=Alien and Sedition Laws.=—­Flushed with success, the Federalists determined, if possible, to put an end to radical French influence in America and to silence Republican opposition.  They therefore passed two drastic laws in the summer of 1798:  the Alien and Sedition Acts.

The first of these measures empowered the President to expel from the country or to imprison any alien whom he regarded as “dangerous” or “had reasonable grounds to suspect” of “any treasonable or secret machinations against the government.”

The second of the measures, the Sedition Act, penalized not only those who attempted to stir up unlawful combinations against the government but also every one who wrote, uttered, or published “any false, scandalous, and malicious writing ... against the government of the United States or either House of Congress, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame said government ... or to bring them or either of them into contempt or disrepute.”  This measure was hurried through Congress in spite of the opposition and the clear provision in the Constitution that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.  Even many Federalists feared the consequences of the action.  Hamilton was alarmed when he read the bill, exclaiming:  “Let us not establish a tyranny.  Energy is a very different thing from violence.”  John Marshall told his friends in Virginia that, had he been in Congress, he would have opposed the two bills because he thought them “useless” and “calculated to create unnecessary discontents and jealousies.”

The Alien law was not enforced; but it gave great offense to the Irish and French whose activities against the American government’s policy respecting Great Britain put them in danger of prison.  The Sedition law, on the other hand, was vigorously applied.  Several editors of Republican newspapers soon found themselves in jail or broken by ruinous fines for their caustic criticisms of the Federalist President and his policies.  Bystanders at political meetings, who uttered sentiments which, though ungenerous and severe, seem harmless enough now, were hurried before Federalist judges and promptly fined and imprisoned.  Although the prosecutions were not numerous, they aroused a keen resentment.  The Republicans were convinced that their political opponents, having saddled upon the country Hamilton’s fiscal system and the British treaty, were bent on silencing all censure.  The measures therefore had exactly the opposite effect from that which their authors intended.  Instead of helping the Federalist party, they made criticism of it more bitter than ever.