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Alien and Sedition Acts • On your own, SILENTLY look at the three pictures and notate them as follows: • ! “reminds me of…” • ? “a question I have …” • * “an Ah-ha moment, or something interesting about the image is…” • With your partner, discuss your annotations. • Then, together write a summary statement of how this cartoon relates to the Alien and Sedition Acts. http://b1969d.medialib.glogster.com/media/8f36eeb83766a5f6047b82cfdb0e2b0c377d000ec198aab5deecb96deec3e660/sedition.jpg John Adams wins the election of 1796. • Thomas Jefferson becomes the Vice President. • The United States now has a Federalist President and a Republican Vice President. • The U.S. was in the middle of a dispute with France when Adams takes office. • President Adams would send diplomats to Paris to try to resolve the dispute. France was attacking U.S. shipping in route to England. Charles Pinkney, John Marshall, and Eldridge Gerry were U.S. Diplomats to France. 3 French envoys known as (X,Y, and Z) demanded a bribe of $250,000 to enter negotiations. The U.S. refused. The French government was corrupt and attacking U.S. merchants. The U.S. wanted war. 1797 - The XYZ Affair • In 1798 the United States stood on the brink of war with Alien and France. The Federalists believed that Democratic- Sedition Republican criticism of Federalist policies was disloyal Acts (1798) and feared that aliens (immigrants from France) living in the United States would sympathize with the French during a war. As a result, a Federalist-controlled Congress passed four laws, known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws raised the residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years, authorized the President to deport aliens, and permitted their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during wartime. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens Alien and to "print, utter, or publish . any false, scandalous, Sedition Acts and malicious writing" about the Government. (1798) The laws were directed against Democratic- Republicans, the party typically favored by immigrants and new citizens, and the only Democratic-Republican newspapers were prosecuted. Sedition Act trials set off a firestorm of criticism against the Federalists and contributed to their defeat in the election of 1800, The first act of tyranny against citizen’s rights occurred under only our second President. 1798 Alien and Kentucky and Sedition Acts Lead to Virginia Resolutions • The Alien and Sedition Acts violated the Constitution. Can not use government to keep your political party in power. • Thomas Jefferson and James Madison went to their home states of Kentucky and Virginia to write resolutions banning/barring the Alien and Sedition Acts. • They used States Rights under the 10th Amendment to advise states had the right to “check” the federal government if it violated the US Constitution. • These Resolutions would Nullify or void Federal Legislation John Adams and the Midnight Appointments • In the Election of 1800, not only did Thomas Jefferson win the Presidency (Adams negotiates a peace treaty with France when Country cheering for war), the Democratic-Republicans also won the majority of Congress seats. This would allow Jefferson to undo any and all Federalist programs. • Between the Election of 1800 and Thomas Jefferson taking office, John Adams and the Federalist Congress created the Judiciary Act of 1801. This is also unconstitutional! • In the remaining month as President, John Adams appointed as many Federalists to new positions as he could, including John Marshall to the Supreme Court as the new Chief Justice..
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