Unit 3/Target 3: I can explain the political disagreements over the power of the national
(central/federal) government
Alien and Sedition Acts
No protesting the government? No immigrants allowed in? No freedom of the press? Lawmakers jailed?
Is this the story of North Korea or China? No. It describes the United States in 1798 after the passage of
the Alien and Sedition Acts.
The strong steps that John Adams, the second President of the United States and a Federalist, took in
response to the French Revolution and its threat to the United States included a limit of First
Amendment rights. A series of laws known as the ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS were passed by the
Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams.
Alien Act
The Alien Act included new powers to deport foreigners and
made it more difficult for new immigrants to vote. Previously,
a new immigrant would have to live in the United States for
five years before becoming eligible to vote, but the new law
raised this to 14 years.
The Federalists saw foreigners as a deep threat to American
security. As one Federalist in Congress declared, there was no
need to "invite hordes of Wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent
and disorderly of the entire world, to come here with a basic view to distract our tranquility." Not
coincidentally, non-English ethnic groups had been among the core supporters of the DemocraticRepublicans in 1796.
Sedition Act
The most controversial of the new laws was the Sedition Act.
Sedition is stirring up rebellion against the government. In
essence, this law made it illegal to publicly criticize the
government. Fines and imprisonment could be used against those
who "write, print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous and
malicious writing" against the government.
Under this law, over twenty Republican newspaper editors were
arrested and some were imprisoned for writing articles that were
critical of Federalists in power. The most dramatic victim of the
law was Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont. His letter that
criticized President Adams' "unbounded thirst for ridiculous
pomp, foolish praise, and self-adoration" caused him to be
imprisoned. While Federalists sent Lyon to prison for his opinions, voters reelected him to Congress.
Federalists felt that it was important to limit negative writing about the government because the
government was so new and fragile. The Sedition Act clearly violated individual protections under the
First Amendment of the Constitution.
Nullification
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson directed their
opposition to the new laws to their state legislatures. The
Virginia and Kentucky legislatures passed resolutions,
declaring the federal laws invalid within their states. This was
called nullification. They believed that since states created
the federal government by giving up power, they should have
the right to overturn laws they considered unconstitutional.
This was a bold challenge to the federal government and
introduced the idea of states' rights.
Enormous changes had occurred in the explosive decade of
the 1790s. Federalists in government now viewed the ideas of
their party as necessary to the survival of the republic. This led them to enact and enforce these harsh
laws.
Madison, who had been the chief architect of a strong central government in the Constitution, now was
wary of national authority. He actually helped the Kentucky legislature to reject federal law. By placing
states’ rights above those of the federal government, Kentucky and Virginia had established a precedent
that would be used in the future to justify the secession of southern states in the Civil War.
Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/19e.asp
The Whiskey Rebellion
In January 1791, President George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, leader
of the Federalist Party, proposed a seemingly harmless whiskey tax "upon spirits distilled within the
United States." What Congress failed to predict was the violent rejection of this tax by Americans living
on the frontier of Western Pennsylvania. By 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion threatened the stability of the
emerging United States and forced President Washington to personally lead the United States militia
westward to stop the rebels.
By 1791 the United States suffered from debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. Secretary
Hamilton, a Federalist supporting increased federal authority, intended to use the whiskey tax to help
pay off the 75 million national debt. Despite resistance from Anti-Federalists like Thomas Jefferson, who
felt it was unfair to the poor farmers, Congress passed the legislation. When news of the tax spread to
Western Pennsylvania, citizens protested by refusing to pay the tax.
Western farmers felt the tax was an abuse of federal authority. They felt it wrongly targeted a group of
poor farmers that relied on crops such as corn, rye, and grain to earn a profit. Shipping their harvest east
was dangerous because of poor storage and dangerous roads. As a result, farmers frequently distilled
their grain into liquor which was easier to ship and preserve. While large-scale wealthy farmers could
bear the financial strain of an additional tax, poor farmers were less able to do so.
