The Relationship Between The Alien And Sedition Act

Our government today is composed of two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. During the founding of our country, it was very similar except the names of these parties were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists respectively. During that era, our second president, John Adams decided to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts. The “alien” part of the Alien and Sedition acts made it harder for immigrants to become citizens of the United States by a noticeable margin. The act made obtaining citizenship take an extra nine years, from five years to fourteen. This act also allowed the government to deport immigrants. Furthermore, the “sedition” part of the Alien and Sedition acts prevented people, including citizens, from speaking out against the
government in any way. When this law was passed, Federalist James Madison and Anti-Federalist Thomas Jefferson stood up and tried to combat the effects of the laws. However, the Federalist James Madison seems to take a more Anti-Federalist stance on the topic.
To understand if he “changed” sides, it’s important to understand Federalist Paper #10 and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. In order to combat and seek resolution to the Alien and Sedition acts, there was a massive discussion between Federalists and Anti-Federalists. During this discussion, James Madison writes Federalist Paper #10 to communicate with the Anti-Federalists. In this paper, Madison states there are only two ways to fix the factions within the United States, “one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.” This statement means that by taking away the rights of the people, the damage that stronger factions cause can be corrected or make everyone believe in the same ideals, which is completely impractical. Because of two nearly impossible solutions, Madison offers to create a less centralized government, a republic. In these papers, Madison wants delegates who are elected by the people to be elected by a larger group of electors. This is to prevent factions from getting their special delegates into the government without the vote of more common people. To achieve this, the
proportion of voters to candidates must be increased, such that no one faction can use their power to get corrupt politicians into the government without going through other citizens. A republic on this scale will prevent the rule of a tyrannical few and also defend against a ruling mob. By granting more power to the people, Madison displays an Anti-Federalist stance against his own Federalist beliefs of a strong central government. However, in Federalist Paper #10, he also states that, “a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.” With this statement, despite his Anti-Federalist stance, Madison exhibits the mindset that he still wants a stronger central government composed of people specifically chosen for the task. Federalist ideals like these are what causes Madison to be a Federalist. Continuing on, this Federalist ideal shows that Madison is striving for a balance that can fix the broken faction politics of the United States, and not changing political viewpoints. Now, Madison takes an even more Anti-Federalist stance in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. James Madison wrote the Virginia plan to express his opinion which was that the Alien and Sedition acts were unconstitutional. James Madison believed that the states had the right to declare unconstitutional acts of congress that were not “authorized” by the Constitution. He believed that the states had the right to judge laws passed by Congress. This was the groundwork for the Judicial branch of the government. By proposing these Anti-Federalist ideas, we come to the conclusion that James Madison did change his political viewpoint for the time being to correct the United States. This can be clearly be seen in the Anti-Federalist ideas he had of giving more power to the people instead of the government.