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In spite of the fact that the majority of the people were known to be in favor of the enforcement of laws for the preservation of order, in spite of the fact that the country was enthusiastically supporting the government and had declared its readiness to defend itself to the last extremity, the Federalists stained the statute books of the Union with some of the most outrageous laws ever placed thereon. As a result of the French dispute, the Republican party in Congress had now lost considerable ground, and some of the members had retired from active duty, biding the time when the tide of public opinion should change. On April 26, 1798, Jefferson wrote to Madison, saying:

"In this state of things, they [the Federalists] will carry what they please. One of the war party, in a fit of unguarded passion, declared some time ago they would pass a citizen bill, an alien bill, & a sedition bill; accordingly, some days ago, Coit laid a motion on the table of the H[ouse] of R[epresentatives] for modifying the citizen law. Their threats pointed at Gallatin, & it is believed they will endeavor to reach him by this bill. Yesterday, Mr. Millhouse laid on the table of the Senate a motion for giving power to send away suspected aliens. This is understood to be meant for Volney & Collot. But it will not stop there when it goes into a course of execution. There is now only wanting, to accomplish the whole declaration before mentioned, a sedition bill, which we shall certainly see proposed. The object of that, is the suppression of the whig presses. Bache's has been particularly named. That paper & also Carey's totter for want of subscriptions. We should really exert ourselves to procure them, for if these papers fall, republicanism will be entirely brow-beaten." *

* Ford's ed. of Jefferson's Writings, vol. vii., pp. 244-245. In reply, May 5, Madison said: "It is to be hoped, however, that any arbitrary attacks on the freedom of the press will find virtue

*

The fears of Jefferson were realized on June 26, 1798, when James Lloyd, of Maryland, presented a bill in the Senate to define and punish the crime of sedition and also to define the exact meaning of the word treason. One section declared every Frenchman to be an enemy to the United States, and that to aid or comfort him was treason, which should be punished with death; a second defined misprision of treason;† a third defined the punishment to be inflicted upon those who conspire against the laws of the United States; and a fourth provided that punishment or fine should be inflicted upon those who, in speech or in print, upheld France or defamed the government of the United States.1 The Senate. however, struck out the first and second sections, but passed the third and fourth with amendments, sending them to the House on July 4. The latter body then dropped the fourth section and substituted a new one, and, after fixing March, 1801, as the date when the act should expire and providing that truth might be admit

enough remaining in the public mind to make them recoil on the wicked authors."- Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. ii., p. 139.

Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, 2d session, vol. i., pp. 589–590.

The knowledge and concealment of treason without any degree of assent to it.

The most objectionable features of this bill so alarmed Hamilton that on June 29, 1798, he wrote to Wolcott: "Let us not establish a tyranny; energy is a very different thing from violence."- Hamilton's Works, vol. vi., p. 307; Gibbs, Memoir of Wolcott, vol. ii., p. 68.

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port of their accusations, they published statements by John Kidder, William Lee, and Samuel M. Hopkins, by whom various letters had been brought from France to the United States. Kidder said that he had dropped a packet given him by Lee and consigned to Bache in the post-office at New York. Lee said he knew nothing of the contents of the package addressed to Bache, but that the others bearing the French seal had been turned over to the government. Bache then issued a statement that the French letter had been given him by a resident of Philadelphia and that he had not yet received the package from France. Three days later a messenger from the office of the Secretary of State delivered the package to Bache, which, on being

but a couple of French pamphlets.

Bache was very indignant and reckless of speech in giving his version of the affair and the Federalist attack upon him. He charged that Oliver Wolcott had gone to New York to seize the package, and, if it contained damaging evidence, to confiscate it, but if not, to make away with it and say that it had been lost. Meanwhile Bache was to be charged with being a hired agent of France. But the plans of the government were frustrated by the statements of Kidder and Lee, the latter declaring that the letters had been given to the government. The secretaries were thus made answerable and the packets were produced. Bache then characterized his traducers as creatures of the Executive and subject to his will.* He was immediately arrested on a charge of libelling the President, Congress, and the Secretary of State, and on the same day, June 26, Lloyd introduced his bill entitled "An act, in addition to the Act entitled 'An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States.'' This was known as the Sedition Law.

Meanwhile two other acts had been passed which were somewhat obscured by the Sedition Law. On April 17, 1798, Coit of Connecticut introduced in the House a resolution to

vol. ii., pp. 389-390; Schouler, United States, vol. i., pp. 407-408.

McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 390-393.

