Alien and Sedition Acts, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Virginia Dynasty, Important Court Cases, Clay's American System

Alien and Sedition Acts, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Virginia Dynasty, Important Court Cases, Clay's American System

Alien and Sedition Acts:

• In 1798, the US was on the brink of war with France

•  F believed that DR criticism of F policies were disloyal and feared that aliens living in the US would sympathize with the French during a war

• As a result a F controlled Congress passed 4 laws which raised the residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years, allowed the president to deport aliens, and permit their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during wartime

• Naturalization Act - required an immigrant to live in the US for 14 years before becoming a citizen

• Alien Act - allowed the president to expel foreigners from the US if the president believes they are dangerous to the nation’s peace and safety

• Alien Enemies Act - allowed the president to imprison or expel foreigners considered dangerous in time of war or invasion

• The Sedition Act - banned citizens from saying, writing, or publishing any false, scandalous, or malicious statements about the US gov, Congress, or the pres

• Alien Acts allowed for protection against possible foreign threats but also limited immigrants who might join DR party

• Sedition Act allowed for gov protection but also allowed F to imprison DR who criticized F

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions:

• The resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799 in which both states legislatures declared the Alien and Seditions unconstitutional

• The resolutions argued that the states had a right to declare unconstitutional acts that the Constitution didn’t authorize making the claim that a state had the right to nullify federal laws it deemed unconstitutional

• This didn’t unite all these under one decision, it divided them which threatened national identity

Virginia Dynasty:

• Thomas Jefferson:

  • Jefferson reduced the scope and cost of national government

  • Jefferson kept the idea of a strong executive branch since he was president

  • “We are all Federalists and Democratic-Republicans” - Jefferson

  • Jefferson interpreted the Constitution loosely in order to create the Louisanna Purchase

  • Jefferson allowed many Federalists to hold their positions

  • Repealed Hamilton’s excise tax

  • Protected civil rights and liberties of people which promoted nationalism as it united the people

  • Kept most of Hamilton’s Plan (Bank and assumption)

  • Started to pay off national debt

  • Repealed Judiciary Act

• James Madison:

• Proclaimed Non-Intercourse Act with England and notified France about it

• Started War of 1812

• Treaty of Ghent

• Hartford Convention

• Chartered Second National Bank of the US

• Vetoes Henry Clay’s Bonus Bill for internal improvements

• Drafted Virginia Resolutions

• James Monroe:

• Convention of 1818

• Florida purchased from Spain 

• Negotiated the LP in 1803

• Signed Missouri Compromise which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and banned slavery from any future territories north of Missouri

• Cumberland road bill

• Issued Monroe Doctrine which states that north and south America were no longer open to colonization and influenced the foreign policy of the US

• Monroe strengthened foreign policy

Court Cases:

• Marbury vs Madison:

  • Adams was filling the Supreme Court with Federalists

  • Marbury was a Federalist who didn’t receive his commission before Adams left

  • Jefferson was president and told Madison to withhold commission

  • Constitutional Questions: Could the Supreme Court issue a writ of mandamus forcing Madison to show the cause of why Marbury shouldn’t receive the commission?

  • The court decided that Marbury did have a right to commission and the court couldn’t issue a rit because the provision of the act was unconstitutional

  • By asserting the power to declare acts unconstitutional, Marshall claimed the Court as the interpreter of the Constitution and created Judicial Review

• Fletcher vs Peck:

  • Fletcher bought his yazoo tract from Peck who promised that the title hadn’t been constitutionally impaired by the 1796 legislation

  • When it proved to be wrong, Fletcher sued Peck

  • Constitutional Questions: Could the contract between Fletch and Peck be invalidated by an act of the Georgia legislature?

