Alexander Washington's Neutrality Of The American Party

“Let me…warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful [evil] effects of the spirit of party…It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration, It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments [stirs up]…riot and insurrection [rebellion]” Washington spoke during his Farwell Address when he stepped down. He speaks of the disadvantages of political parties. But no matter what he tried to do, the political parties formed anyway. These parties formed from major issues of the time, such as back when Washington declared Neutrality, Alexander Hamilton’s plan to cure the country from an immense amount of debt, and even later …show more content…
Britain and France were at war, both sides were looking for allies, Britain was America’s biggest trading partner, but the French helped the Americans in the war, the problem was clear, whose side should the United States take, or if they should even take sides at all? Washington ended up proclaiming neutral to the war, and it was extremely controversial to the people in the nation. The two “political parties”, The Federalists and the Democratic Republicans took sides to the publication. The Democratic Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, were completely against the decision. They thought that the nation owed a debt to France because they helped the United States for their help in the Revolution. The Democratic Republicans also had a very strict interpretation of the Constitution and they argued that the President did not have the right to declare neutrality, only Congress can declare war between countries. Also by supporting France, Britain may not be the lead trading partner to America, which in turn, can make the nation more self-sufficient. On the contrary the Federalists, supported by their leader Alexander Hamilton, were for neutrality. Their reasoning was that they thought that France only helped the U.S for their own selfish reasons, since they only helped to hurt Britain, there is no debt to repay. The Federalists also made a point to mention the defense alliance with …show more content…
During his presidency, he decided to pass an act, the alien and Sedition acts. At this point in time France and the United States of America were not friends. In fact, there was a big concern that the French were going to infiltrate the country and get people to stand against Britain. The Alien and Sedition acts lengthened the period of time where an immigrant can become a U.S citizen from five years to fourteen years, thus making the infiltration of French immigrants a lot more difficult. These acts also gave the president the power to deport any foreigner he believed to be dangerous to the U.S. The sedition part of the acts was to eliminate the amount of extreme satire and any article or really any piece of writing that goes against the government. This sparked a huge outrage with the Democratic Republicans, they thought that the Sedition acts were unconstitutional because it directly against the First Amendment. The Federalists argued that the acts were only applicable to immigrants not citizens, so by a technicality, it was Constitutional, and not only that, the Federalists made the point to mention that there are limits to the First Amendment, as national security is more important than the amendment. The Republicans also thought the Alien acts were unconstitutional because it was never written in the Constitution that the president can deport immigrants. But the