) The most extreme of these suspensions, which applied throughout the entire United States, authorized the military to arrest “all persons … guilty of any disloyal practice.” Under this authority, military officers arrested and imprisoned as many as 38,000 civilians, with no judicial proceedings and no judicial review of the legality of the detentions. The Constitution allows the writ to be suspended only “when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety” requires it. (The writ of habeas corpus enables a court to decide whether an individual is being detained by the government unlawfully. In such circumstances, and in the face of widespread and often bitter opposition to the war, the draft and the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln had to balance the conflicting interests of military necessity and individual liberty.ĭuring the course of the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus on eight separate occasions. There were sharply divided loyalties, fluid military and political boundaries, easy opportunities for espionage and sabotage, and more than 600,000 combat fatalities. The Sedition Act was a critical factor in the demise of the Federalist Party, and the Supreme Court has consistently reiterated that the Sedition Act of 1798 was judged unconstitutional in the “court of history.”ĭuring the Civil War, the nation faced its most serious challenge. The new president, Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the Republican Party, pardoned all those who had been convicted under the Act, and 40 years later Congress repaid all the fines. The Sedition Act expired on the last day of Adams’ term of office. Prosecutions were brought against every major Republican newspaper and against the most vocal Republican critics of the Adams administration. The act was vigorously enforced, but only against supporters of the Republican Party. The Sedition Act effectively prohibited any criticism of the government, the Congress or the president with the intent to bring them into contempt or disrepute.
A page from the original Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (National Archives) The act accorded the noncitizen no right to a hearing, no right to present evidence and no right to judicial review. The Alien Act empowered the president to deport any noncitizen he judged to be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. President Adams, for example, declared that the Republicans “would sink the glory of our country and prostrate her liberties at the feet of France.” Against this backdrop, the Federalists enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. The Republicans fiercely opposed these measures, leading the Federalists to accuse them of disloyalty.
War of rights series#
The Federalists were then in power, and the administration of President John Adams initiated a series of defense measures that brought the United States into a state of undeclared war with France. A bitter political debate divided the Federalists, who favored the English, and the Republicans, who favored the French. In 1798, less than a decade after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the United States found itself embroiled in a European war that then raged between France and England. The fight between the USS Constellation and L’Insurgente of France (William Bainbridge Hoff/Creative Commons)