Seditious Meetings Prevention Act A example essay topic

Intro This document is an extract from "Publius", The Federalist n^069, entitled The Real Character of the Executive and written by Alexander Hamilton on March 14th 1788, one of the 85 articles of The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison and published in New York newspapers. This particular one was published in the "New-York Packet". I will go into this later. Federalist = partisan of federalism, a political system defined by a union of states under a central government, contrary to the individual governments of separate states.

Context It was not a certain thing that the Constitution devised by the 56 men of the convention would be accepted. There were many who raised arguments against the new Constitution. To counter this, Hamilton, Madison and Jay wrote The Federalist Papers and had them published in New York. From there they went out to all the colonies. They explain not only how the new government would work, but why it was necessary and how the men who wrote it arrived at the form they did. They are an important part of our history which is sadly neglected today.

The Federalist Papers were divided in 8 parts: - The Importance of the Union (1-14) - Defects of the Articles of Confederation (15-22) - Arguments for the type of Government contained in the Constitution (23-36) - The Republican form of Government (37-51) - The Legislative Branch (52-66) - The Executive Branch (67-77) - The Judicial Branch (78-83) - Conclusions and Miscellaneous Ideas (84-85) Consequences -Six Acts Lord Liverpool and his Tory government responded to the Peterloo Massage by introducing the Six Acts. When Parliament reassembled on 23rd November, 1819, Lord Sidmouth, the government's Home Secretary, announced details of what later became known as the Six Acts. By the 30th December, 1819, Parliament had debated and passed six measures that it hoped would suppress radical newspapers and meetings as well as reducing the possibility of an armed uprising. (1) Training Prevention Act A measure which made any person attending a gathering for the purpose of training or drilling liable to arrest. People found guilty of this offence could be transport ated for seven years. (2) Seizure of Arms Act A measure that gave power to local magistrates to search any property or person for arms.

(3) Seditious Meetings Prevention Act A measure which prohibited the holding of public meetings of more than fifty people without the consent of a sheriff or magistrate. (4) The Misdemeanors Act A measure that attempted to reduce the delay in the administration of justice. (5) The Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act A measure which provided much stronger punishments, including banishment for publications judged to be blasphemous or seditious. (6) Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act A measure which subjected certain radical publications which had previously avoided stamp duty by publishing opinion and not news, to such duty. These measures were opposed by the Whigs as being a suppression of popular rights and liberties. They warned that it was unreasonable to pass national laws to deal with problems that only existed in certain areas.

The Whigs also warned that these measures would encourage radicals to become even more rebellious. -Cato street conspiracy = plot to assassinate the government ministers -Repeal of Corn Laws -Reform Act in 1832.