Alien and Sedition Acts.

Note: This is for a Master’s Degree in American History. I don’t know if I am supposed to select Thesis or Dissertation.

Working Thesis: Less than two decades after the American Revolution and a mere decade after the adoption of the United States Constitution, the Federalist Party enacted policies which both historical and contemporary critics have called anti-American and counter to the Revolutionary cause. By curtailing free speech and invoking more governmental power over the affairs of people living in the United States under the auspices of preventing foreign intervention, the Federalists used the Alien and Sedition Acts to consolidate power and diminish the influence of the Democratic-Republicans. Though President John Adams has borne much of the historical blame, the Federalists in Congress led the way in this effort, ultimately establishing themselves as the primary antagonists for the betrayal of the Revolutionary ideals, not Adams himself. Congressional Federalists, not President Adams, alienated many of their constituents with the federal overreach, and they put their party on the path to its demise, both in the 1800 elections and beyond. Ultimately, the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts by President Adams and his Federalist colleagues set a precedent and proved that the federal government would take any action necessary to maintain its power, even if it meant infringing on the rights fought for by the Revolutionary generation less than 20 years prior.