... Alexander Hamilton said anyone who still supported France was attacking his own country was not American and was a traitor to his county for doing so. John Adams, in an address to Congress, said that the French wanted the American people to believe that they had different ideals and principles from the representatives the people themselves chose to represent them. Federalist Thomas Sedgwick thought that by making the Alien Acts, it would be a great time to devastate the faction. Thomas Jefferson thought that the Acts were wrong because they were motivated by a misinterpretation of the XYZ affair; the Acts came a shock the Americans. Democratic-Republicans believed the Alien Acts was giving the president full reign over aliens that were allegedly "dangerous" to the American government. The Federalists wanted a war with France while the Democratic-Republicans desperately sought after peace between the two nations. Arguments arose once again as to whether Adams would go to war as most of his fellow Federalists wanted, or stay out of going to war at all costs as Washington had wisely advised to do.
A second major issue that came up because of the Alien and Sedition Acts was about how much power the central government had and how much it should have had. The Democratic-Republicans wanted a weak central government because they were made up of mostly lower class anti-federalists. They wanted the states' to retain most of the power, while the Federalists, being of the upper class, wanted a strong, powerful central government where the people had little say and everything was in the government's control. Federalists believed that having the "common" people involved would just mess things up. The Alien Acts gave to president too much power because he by himself should not have the power to make laws. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Phillip Mazzei in Italy, stated that the magnificent republican government that had held the states together had vanished and in its place came an Anglican condescending party. That the Democratic-Republicans were going against two branches of the government (the executive and judiciary). Democratic-Republicans feared having their newly gained right from the Bill of Rights taken away by an all-powerful government or an oppressive president. They had just fought a war to free themselves from Britain; to free themselves of a government where it controlled the people. ...