  • The Supreme Court ruled that GA had violated the Contract Clause

  • The legislature could repeal or amend previous act but it can not undo actions that legally occurred under the other act

  • Protected property rights through a broad interpretation of Consitution’s Contract clause

  • The ruling marked the first time that a state law had been overturned by the Court 

  • Judicial review was extended to the states

• McCulloch vs Maryland:

  • MD legislators passed a law imposing a stamp tax on currency issued by the 2nd Bank of the US to try to stop business

  • McCulloch refused to pay it and the state sued him

  • Constitutional Questions: Is the 2nd Bank of the US constitutional? Could a state tax the bank? Did the Maryland law unconstitutionally interfere with congressional powers?

  • The court ruled that Congress had the power to incorporate a bank but it couldn’t be taxed by the state

  • The ruling helped establish that the Consitution has Congress powers that were implied

  • Used Elastic Clause loosely to give broad powers to the national gov

• Dartmouth vs Woodward:

  • The NH legislature tried to change Dartmouth College from a privately funded institution to a state university

  • The legislature changed the school’s charter by transferring the control of trustee appointments to the governor

  • Constitutional questions: Could NH legislature interfere with Dartmouth’s rights under the Contract Clause?

  • The Supreme Court established that NH violated the clause in an attempt to install a new board of trustees

  • The ruling established that corporations were protected from alterations by states for public reasons

  • Property rights were extended to public corporations

• Cohens vs Virginia:

  • An act of Congress allowed the operation of a lottery in the District of Columbia

  • The Cohens sold DC tickets in VA

  • VA legislatures convicted the Cohens and declared themselves the final judge of issues between gov and states

  • Constitutional questions: Did the Supreme Court have the power to review the VA court’s ruling? 

  • The Court ruled that they had jurisdiction to review state criminal proceedings and that VA’s ruling was valid

  • The ruling established that the Supreme Court could review all state criminal cases (appellate jurisdiction)

  • Article 3 section 2 

• Gibbons vs Ogden:

  • A NY state law gave Livingston and Fulton monopoly over navigation on waters within state jurisdiction

  • Ogden tried to forestall the monopoly but they succeeded

  • Ogden filed a lawsuit after Gibbons operated another steamboat on NY route which belonged to Ogden 

  • Constitutional questions: Does the Commerce Clause give Congress the power over interstate navigation?

  • The Court ruled that the regulation of navigation by steamboat operators and other purposes of conducting interstate commerce was reserved for Congress 

  • NY couldn’t interfere

  • Law was invalid due to the Supremacy Clause

  • The ruling defined the role of Congress in regulating commerce and was an important development in the interpretation of the Commerce Clause

  • Gave the national gov jurisdiction over interstate commerce

Henry Clay’s American System:

1. 2nd National Bank

• Fosters commerce

• It held funds, issued money, and the president set policies that controlled the nation’s money supply

• Establish a national guaranteed currency that would improve national and regional trading of goods and services

• People were still hesitant about giving the gov a lot of power

• Poor families were hesitant because the bank favored the wealthy

• Same constitutional issues that occurred with the first bank

2. Internal Improvements/Transport Systems

• Develops profitable markets for agriculture

• Transportation allowed a larger amount of foods to be transported more precisely at a much smaller cost, opening new businesses and markets

• Increased land values, provided jobs and decreased costs while increasing production which allowed the population to grow

• National Road:

  • The first federally funded road

  • Opened the Ohio River Valley and Midwest for settlement and commerce

  • Linked the eastern and western states and paved the way for an interstate highway system

• Bonus Bill:

  • Passed by Congress to give states 1.5 million for internal improvements but was vetoed by Madison who believed that states should pay for their own improvements

• Mayville Road:

  • Proposed building a road in Kentucky as a federal expense by vetoed by Jackson because he didn’t like Clay and thought the federal gov shouldn’t pay for internal improvements

• Tolls started to pay for internal improvements

• Erie Canal in 1825:

  • Connected Hudson River to Lake Erie

  • Funded by NY

3. Protective Tariff 

• Protect and promotes American industry

• South opposed tariffs because they claimed that the tariff unfairly favored the interests of northern manufactures as now the South would have to buy from the North instead of overpriced foreign goods

• For the same reason, the North favored it