%236.  The Alien and Sedition Acts.%—­Carried away by the excitement of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most unwise laws.  Many of the active leaders and very many of the members of the Republican party were men born abroad and naturalized in this country.  Generally they were Irishmen or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate England, and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed were too friendly to her.  To prevent such becoming voters, and so taking an active part in politics, the Federalists passed a new naturalization law, which forbade any foreigner to become an American citizen until he had lived fourteen years in our country.  Lest this should not be enough to keep them quiet, a second law was passed by which the President had power for two years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen years could not become citizens) out of the country whenever he thought it proper.  This law Adams never used.

For five years past the Republican newspapers had been abusing Washington, Adams, the acts of Congress, the members of Congress, and the whole foreign policy of the Federalists.  The Federalist newspapers, of course, had retaliated and had been just as abusive of the Republicans.  But as the Federalists now had the power, they determined to punish the Republicans for their abuse, and passed the Sedition Act.  This provided that any man who acted seditiously (that is, interfered with the execution of a law of Congress) or spoke or wrote seditiously (that is, abused the President, or Congress, or any member of the Federal government) should be tried, and if found guilty, be fined and imprisoned.  This law was used, and used vigorously, and Republican editors all over the country were fined and sometimes imprisoned.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The Alien and Sedition acts are in Preston’s Documents, pp. 277-282.]

%237.  Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.%—­The passage of these Alien and Sedition laws greatly excited the Republicans, and led Jefferson to use his influence to have them condemned by the states.  For this purpose he wrote a set of resolutions and sent them to a friend in Kentucky who was to try to have the legislature adopt them.[2] Jefferson next asked Madison to write a like set of resolutions for the Virginia legislature to adopt.  Madison became so interested that he gave up his seat in Congress and entered the Virginia legislature, and in December, 1798, induced it to adopt what have since been known as the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.

[Footnote 2:  Kentucky had been admitted to the Union in 1792 (see p. 213).]

Meantime the legislature of Kentucky, November, 1798, had adopted the resolutions of Jefferson.[3]

[Footnote 3:  E. D. Warfield’s Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.  The Resolutions are printed in Preston’s Documents, pp. 283-298; Jefferson’s Works, Vol.  IX., p. 494.]