank too much (McClellan, Source