The Relationship Between The Alien And Sedition Act

Our government today is composed of two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. During the founding of our country, it was very similar except the names of these parties were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists respectively. During that era, our second president, John Adams decided to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. The “alien” part of the Alien and Sedition acts made it harder for immigrants to become citizens of the United States by a noticeable margin. The act made obtaining citizenship take an extra nine years, from five years to fourteen. This act also allowed the government to deport immigrants. Furthermore, the “sedition” part of the Alien and Sedition acts prevented people, including citizens, from speaking out against the
To understand if he “changed” sides, it’s important to understand Federalist Paper #10 and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. In order to combat and seek resolution to the Alien and Sedition acts, there was a massive discussion between Federalists and Anti-Federalists. During this discussion, James Madison writes Federalist Paper #10 to communicate with the Anti-Federalists. In this paper, Madison states there are only two ways to fix the factions within the United States, “one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.” This statement means that by taking away the rights of the people, the damage that stronger factions cause can be corrected or make everyone believe in the same ideals, which is completely impractical. Because of two nearly impossible solutions, Madison offers to create a less centralized government, a republic. In these papers, Madison wants delegates who are elected by the people to be elected by a larger group of electors. This is to prevent factions from getting their special delegates into the government without the vote of more common people. To achieve this, the