top of page
Logo _ bfac84.png

The Alien and Sedition Acts

  • Lucy Kaplan
  • Jun 22
  • 6 min read

What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?

Although commonly put together as one thing, the Alien and Sedition Acts were actually four separate bills from John Adams’s presidential administration in 1798. They were created to “crush sedition, opposition, make it harder for immigrants to become citizens and make it easier for the president to deport people from the country” (Wittes et al.).


The Naturalization Act, one of these four acts, made it more difficult for immigrants to become American citizens by changing the amount of time immigrants needed to wait for citizenship from five to fourteen years. This act was primarily supported by the Federalist party, since immigrants tended to vote Democratic-Republican, the other major party at the time. There was also some sense to it beyond party bias, however, which was that the tension between France and America was rapidly growing, and several French people immigrants coming to America were trying to incite distrust in the federal government. For example, Edmond Charles Genêt, the French minister to the United States, who “authorized… seiz[ing] British merchant ships and their cargo for personal profit” (“The Citizen Genêt Affair, 1793–1794”) without the United States federal government’s permission. This political tension with France created two more acts: The Alien Enemies Act and The Alien Friends Act.


The Alien Enemies Act guarantees that in times of warfare, the president may deport anyone from the warring country with due process (Chervinsky and Nichols). This Act is the only one of the Alien and Sedition Acts to still exist today, since the other three all ended with Adams’s presidency in 1801. The Alien Friends Act is much more extreme than the Alien Enemies Act, and basically guaranteed the president the ability to deport whoever they wanted at any time, no due process necessary. However, although John Adams approved all of the Alien and Sedition acts, he never used this particular act since he felt it was “too extreme” (Inskeep and Chervinsky).


Finally, the Sedition Act was designed to ban “the publishing of false or malicious writings against the government and the inciting of opposition to any act of Congress or the president”. The context to this act is extremely important. For one thing, there were no rules on free speech yet. Nowadays, we cannot do certain things under the First Amendment, such as yell fire in a crowded theater (Chervinsky and Nichols), but no such regulations existed at the time. Although Adams did not ask for the Sedition Bill, he did sign it mostly because he was “worried that speech would be used to invoke or inflict violence. And newspapers were outwardly encouraging violence with success” (Inskeep and Chervinsky). Despite Adams’s good intentions, however, there were a lot of political concerns that came with the Sedition Act. For example, it was clearly biased in favor of the Federalist Party and against the Democratic-Republicans. This act also sealed Adams’s reputation as a monarchist, despite him being previously known as “the Atlas of Independence”.


John and Abigail Adams


John Adams was born in Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts on October 30th, 1735. He went to Harvard and became a lawyer. In 1764, he made what many historians consider to be his best decision: marrying Abigail Smith of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Over the course of two years of courting and fifty four years of marriage, Adams and his wife exchanged over twelve hundred letters in which they discuss everything from childrearing to farming to politics to health. Through these letters, modern readers are able to see a detailed, firsthand view into topics such as The Boston Massacre (where Adams defended the British soldiers), the Declaration of Independence (in which Adams was a key player), and, of course, the Alien and Sedition Acts.


Abigail Adams was a notable supporter of them, especially the Sedition Act. She likely supported the bill for many reasons similar to the Arch Federalists– the more extreme branch of the Federalist Party– that created it, such as fear of violence, which directly impacted her safety as well as the safety of her family. However, she had a bias, which was that personally, she liked John Adams quite a lot– Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky calls their relationship one of “history’s greatest love stories” (Chervinsky 9), and she was clearly very protective of him. The intense criticism of his demeanor and decisions likely felt like a personal attack. Despite Abigail’s support of the Alien and Sedition Acts, John Adams was not so supportive. However, he did sign them, and they became the dark mark of not only his presidency, but his thirty year political career as well.


Political Turmoil


The Alien and Sedition Acts were also created at a time with extreme tension in the capital. The lines between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans were strong, and there was intense infighting in the parties as well. John Adams was often at the center– despite being a Federalist in theory, he believed that the president should be above political parties, which bothered more devoted members of his party such as Timothy Pickering and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton in particular found issue with this since he wanted a president that he could control easily, making Adams too independent for Hamilton’s liking. Beyond parties, there was also the issue of France. The French felt betrayed by America not following the Treaty of Alliance they had signed with France in 1778. They retaliated by seizing over 300 American ships (“Quasi-War with France (1798-1801)”). Adams’s vice president, Thomas Jefferson, was an avid supporter of the French cause and thoroughly against war. Many of the Federalists were pro-war, since they saw France’s disregard for American rules as a demand for war. However, with decades of ambassadorial experience abroad, Adams knew it was not in the United States’ best interest to go to war– they were still struggling economically, and could not handle the cost of weapons and medical care, and could not afford the loss of young life so early on in its founding. Importantly, war was not in France’s best interest either. France was already embroiled in conflict with England, as well as recovering (poorly) from the French Revolution. Getting caught in another full-blown war was a security and economic risk they could not take.


The Quasi-War


At almost the exact same time as the Alien and Sedition Acts were signed, the Quasi-War with France began. For over two years afterwards, France and the United States engaged in an unofficial naval war, mostly in the West Indies (“Quasi-War with France (1798-1801)”). John Adams had been fighting for a national navy for years at that point, and although still attempting to reach peace with France, he was happy to appoint his friend Benjamin Stoddert as the new Secretary of the Navy. Adams finally secured peace with France in the last few months of his presidency, and considered it one of his proudest accomplishments.


Conclusion


All of the Alien and Sedition Acts, excepting the Alien Enemies Act, expired with John Adams’s presidency on March 4th, 1801. In the span of a single presidential term, Adams had been a part of one of the greatest presidential moments– securing peace with France– and one of the lowest, as noted above. Now, his decisions are becoming more and more relevant to current events. President Donald Trump has attempted to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Hispanic immigrants (Santos). However, he cannot do that under the Alien Enemies Act, since it requires both due process for every single person he would want to deport, as well as an official declaration of war. Regardless, now that the Alien and Sedition Acts have re-entered the political discussion, it is more important than ever to know where they originated and why.




Works Cited

Chervinsky, Lindsay M., and Tom Nichols. “Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky in Conversation with Tom Nichols: Making the Presidency.” YouTube, 6 September 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1F90YH-x1A.

“The Citizen Genêt Affair, 1793–1794.” Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/citizen-genet.

Inskeep, Steve, and Lindsay M. Chervinsky. “What can we learn from the bitter and divisive term of the 2nd U.S. president?” NPR, 16 September 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/nx-s1-5104174/what-can-we-learn-from-the-bitter-and-divisive-term-of-the-2nd-u-s-president.

Santos, Sofia Ferreira. “What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?” BBC, 13 May 2025, https://www.npr.org/2024/10/19/nx-s1-5156027/alien-enemies-act-1798-trump-immigration. Accessed 21 October 2024.

Wittes, Benjamin, et al. “Lawfare Daily: Lindsay Chervinsky on ‘Making the Presidency.’” Lawfare, 23 September 2024, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawfare-daily--lindsay-chervinsky-on--making-the-presidency.

 
 
bottom of page