Primary Documents in American History

Alien and Sedition Acts

John Adams, second President of the United States. lithograph. [1828(?)] Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-13002

Signed into law by President John Adams in 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress as America prepared for war with France. These acts increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years, authorized the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" and restricted speech critical of the government. These laws were designed to silence and weaken the Democratic-Republican Party. Negative reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts helped contribute to the Democratic-Republican victory in the 1800 elections. Congress repealed the Naturalization Act in 1802, while the other acts were allowed to expire.

Library of Congress Web Site | External Web Sites | Selected Bibliography

Digital Collections

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875

This collection contains congressional publications from 1774 to 1875, including debates, bills, laws, and journals.

The full-text of the Alien and Sedition Acts can be found in the United States Statutes at Large:

• An Act to Establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization (Naturalization Act)
• An Act Concerning Aliens
• An Act Respecting Alien Enemies
• An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States (Sedition Act)

Elliot's Debates contains a section on the response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, including the text of the Virginia Resolution, responses to the Virginia Resolution from other states, the Kentucky Resolution, and James Madison's report on the Virginia Resolution.

Search this collection on the words "alien sedition" for additional Congressional information on the Alien and Sedition Acts, including debate in the Annals of Congress.

James Madison Papers, 1723 to 1859

The Madison Papers consist of approximately 12,000 items, spanning the period 1723-1859, captured in some 72,000 digital images.

• James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, May 20, 1798. With Notes, The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents. [Transcription]

Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history.

A selection of items related to the Alien and Sedition Acts includes:

• The awful crisis which has arrived must be felt by us all, however, we may differ as to the causes which have produced it, or the measures which may avert its calamity ... [Richmond, Printed by T. Nicolson, 1799].
• The Committee to whom was referred the bill" to define more particularly the crime of treason, and to define and punish the crime of sedition, [are of opinion, that the said bill ought to pass, with the following amendment.
• Fifth congress of the United States: at the second session, begun and held at the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, on Monday, the thirteenth of November, one thousand, seven hundred and -seven. An act concerning aliens.
• In the House of representatives. November 29. 1799. Resolved, that 150 copies of the Governor's message No. 2, with the papers accompanying the same be printed. for the use of the Legislature...
• Legislature of Kentucky. House of Representatives. Wednesday Nov. 7, 1798. Mr. Brackenridge gave notice that he would on tomorrow move the house to go into Committee of the whole on the state of the commonwealth...
• Legislature of Kentucky. In the House of representatives November 10th, 1798. The House according to the standing order of the day, resolved itself into a committee of the whole on the state of the Commonwealth ...
• To the Senate and Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled. It is equally foreign from our wishes and intentions to criminate the motives of the national legislatures ... [Regarding the alien and sedition laws.]
• To the Senate and House of representatives of the United States. We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being citizens of the county of Albermarle in the state of Virginia, are urged by consideration which we cannot resist to remonstrate as follows [A protest against the alien and sedition acts] [Virginia 1798].
• Virginia to wit. In the House of Delegates Friday, December 21st, 1798. Resolved that the General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the constitution of the United States...

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827

The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents.

• The Kentucky Resolution was secretly authored by Thomas Jefferson in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Along with the Virginia Resolution, which was written by James Madison, the Kentucky Resolution argued that state legislatures had the right to nullify Federal statutes.

Search Jefferson's Papers for additional documents related to the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Exhibitions

Creating the United States

This online exhibition offers insights into how the nation’s founding documents were forged and the role that imagination and vision played in the unprecedented creative act of forming a self–governing country.

• Congressman Declares Acts Unconstitutional
• Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts - Petition, Albemarle County, Virginia
• Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts - Petition, Poughkeepsie, New York
• Right of States to Judge Constitutionality of Federal Laws
• Vindication of the Constitutionality of Alien and Sedition Laws
• Virginia Resolutions Oppose Alien and Sedition Laws

External Web Sites

The Alien and Sedition Acts, Avalon Project at Yale Law School 

Teaching with Documents: United States v. Thomas Cooper - A Violation of the Sedition Law, National Archives and Records Administration

Our Documents, Alien and Sedition Acts, National Archives and Records Administration

The Sedition Act Trials, Federal Judicial Center

Treasures of Congress - The Formation of Political Parties: The Alien and Sedition Acts, National Archives and Records Administration

Selected Bibliography

Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, Penned by Madison and Jefferson, in Relation to the Alien and Sedition Laws; and the Debates and Proceedings in the House of Delegates of Virginia, on the Same, in December, 1798. Richmond: R.I. Smith, 1835. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

The Virginia Report of 1799-1800, Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and Several Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions. Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1850. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Bird, Wendell R. Press and Speech Under Assault: The Early Supreme Court Justices and the Sedition Act of 1798, and the Campaign Against Dissent. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. [Catalog Record]

Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. [Catalog Record]

Halperin, Terri Diane. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: When a Congressional Majority Assaulted Immigrants and Civil Liberties. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016. [Catalog Record]

Miller, John Chester. Crisis in Freedom: The Alien and Sedition Acts. Boston: Little Brown, 1951. [Catalog Record]

Slack, Charles. Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015. [Catalog Record]

Smith, James Morton. Freedom's Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1956. [Catalog Record]

Watkins, William J., Jr. Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. [Catalog Record]