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on

expediency of suspending or amending the existing naturalization law.* On May 15, this committee reported three resolutions, one of which favored the imposition of a longer term of residence on an alien before he could be naturalized. The first two resolutions were agreed to and referred to a committee, which on May 15 introduced a bill to amend the naturalization law.|| This bill was finally passed on May 22§ and sent to the Senate, where an amended bill was reported by a committee June 8. The bill was agreed to on the 11th, and, after further amendment, was passed on the 12th by a vote of 13 to 8. The House agreed to the Senate's amendment on the 13th, and on the 18th the act was approved.¶ This act amended the naturalization laws by requiring a residence of fourteen years in order to become a citizen, and that foreigners seeking naturalization should declare their intentions five years prior to obtaining papers. Alien enemies were debarred from becoming citi

Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, 2d session, vol. ii., pp. 1427, 1454.

† Annals, pp. 1566-1567.

For the debate, see Annals, pp. 1567-1582; Benton, Abridgment, vol. ii., 253-261.

Annals, p. 1707.

§ See Annals, pp. 1776-1783; Benton, Abridg ment, pp. 276-280.

For text of the Naturalization Act of June 18, see United States Statutes-at-Large, vol. i., pp. 566-569; MacDonald, Select Documents, pp. 138141. For the most important sections, see Appendix I. at the end of the present chapter. The act was repealed by the act of April 14, 1802 (Statutes-at-Large, vol. ii., pp. 153-155).

zens. Had there been some constitutional means of driving the obstructive Gallatin out of public life, the Federalists would gladly have seized upon it; for, said Harper," It is high time for us to recover from the mistake with which we set out under the Constitution of admitting foreigners to citizenship; for nothing but birth should entitle a man to citizenship, and we ought so to declare it." Otis then introduced a resolution that no alien-born should thereafter hold office under the government, unless a citizen of the United States. But as the Constitution itself placed limitations upon office-holding, the majority was content to impose a long term of probation for citizenship, adding to which would be seven to nine years necessary before an alien-born could become eligible for Congress.*

The second act (introduced in the Senate by Hillhouse, of Connecticut) was an "Act concerning Aliens," known as the Alien Act, which passed the Senate June 8 by a vote of 16 to 7 and was taken up by the House on June 19. The Federalists believed that the French employed agents in this country to divide the American people and that, unless the President were given the right to deport these aliens, their success was far from impossible. To little purpose did Gal latin tell the Federalists that, since the Whiskey Rebellion, the people had cheerfully submitted to the laws and that attachment to the Constitu

Schouler, United States, vol. i., pp. 404–405.

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copying of the forms of kingly despotism; and an incontestable proof of design to assimilate our government to that of England, and eventually to arrive at monarchy."* The Repub

licans insisted that the power possessed by the President under these acts not only could be exercised to the injury of native citizens, but was intended to be used in that manner, notwithstanding the limitations of the acts to aliens.

The Sedition Law was then taken up and rapidly pushed forward. In the Senate, where Federalism was rampant, it passed on July 4 by a vote of 18 to 6. As originally introduced, the first section declared that the French people were enemies to the United States, and that adherence to them, or giving them aid and comfort, was punishable with death. Anyone who in any manner should attempt to justify the hostile attacks of the French or to defame and weaken the government of the United States by stating that the government or its officers were influenced by motives. hostile to the country or to the liberties or happiness of the people, might be punished by fine or imprisonment. This was a little too much even for the fanatical Federalist Senate, whose power had not reached a point where it could pass a bill in that form.

See Madison's letter, Madison's Works (Congress ed.), vol. ii., p. 142.

For the debate, see Annals of Congress, vol. ii., pp. 1954-1977, 2093-2116, 2134-2171; Benton, Abridgment of Debates, vol. ii., pp. 305–310, 316-319.

Hence, the first section was stricken out. Had the bill become a law in its first form, the Federalists not only could have silenced the Republican press, but, through the vagueness of its language, could have treated as crimes every form of opposition to their measures. The Republicans would not have been able to express a single sentiment true to their honest beliefs without being subject to fine and imprisonment. When Livingston declared that the principle of the Alien Bill "would have disgraced the age of Gothic barbarity " the Federalist Otis declared that remarks such as these were "evidence of a seditious disposition." * Had Livingston delivered his speech anywhere but on the floor of Congress, it would have been a crime under the bill as it finally passed the Senate. By a vote of 44 to 41 it passed the House on July 10 and became a law on July 14. Its duration was limited to a term of two years. It was deemed a high misdemeanor "unlawfully to combine and conspire against or in opposition to properly authorized measures of the government, or laws of the United States, or "to commit, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, or unlawful assembly or combinations," in order to prevent the performance of his duties by any government officer.

* Schouler, United States, vol. i., p. 408.

For text, see United States Statutes-at-Large, vol. i., pp. 596-597; MacDonald, Select Documents, pp. 146-148. See also Appendix IV. at the end of the present chapter.