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Political theory and political ideology
Political ideology introduction
Political ideology introduction
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The Alien and Sedition acts violated the democratic principles of the american revolution. The alien act violated the first ammendment. It took away freedom of speech and freedom to petition the government. The alien act passed in 1798, and was signed by president john adams who was a federalist.. The act made it so instead of living in the united states for 5 years, you had to live in the us for 14 years before you could become a legal citizen. This to some extent restricted immigration. It made it harder for immigrants to become citizens, and because most immigrants favored republicans, making it harder for them to become a citizen would make the growth of Thomas Jefferson's party slow down. within the alien act there was an act called “The alien friends act” this act made it so that if the government though an immigrant was plotting against the government in wartime the government could deport that immigrant. The Alien Friends act violates the fist amendment. The first …show more content…
The sedition act was passed along side with the Alien Act in 1798, signed by president John Adams. The sedatino act made it illegal for anyone to say or write any “false,scandelous, or malicious writing” against congress or the president. At the time the president was John Adams, a federalist. The act never makes it illigal to writing anything bad about the vice president Thomas Jefferson, who was a republican. Both the Alien and Sedition acts target republicans. Just like the Alien act, the sedition act violates the first amendment. It takes away freedom of speech and freedom of the press. If you write anything offensive or wrong about the preident or congress, you could go to jail. This completely takes away from everything in the first ammendment. The federalists did favor loose interpretation of the constitution, but this isn’t just loose interpretation this isn’t following what it states at
In 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts were created under President John Adams due to tensions with France. The Sedition Act made it illegal for anyone to publish anything that could defame or speak badly of the United States government. The Alien and Sedition Acts were repealed after President Adams’ presidential term was over. The Espionage and Sedition Acts, created from 1914 through 1921, made it illegal to cause disloyalty in the military forces and also prohibited any opposition to the government and their decisions in war. These acts were declared unconstitutional. Both were repealed after conflicts died down. The U.S. Patriot Act, created to investigate and protect against terrorism, made it legal for the United States’ government to search the records of citizens without their
Schenek v. United States was a trial in 1919 that reaffirmed the conviction of a man for circulating antidraft leaflets among members of the armed forces. This trial upheld the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which by many deemed unconstitutional. The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law, which made it a crime for a person to convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. The Sedition Act forbade Americans to use "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during war. The act also allowed the Postmaster General to deny mail delivery to dissenters of government policy during wartime. These two laws denied the freedom of speech that our sacred Bill of Rights was supposed to uphold. The antidraft flyers that Schenek passed out claimed to be freedom of speech so the government could not stop the circulation of Schenek’s pamphlets. However, by passing out antidraft laws, Schenek had “the intent to interfere with the operation of success of the armed forces of the United States.” By doing this, he broke the law. He was sentenced to six months in prison for breaking an unconstitutional law. The government was trying to reduce the freedom of speech during a time of war so that the nation would be united as one. The opposition of some feared Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet so they took action by reducing some freedoms and imprisoning many people unconstitutionally.
One key to the first amendment of the United states constitution is the right to free speech. Freedom of speech is what separates America than other countries around the world that forbid freedom of speech rights. Freedom of speech has been in our constitution since the year 1791. When James Madison “the father of the constitution” wrote the bill of rights he saw potential and that it would make the country more freedom filled than other countries. The land of the free is what the United States is nicknamed and it 's because of our rights to express ourselves as freely as we desire.
After the Revolutionary War in America, many states recommend that free speech be put in the United States Constitution. Nevertheless, freedom of speech was written into the Bill of Rights and was ratified in 1791. A few years after the First Amendment was ratified, the government passed the Sedition Act of 1798. This was to help prevent resistance or rebellion against the government. It also made it illegal to print, write or say “any false, scandalous and malicious” things against the government.
President Jefferson work diligently with congress to change the Alien Acts to have a more relaxed naturalization for only requiring five years of residency achieve United States citizenship, instead of the previous fourteen years.
