Question

Why and how government limited civil liberties in 1798?

Answer 1

Civil liberties protect us from government power. They are rooted in the Bill of Rights, which limits the powers of the federal government. The government cannot take away the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights, and any action that encroaches on these liberties is illegal.

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. A bitter political debate divided the Federalists, who favored the English, and the Republicans, who favored the French. 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.

The Republicans fiercely opposed these measures, leading the Federalists to accuse them of disloyalty.  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 Alien Act empowered the president to deport any noncitizen he judged to be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. The act accorded the noncitizen no right to a hearing, no right to present evidence and no right to judicial review.

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