By 1797, two prominent New England Federalists were suspicious of immigrants and fearful the newcomers would create a second revolution in America. John Adams was president, and Timothy Pickering was secretary of state. Jefferson and Madison’s party organizers recruited Irish and French immigrants into the ranks of their new party. Adams and Pickering were concerned the Irish and French immigrants would foment a second revolution in America creating anarchy. In 1798, Congress passed the Naturalization Act increasing the number of years of residence from five to fourteen before an immigrant could become a citizen and vote. The Alien Act gave Adams the ability to expel immigrants at will.[1] Jefferson dubbed it the “Reign of Terror.”
Jefferson’s allies successfully convinced the electorate that policies like the Naturalization Act and Alien Act were tyranny. Jefferson and Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Those resolutions asserted a state’s right to ignore a federal law. Jefferson was elected the next president of the United States. He immediately repealed the acts he detested.
Next: How Jefferson’s newspaper politics challenged New England’s Federalists
Look for it Monday, September 16
[1]Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, Volume 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962) 364-5.