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were responses to the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 enacted by President John Adams and the Federalists who subjugated Congress at the time. The Sedition Act criminalized certain forms of speech, including “untrue” criticism of the President and Congress, and provided for fines and prison terms of up to two years. The Alien Act endorsed the deportation, during times of war or the threat of war, of resident aliens who were found by federal courts to be enemies of the United States, whether they had engaged in warfare or
I believe that these acts had revealed bitter consequences that had developed since the writing of the Constitution. The writers knew that over time it will change, but not specifically delegating powers to specific organizations; whether it is federal, state, or with the people. It had involuntarily created a major problem within the following years. Overall, the nation and government was very inexperienced, and did not know what to expect with the future. These acts had ultimately contradicted the U.S. Constitution and opened the underlying issue that was happening.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress in 1798 before America prepared for war against France. The acts increased the amount of time from 5 years to 14 years of living in America to become a citizen of the U.S. It forced the president to imprison or deport illegal aliens because of dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States” and restricted the freedom of speech against the government. These laws were passed to weaken the Democratic-Republican Party. Negative reaction happened when the people of the United States did not agree with these acts, which helped the Democratic-Republican Party win the 1800 presidential election. Only one act was repealed (The Naturalization Act) in 1802, all the rest were allowed to expire. These acts differ from the others in that the Alien and Sedition acts were really used to get people out of the country and keep them out, instead of keeping the people safe. I think the idea of these acts were reasonable in the aspect of all the illegal immigrants coming into the nation at the time. I do not agree with the
Trump's executive orders are similar to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien and Sedition acts were passed during John Adam's presidency in order to prepare for war with France. What the acts did was increase the time required for a person to have stayed in the U.S to obtain citizenship from 5 years to 14 years. It also required the person to tell their intents in the country 5 years prior to getting citizenship. Additionally, the acts prohibited anybody from publishing anything that was deemed scandalous or malicious towards the government, and that the president count deport anyone deemed unsafe to the country. These acts were aimed at making it harder for immigrants to obtain U.S citizenship, much like President Trump is doing with his
The Alien Act said that aliens, or citizens born in another country, could be banished if they were assumed to be dangerous during this time (“Alien and Sedition Acts”). There were two other acts under the Alien Act, The Naturalization Act of 1798 and the The Alien Enemies Act. The Naturalization Act extended the amount of years a person had to be in the United States from 5 years to 14 years in order to be considered a citizen. This act also made people from enemy countries to be ineligible to become a citizen (Staff). The Alien Enemies Act is similar to the Alien Act, but this act says that aliens that are presumed to be dangerous could be imprisoned or expelled from the country during a time of war (“Alien and Sedition Acts”). The Sedition Act directly targeted the U.S. citizens. The President could fine or jail anyone who said, printed, or wrote anything scandalous, false, or malicious about the federal government and Congress or the president himself (Boyer). In passing these acts, the Federalists aimed to weaken the Republicans and to attempt to protect the
The First Amendment was made to counteract censorship. Though, it is often believed that it was actually made to allow States to punish rather than to guarantee freedom of expression. To counteract this, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798. These acts made it illegal to print “False, Scandalous and Malicious writing (“Censorship, Press and Artistic”). “
When the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed, the country was not united in the decision. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people.” This act that was passed violated the principles of the Constitution. Therefore, the act could not be put into action.
These acts were, of no questions asked, surly constitutional. The Federalist Party presented these acts, later consequently passed by Congress, because they were and fair and just laws in accordance to the nation at that time. For the sake of argument, the nation and government was very inexperienced, and did not know what to expect in their near future. John Adams became the second president of the United States of America, subsequently, having to accept many challenges and responsibilities to fulfill the job in office. He had the task of making sure that the newly founded nation kept running smooth. That is a big burden if there are activities going on in the country that one has no control, nor knowledge of (i.e. foreigners coming into the nation and starting trouble by disrupting the form of government, or having radicals trying to protest and perturb the running government in office-Federalists, at this time). John Adams was smart enough to realize the significance of these factors. Thus, taking his duty of President of USA seriously, he, along with the Federalist-controlled Congress, took action to protect the new country. Hence, were the creation and passing of the four, debate-causing laws (Naturalization, Alien, Alien Enemies, and Sedition Acts).
In opposition to Hamilton?s Federalist Party, Jefferson who believed in strict interpretation of the Constitution. Jefferson anticipated that everything should be done through strict evaluation and a laws should abide by what is written. Although Jefferson was not a Federalist, he was also not an Antifederalist; he was a Democratic-Republican, a composite of the two. Jefferson vindicated that all powers not enumerated by the Constitution are obtained by the States. Issues between the two groups lead to the imperative question: should a strong central government be established or should each individual state have control? The attacks of the succeeding debate and public scurrility led to the Sedition Act. This act prohibited intermingling and conspiracy against the America government and the correspondence of scandalous and malicious writings against the government or its officials, under penalty of a fine or imprisonment. Succeeding the Sedition Act, the Republicans turned to the states arguing that federal government had strode past their powers; the powers delegated to it by the states through the Constitution. Therefore the states acquired the right to repeal the act.
government enacted the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 which led to the suppression of anti-war documents and sentiments, as well as the prosecution of over two-thousand individuals.#