Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-30
HOW A GAG KILLED A PARTY
The Alien and Seditlon Laws Dealt to
the Federalists, Who Made the
Nation, a Blow From Which
They Never Recovered

WHEN an American political party "gocs
w west" il is permanently dcfunct. No
transccndentalist, however scientific, has
succeeded in establishing any communication
with the Fcderalists as faction, with the
"Know Nothings," the Populists or the
Wings.
The physicist maintains that nothing is
ever really destroyed. Yet parties are.
Neither ether nor the subtlest argon pre-
serves them after the passing
AS rule the disintegration is slow. The
issues grow atrophied The funeral is OBJ
scurc, unnoticcd. Once, however, in the
annals of this republic great political party
went out with bang, in a tempest of acri-
mony and in an uproar which affected the
whole course of American history.
The Federalist faction. forever ilustrious
for having rescued the nation from chaos,
strobe to its fate with blind deliberation.
Four laws. akin in spirit, slew this political
body and walled up its tomb. The lessons
of this legislation are still suggestive.
$ so often happens, the blunder was
"A made when the party responsible had
reached Il pinnacle of power and prosperity.
The FcdCraiStS were unused to such general
favor. 1t had been denied them during
Washngton's second administration, when
the Anglophobes and the Gallophobcs were
on lively fighting terms.
But in 179S the revolutionists in control
of France frivolously and insoently leopard
i2cd tho old claims Of friendship. Presi
dent John Adams revealed the French insults
to his commissioners. Marshall and Pinck
ncy. and made public the y, Y. u cor
rcspondcnce. with its damning disclosure of
the efforts to bribe the American representa-
tives. The French Government had de-
manded that the Presidents s message to Con-
gress be modified, and had called for a bribe
of S240 900 and the negotiation by the United
States of loan to the Directory.
American Indignation was aroused to the
boiling point. The country prepared vigor-
ously for war, the navy and army were re-
organized. For perhaps the only time in
his life John Adams became widely popular.
His position was still further intrenched by
the exploits of the new frigate Constellation,
which humbed a French man war in the
West Indies.
WITHIN a few months the political COM
w plexion of the country underwent
startling change. The Federalst party will
fully abused its power by the passage of re-
prcssive laws at variance with the spirit of
the constitution and stupidity unre6ective of
the nervading temper of the times.
OF notorious memory, indeed. are the alien
and sediton acts enacted by the Adams ad
ministration in the summer of 170S. The
two least offensive of the four concerned the
status and treatment of foreigners. PrOvi
sion was made for the disposition of aliens
with whose government the United States
might happen to be at war, and the qualifi-
cation for naturalization was made fourteen
instead of three years residence.
;rl, In In1 tba
thorizng the President to remove from the
country aliens judged to be dangerous, with
out reason or without trial. The ltncon
Stitutionality of this law scarcely admitted
of any doubt. Its operation was fixed at
two years, during which time Adams never
made any use of it. Although he had signed
it, his own sense of law and fair play re-
strained him from exercising this question
able authority.
But the sedition act was not moribund
BY its provisions the publication of any false,
scahdalous or malicious writings against the
government. Congress or the President. with
intent to defame them or to bring them into
contempt or to excite the hatred of the people
against them, became "A crime.
In word the law comprehended the sup
preston of free speech and was in direct
violation of the first amendment to the con-
sttution. 1t was aimed directly at the
Democratic Republican opposition editors.
Yet the Federalsts were also incorporate of
speech and pen and the word intent" was
capable of the most drastic construction. The
life of the law was nearly three years.
d ESISTANCE to the gag was immediate.
~ One of the first victims of the law was
Matthew Lyon, ,rabid Democratic Repub-
lcan member of Congress from Vermont. He
fought with fists as well as quill, and on one
occasion he had rough and tumble fight on
the floor of the House with the Federalist,
GrisWOld
Shortly after the seditOn bill became
law Lyon in Vermont newspaper violently
criticized the government for ''its ridiculous
uomp, foolish adulaton and selfish ayarice."
lie was fined $1,000 and sentenced to four
months Imprisonment. 4 petition for his
uardon was presented, but Adams refused to
yield While still in prison he was re-
elected to Congress.
Another critic, an editor. was sent to Jail
for stating that Adams was hardly in the
infancy of political mistake Hamilton was
accused of buying a Democratic Republican
Journal in order to proselytize for the Fed
cralists.
"OlfenSes' of this sort were very different
from the commission of reasonable acts. If
the law by its language assumed to foster a
decent respect for the government, it became
in it's operation an instrument of tyranny,
enabling the administration to indulge its
partisan spite.
TIIE reaction was terrific. Jefferson heat
l. cdly drafted the famous Kentucky reso-
mtions and Madison those of the Virginia
legislature. These pronouncements strik-
ingly exemplify the evil of reckless auto
cratic lawmaking They enunciated vicious
state rights theories, expressed sentiments
concerning the constitution in the language