"The Jacobin presses, which abound with us and only circulate within the State, teem with publications of which the object is to poison still further the public opinion and which are level'd particularly at me. Anything written by me on the subject of French affairs wou'd be ascrib'd to me, whether it appear'd with or without my signature and wou'd whet and sharpen up the sting of every abusive scribbler who had vanity enough to think himself a writer because he cou'd bestow personal abuse and cou'd say things as malignant as they are ill founded."[868]
The publication of the American envoys' dispatches from France, which had put new life into the Federalist Party, had also armed that decaying organization with enough strength to enact the most imprudent measures that its infatuated leaders ever devised. During June and July, 1798, they had succeeded in driving through Congress the famous Alien and Sedition Laws.[869]
The Alien Act authorized the President to order out of the country all aliens whom he thought "dangerous" or "suspected" of any "treasonable or secret machination against the government" on pain of imprisonment not to exceed three years and of being forever afterwards incapacitated from becoming citizens of the United States. But if the alien could prove to the satisfaction of the President that he was not dangerous, a presidential "license" might be granted, permitting the alien to remain in the United States as long as the President saw fit and in such place as he might designate. If any expelled alien returned without permission he was to be imprisoned as long as the President thought "the public safety may require."
The Sedition Act provided penalties for the crime of unlawful combination and conspiracy against the Government;[870] a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding two years for any person who should write, print, publish, or speak anything "false, scandalous and malicious" against the Government, either House of Congress, or the President "with intent to defame" the Government, Congress, or the President, or "to bring them or either of them into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them or either or any of them the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States."
When Jefferson first heard of this proposed stupid legislation, he did not object to it, even in his intimate letters to his lieutenant Madison.[871] Later, however, he became the most ferocious of its assailants. Hamilton, on the other hand, saw the danger in the Sedition Bill the moment a copy reached him: "There are provisions in this bill ... highly exceptionable," he wrote. "I hope sincerely the thing may not be hurried through. Let us not establish a tyranny. Energy is a very different thing from violence."[872] When Madison got the first inkling of the Alien Bill, he wrote to Jefferson that it "is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents."[873]
As soon as the country learned what the Alien and Sedition Laws contained, the reaction against the Federalist Party began. In vain did the Federalists plead to the people, as they had urged in the debate in Congress, that these laws were justified by events; in vain did they point out the presence in America of large numbers of foreigners who were active and bitter against the American Government; in vain did they read to citizens the abuse published in newspapers against the Administration and cite the fact that the editors of these libelous sheets were aliens.[874]
The popular heart and instinct were against these crowning blunders of Federalism. Although the patriotic wave started by Marshall's return and the X. Y. Z. disclosures was still running strong, a more powerful counter-current was rising. "Liberty of the press," "freedom of speech," "trial by jury" at once became the watchwords and war-cries of Republicanism. On the hustings, in the newspapers, at the taverns, the Alien and Sedition Laws were denounced as unconstitutional—they were null and void—no man, much less any State, should obey or respect them.
The Alien Law, said its opponents, merged the Judicial and the Executive Departments, which the Constitution guaranteed should be separate and distinct; the Sedition Act denied freedom of speech, with which the Constitution expressly forbade Congress to interfere; both struck at the very heart of liberty—so went the Republican argument and appeal.[875]
In addition to their solid objections, the Republicans made delirious prophecies. The Alien and Sedition Laws were, they asserted, the beginning of monarchy, the foundation of absolutism. The fervid Jefferson indulged, to his heart's content, in these grotesque predictions: "The alien & sedition laws are working hard," declared the great Republican. Indeed, he thought them only "an experiment on the American mind to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of the constitution. If this goes down, we shall immediately see attempted another act of Congress declaring that the President shall continue in office during life, reserving to another occasion the transfer of the succession to his heirs, and the establishment of the Senate for life.... That these things are in contemplation, I have no doubt; nor can I be confident of their failure, after the dupery of which our countrymen have shewn themselves susceptible."[876]
Washington was almost as extravagant on the other side. When an opponent of the Alien and Sedition Acts asked him for his opinion of them, he advised his questioner to read the opposing arguments "and consider to what lengths a certain description of men in our country have already driven and seem resolved further to drive matters" and then decide whether these laws are not necessary, against those "who acknowledge no allegiance to this country, and in many instances are sent among us ... for the express purpose of poisoning the minds of our people,—and to sow dissensions among them, in order to alienate their affections from the government of their choice, thereby endeavoring to dissolve the Union."[877]