Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Documenting the American Promise: “The Crisis of 1798: Sedition”

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. What incident spurred the Federalists in Congress to pass the Sedition Act of 1798, which made “sedition with malicious intent” a federal crime?

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. Republican newspapers, such as Benjamin Bache’s Philadelphia Aurora, printed such extreme criticism of President Adams that, as Abigail Adams suggested, the United States might “come to a civil war.” Federalists responded to these written attacks by passing the Sedition Act of 1798, but instead of silencing the offending newspapers, the Act only amplified Republican discontent with the administration.
Incorrect. The answer is c. Republican newspapers, such as Benjamin Bache’s Philadelphia Aurora, printed such extreme criticism of President Adams that, as Abigail Adams suggested, the United States might “come to a civil war.” Federalists responded to these written attacks by passing the Sedition Act of 1798, but instead of silencing the offending newspapers, the Act only amplified Republican discontent with the administration.

Question

2. Congressman Matthew Lyon argued that President John Adams was attempting to do which of the following objectionable actions?

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. Matthew Lyon wrote that under President Adams, “every consideration of the public welfare” was being “swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, or selfish avarice.” Lyon believed that his arrest for sedition was the result of Adams’s selfish efforts to increase his own power.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Matthew Lyon wrote that under President Adams, “every consideration of the public welfare” was being “swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, or selfish avarice.” Lyon believed that his arrest for sedition was the result of Adams’s selfish efforts to increase his own power.

Question

3. The Virginia Resolution of 1798 argued that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional because these Acts

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. The Virginia Resolution stated the state’s opposition to “the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution” of the Alien and Sedition Acts because the Alien Act “exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government” and the Sedition Act gave the federal government powers “expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto.”
Incorrect. The answer is a. The Virginia Resolution stated the state’s opposition to “the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution” of the Alien and Sedition Acts because the Alien Act “exercises a power no where delegated to the federal government” and the Sedition Act gave the federal government powers “expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto.”

Question

4. Republicans likely understood the Sedition Acts to be a violation of the Constitution’s protection of the right to

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. The Sedition Act punished anyone who spoke or published “any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings” about the government, Congress, or the President. Although there were many reasons why Republicans opposed this Act, including its allocation of unconstitutional powers to the federal government, one likely important reason was its criminalization of speech.
Incorrect. The answer is d. The Sedition Act punished anyone who spoke or published “any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings” about the government, Congress, or the President. Although there were many reasons why Republicans opposed this Act, including its allocation of unconstitutional powers to the federal government, one likely important reason was its criminalization of speech.

Question

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments?

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. The sedition crisis brought to the fore conflicts between the Federalists and Republicans over how the United States should be governed, and over what kind of behavior would be tolerated (or criminalized) in the new nation, particularly because central constitutional principles like enumerated powers and freedom of speech were at stake in this crisis.
Incorrect. The answer is b. The sedition crisis brought to the fore conflicts between the Federalists and Republicans over how the United States should be governed, and over what kind of behavior would be tolerated (or criminalized) in the new nation, particularly because central constitutional principles like enumerated powers and freedom of speech were at stake in this crisis.