Digital Resources

The Library of Congress website contains a variety of digital materials related to the Alien and Sedition Acts, including manuscripts, government documents, printed ephemera, and newspaper articles.

Congressional Publications

Congress.gov
This collection contains congressional publications including debates, bills, laws, and journals. Search this collection in the 5th Congress, 2nd Session, to find congressional information related to the Alien and Sedition Acts, including House and Senate debate in the Annals of the Congress.

The full-text of the Alien and Sedition Acts can be found in the United States Statutes at Large:

Elliot's Debates contains a section on the response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, including the text of the Virginia Resolution and the Kentucky Resolutions.

Exhibitions

Creating the United States
This online exhibition offers insights into how the nation’s founding documents were forged and the role that imagination and vision played in the unprecedented creative act of forming a self–governing country.

Selected highlights from this exhibition:

Historic Newspapers

Chronicling America
Historic American newspapers selected and contributed by state partners in the National Digital Newspaper Program.

A selection of articles includes:

Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia daily advertiser. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), Oct. 20, 1798.
Matthew Lyon was sentenced to four-months imprisonment for violating the Sedition Act.
Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia daily advertiser. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), April 21, 1800.
Thomas Cooper was found guilty of violating the Sedition Act after he published a broadside criticizing President John Adams.

James Madison Papers

James Madison Papers, 1723 to 1859
The Madison Papers consist of approximately 12,000 items, spanning the period 1723-1859, captured in some 72,000 digital images.

Selected highlights from this collection:

James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, May 20, 1798. With Notes.
"The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, November 17, 1799. With Kentucky Resolutions.
Thomas Jefferson sent Madison a draft of the Kentucky Resolution, which was subsequently issued by the Kentucky Legislature in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. [Transcription]

Printed Ephemera

Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history.

Selected highlights related to the Alien and Sedition Acts include:

Rare Book Selections

Rare Book Selections
The collections housed in The Rare Book and Special Collections Division amount to nearly 800,000 books, encompassing nearly all eras and subjects maintained in well over 100 separate collections.

Selected highlight from this collection:

Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827
The papers of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), diplomat, architect, scientist, and third president of the United States, held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, consist of approximately 27,000 items.