History of the United States I / Unit 8 USH1 1083 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What the Alien and Sedition Acts Did
The idea
In seventeen ninety-eight Congress passed measures doing three things. They extended the naturalisation period from five years to fourteen. They gave the president power to imprison or deport any foreigner believed to be dangerous. And they made it a crime to attack the government with false, scandalous or malicious statements or writings. The Alien Act was signed on July sixth and the Sedition Act on July fourteenth, and the laws expired in eighteen hundred and eighteen oh one.
In practice
A government criminalising criticism of itself, seven years after adopting the First Amendment.
Where people slip
This course teaches the Acts by what they did rather than by how many there were, and the reason is that the sources disagree. The anchor gives no count, one witness identifies two acts, and the other describes three measures without counting them. Where independent sources differ on a tally and none supports the number most reference works give, stating a number would invent a precision the evidence does not carry.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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