Kent State Massacre

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for eligibility for naturalization from five years to fourteen years. It also gave the President the power to expel any alien from the country. The Sedition Act was even harsher; it gave the government the right to arrest anyone accused of seditious activities. The Sedition Act thus cracked down on many Jeffersonian newspapers which criticized the government. Of course, Jefferson criticized these Acts; he even called them “worthy of the 8th and 9th century” (2 / p.174). With these laws the Federalists were thought to be stifling the power of the Jeffersonians.
Through the Alien and Sedition Acts, those in support of a stronger federal government achieved a major victory. The Acts gave new powers which were not dictated in the Constitution to both the executive and legislative branches. The Federalists were able to pass these acts with their logic based upon loose translations of the Constitution, especially the “elastic clause.” In peacetime, these Acts would not have had a ...

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was especially angry at the Sedition Act; it denied the one principle which Jefferson held most sacred: knowledge and freedom of inquiry (2 / p.180). Without these two freedoms, the federal government could easily become tyrannical. The Sedition Act repressed freedom of speech and press; these two freedoms were obviously essential to the survival of inquiry and criticism. Jefferson with Madison thus set out soon after the passing of the Alien and Sedition Acts to pen the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
As said before, Jefferson and Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as rebuffs to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Resolutions stated several new theories in the ...

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