The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 sparked many bitter arguments between the Federalists and the Jeffersonians in the young republic of America. This heated debate occured because of conflict ideas regarding freedom of speech, immigration laws, and governmental theories on the leadership of the country. Freedom of speech was one of the biggest topics of the dea bte. When James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights in 1791, he, along with the rest of the founding fathers, promised to safeguard all of the American liberties won from the war for independence including the freedom of speech. Congress, tired of the endless verbal and printed abuse in the newspapers about other legislation such as the Alien Act, passed the Sedition Act in 1798, taking away one of the most important freedoms that were supposedly safeguarded-the freedom of speech. This was a direct infringement upon the people’s rights according to the Bill of Rights.
This act would jail or fine individuals who spoke or wrote against governmental policy or politicians. One individual Matthew Lyon was so brave as to spit in the face of a Federalist– he was jailed for four months. In any case, the new strong central government dominated mainly by the Federalists was felt by many to have broken its promise to the AMerican people. Some diehard Federalists switch parties, as the the Federalists became increasingly unpopular. Other Federalists like Alexander Hamilton knew that such a controversial law ould be dangerous to American unity. He was right.
The Term Paper on Students Freedom of Speech in School
The First Amendment states that all citizens of the U. S have freedom of religion, petition, assembly, press, and speech. The First Amendment was written and adopted for over two hundred years of American History. Throughout this period people have questioned the extent of freedom that they were given through the First Amendment. The freedom of speech is probably the most misunderstood of all the ...
Though claiming only to be an attempt to keep law and order, the Sedition Act caused an immediate uproar and the eventual writing of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which were attempts to repeal the Sedition Act. These anonymous documents stated the “compact theory’ which said that the government’s decisions were ultimately the wishes of the people because the government’s origin was a result of the people. So as a direct result of the passage of the Sedition Act, heated controversy rose up between the two political parties of that time because of violated rights and broken promises.