President Washington sought to resolve this dispute peacefully. In 1792, he issued a national
proclamation warning westerners about their resistance to the Whiskey Tax. However, by 1794 the
protests became violent. In July, nearly 400 whiskey rebels near Pittsburgh set fire to the home of John
Neville, the regional tax collection supervisor. Left with little recourse and at the urgings of Secretary
Hamilton, Washington organized a militia force of 12,950 men and led them towards Western
Pennsylvania, warning locals "not to abet, aid, or comfort the Insurgents aforesaid, as they will answer
the contrary at their peril."
The calling of the militia had the desired effect of essentially ending the Whiskey Rebellion. By the time
the militia reached Pittsburgh, the rebels had dispersed and could not be found. The militia
apprehended approximately 150 men and tried them for treason. A lack of evidence and the inability to
obtain witnesses hampered the trials. Two men, John Mitchell and Philip Weigel, were found guilty of
treason, though both were pardoned by President Washington. By 1802, then President Thomas
Jefferson repealed the tax on whiskey. Under the eye of President Washington, the emerging United
States survived the first true challenge to federal authority.
http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/whiskey-rebellion/
Louisiana Purchase
By a treaty signed on Apr. 30, 1803, the United States purchased from France the Louisiana Territory,
more than 800,000 sq. mi of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The
price was about $15 million.
In 1800, the French controlled the vast area known as Louisiana. Napoleon Bonaparte (the future
Emperor Napoleon I) envisioned a great French empire in the New World, and he hoped to use the
Mississippi Valley as a food and trade center to supply the island of Hispaniola (Dominican
Republic/Haiti), which was to be the heart of this empire. But by 1802, Napoleon had lost control of the
island after a successful slave uprising. Without that island he had little use for Louisiana. Facing a
renewed war with Great Britain, he could not spare troops to defend the territory and needed money.
In April 1803, he offered to sell Louisiana to the United States.
Concerned about French intentions, President Thomas Jefferson had already sent James Monroe and
Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans, or a guarantee of free navigation
on the river. They were surprised and delighted by the French offer of the whole territory and
immediately negotiated the treaty.
Jefferson was jubilant. At one
stroke, the United States would
double in size, an enormous tract
of land would be open to
settlement, and control of the
Mississippi River would be
assured. Although the
Constitution did not specifically
empower the federal government
to acquire new territory by treaty,
Jefferson concluded that it was
necessary and proper to the
nation and far outweighed the
possible violation of the
Constitution. The Senate agreed with this decision citing Clause 18 and voted to ratify the treaty on Oct.
20, 1803. Federalists were against this purchase because by adding land, the power and wealth of the
New England states would diminish. They also argued that the Constitution does not give the President
power to purchase land.
http://gatewayno.com/history/LaPurchase.html
Unit 3/Target 3: I can explain the political disagreements over the power of the national
(central/federal) government.
List the parts of the Alien Act:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Why did Federalists pass this law?
____________________________________________________________________________
Why were Democratic Republicans opposed to this law?
___________________________________________________________________________
Define sedition: ____________________________________________________________________
List details about the Sedition Act:
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Why did Federalists pass this law?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Why were Democratic Republicans against this law?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
What did Democratic Republicans do to fight this law?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Define nullification:
_______________________________________________________________________
Whiskey Rebellion
Why did farmers in western Pennsylvania see the whiskey tax as an abuse of federal authority?
______________________________________________________________________________
Why did Federalists pass this law?
____________________________________________________________________________
Why were Democratic Republicans against this tax?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What precedent did Washington set with his executive power in ending the rebellion?
_____________________________________________________________________________
What executive power did Washington use on the men found guilty of treason in the
rebellion?
_____________________________________________________________________________
Why do you think Washington pardoned the men instead of executing them which was the
punishment for treason?
____________________________________________________________________________
Which political party do you think that participants in the Whiskey Rebellion would belong?
__________________________________________________________________________
Why? ____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Louisiana Purchase
What reasons did President Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic Republican, give as to why it was
constitutional to purchase Louisiana from France?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
What reasons did Federalists give as to why they did not approve of the Louisiana Purchase?
__________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________