What was the central issue of the Alien and sedition acts?
This was actually comprised by the enactment of four Legislative Acts of 1798. The Naturalization Act (repealed in 1802). This extended the period of residency necessary for the aliens to achieve citizenship from the existing five years to fourteen years. The Alien Enemies Act gave the president executive power to expel foreigners whom he judged dangerous in time of war. Although this law was never used it did provide incentive for many Frenchmen to have a hastened departure from the United States. The Alien Act and the Sedition Act (with sunset to expire in two years) dealt with sedition as they forbade treasonable conspiracies and any published utterance ‘with the intent to defame’ the President or the government. This was invoked in about 25 cases. These are interesting if viewed within the context of the First Amendment for freedom of speech. Freedom of speech (as conceived within the United States) was in reaction (to a significant degree) to the form of freedom of speech as conce
