Alien and Sedition Acts and Kentucky Resolves

​The Alien and Sedition acts were 4 bills passed in 1798 by the federalist in the 5th United States congress. The acts that were signed were proposed to protects the United States from alien citizens of enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from weakening the government. The sedition act made it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish any false scandalous and malicious writing" about the government (although it went against freedom of speech). The alien and sedition acts provoked the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions and did much to unify the Republican Party and to foster Republican victory in the election of 1800. The Kentucky and Virginia resolutions(or resolves) were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799; in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal alien and sedition acts were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that they had a right to declare unconstitutional acts of Congress that weren't authorized by Congress. There were arguments for state rights and Constitutionalism.

​As a Republican, I don't support the alien and sedition act. It is an attack on the first amendment which is freedom of speech. I find it unconstitutional and of course a violation towards the first amendment. However the federalist in 1798, controlled congress passed a series of laws which were intended to control activities of foreigners in the United States during a time of impending war. The real intent of these laws were to destroy Jeffersonian government ideas. The laws known as alien and sedition act included: Naturalization act, Alien act, Alien Enemies act, and Sedition act. As for the Kentucky and Virginia resolves, as a Republican I viewed it as a good thing considering that it viewed the Alien and Sedition were unconstitutional. This was a document secretly written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson expressing the opposition they felt. The acts were a good proposal because as a Republican the alien and sedition acts were not good and following the Kentucky and Virginia resolves it was a way for Republicans putting their foot down and saying that states had a right and duty to declare unconstitutional acts of congress that weren't authorized by the Constitution.