Signing the Sedition Act was a reputation-ruining decision. This one act painted Adams as a man who put national security and his reputation above freedom of speech and the press.

John Adams called the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 "war measures," but to opponents, they were unconstitutional and indefensible.

On this day in 1798, the enactment of the Sedition Act made it a crime to publish “false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the government or its officials.

On this day in 1798, a Federalist-dominated Congress approved the first of four bills known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. They were signed into law by President John Adams, sparking fierce ...

Yet the real story behind the Sedition Act, which I know from my work as a John Adams and American Revolution scholar, reveals a more complicated calculus.