The Alien and Sedition Acts

During the American Revolution, the colonists had received military and financial support from France, a traditional foe of the British. However, by 1798, U.S. relations with France had taken a turn for the worse, and the threat of war loomed. At the time, the Federalist Party, led by President John Adams, was in power. The Federalists were afraid that, should war break out, aliens living in the U.S. would side with France. Consequently, the Federalist-dominated Congress passed a series of laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Under the two Alien Acts, the president was empowered to deport "all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States," and to arrest and deport any citizens of a foreign country at war with the United States.

However, no alien was ever arrested or deported while the Alien Acts were in effect. Instead, the real targets of these laws were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, who were openly critical of Federalist policies. Under the Sedition Act, it was illegal for American citizens to print, utter, or publish "any false, scandalous, and malicious writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress...or the President The Federalists used the Sedition Act to suppress political opposition; a handful of legislators and approximately two dozen newspaper editors, all Democratic-Republicans, were arrested for sedition.

The use of the Sedition Act to prosecute critics of Federalist policies proved to be highly controversial and generated considerable public outcry. The legislatures of both Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions, authored respectively by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, protesting the Sedition Act for violating rights protected by the First Amendment.

Ultimately, the Federalist tactics backfired during the presidential election of 1800, which had resulted in an electoral college tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Democratic-Republicans

(Adams, the Federalist candidate, had come in third.) Under Article II of the Constitution, in the event of an electoral college tie, the winner of the election is to be decided by a vote in the House of Representatives, which was still under Federalist control. After 36 ballots, Jefferson won this contest by one vote, with the deciding vote cast by Matthew Lyon, a Vermont Representative who was the first to be prosecuted under the Sedition Act. Lyon had run for re-election while in prison and had won by a two-to-one margin.

The Sedition Act expired on the last day of Adams' presidency, and not surprisingly, Jefferson did not push for its renewal. Indeed, Jefferson pardoned all of those who had been convicted of sedition, and the new Congress, now controlled by Democratic-Republicans, voted to refund all of the fines levied under the Act, with interest.