Part I sets the stage for the Alien and Sedition Act crisis by tracing the young republic’s first decade: the new Constitution and Bill of Rights, Washington’s cabinet, and the birth of political parties as Hamilton and Jefferson clash over finance and federal power. As the French, Haitian, and Irish revolutions convulse the Atlantic world and Britain responds with crackdowns on dissent, refugees flood into the United States, polarization hardens, and foreign policy flashpoints like the Jay Treaty, Citizen Genet, and the XYZ Affair push America toward the Quasi-War with France.