WWR likes history, writes history books and gives history talks because the past so often tells us much about the present. Case in point: the Alien and Sedition Acts, the first of which was passed on this day in 1798 /1
The Alien & Sedition Acts (which sparked a fierce backlash against Pres. John Adams) put front and center the issues of free speech and the balance of power between states and the federal govt. Adams and the Federalist-run Congress signed off on four key pieces of legislation: /2
1. The Naturalization Act: said anyone wanting to become an American citizen had to be a resident for 14 years (it had been five years)
2. The Alien Act: authorized the president to deport any alien considered dangerous to national security /3
2. The Alien Act: authorized the president to deport any alien considered dangerous to national security /3
3. The Alien Enemies Act: allowed the president to deport aliens of an enemy country or restrict their freedom in wartime.
4. The Sedition Act: targeted Americans themselves—by outlawing opposition to federal laws, and by making it illegal to publish criticism of the govt. /4
4. The Sedition Act: targeted Americans themselves—by outlawing opposition to federal laws, and by making it illegal to publish criticism of the govt. /4
The Alien & Sedition Acts were passed in the wake of the French Revolution. Adams and his Federalist allies feared similar unrest here - and sought to strengthen the federal government's powers. /5 
But political opponents—namely the Democratic-Republican party and its most prominent leader Thomas Jefferson (who happened to be Adams’s Vice President)—thought the opposite: that the people were best served by a government with minimal power /6
Domestic opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts wound up costing Adams the presidency. In one of the nastiest campaigns in American history (nastier than our current era), he lost to Jefferson in the presidential election of 1800
On This Day. 1812: James Madison signed a Congressional declaration of war against Great Britain—and the War of 1812 was on. Often called America's "second war of independence," the war would see the White House and Capitol destroyed by British troops before the U.S. prevailed
Among the reasons the U.S. went to war: Britain had been seizing American sailors and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy, was conducting illegal blockades, and renewing Indian warfare in the northwest. Madison decided that enough was enough
On This Day. 1972: This story in the Washington Post described the arrest, the night before, of five men who broke into Democratic Natl. Committee hq in Washington's Watergate building. Not sure what happened after that
On This Day. 1979: Jimmy Carter signed a nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union. The second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) was never ratified by the Senate, but both Washington and Moscow voluntarily complied with its terms
