Posted on 08/10/2004 1:17:24 PM PDT by Just another Joe
Care About Civil Liberties this Election? You're in Trouble
In this election year, there are significant parallels between the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Enacted in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the Patriot Act has augmented the power of federal authorities to pry into the affairs of innocent Americans. In the summer of 1798, the United States Congress passed and President John Adams signed similar legislation. At base, the Alien and Sedition Acts prohibited criticism of the federal government and gave President Adams the power to deport any alien he viewed as suspicious. Americans found guilty of sedition faced prison terms of up to five years and hefty fines. In certain circumstances, aliens remaining in the United States could be imprisoned so long as, in the opinion of the President, the public safety may require. This legislation made a mockery of the First Amendment and deprived aliens of basic due process of law. The Alien and Sedition Acts were the federal government's first direct assault on American civil liberties. From this assault and the response, we can learn lessons relevant to our own time. As is often the case with illiberal legislation, the Acts were a product of temporary Strum und Drang. In the 1790s, a number of Americans feared the democratic excesses of the French Revolution would be exported to the United States. They believed that French agents were plotting the destruction of the Constitution and the overthrow of the Adams administration. Rumors abounded in Philadelphia that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison planned to assist a French invasion force that was sailing across the Atlantic. Some expected a guillotine would be set up to deal with patriotic Americans. In this environment, Adams and the Federalists pushed for legislation that would secure the home front in the face of invasion and that would also, they hoped, secure Federalist political hegemony. Fearing revolutionary France, many Americans at first supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. In Thomas Jefferson's words, the people were made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But the Federalists' attacks on civil liberties were soon met with opposition. Local meetings were held throughout the union and the people affixed their signatures to sundry petitions. These public meetings were well attended and sparked much interest. In Lexington, Kentucky, for example, a meeting scheduled at a local church to consider the Acts had to be moved to the town square because 5,000 citizens -- twice Lexington's population -- assembled. To combat the Acts, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In these Resolutions, Madison and Jefferson accused Congress of exceeding its powers and declared the Alien and Sedition Acts void. Times were so tense that Madison and Jefferson hid their authorship because they feared prosecutions under the dreaded Sedition Act. The Acts were seen as such a danger to liberty that there was also some discussion of resisting the measures by force and secession. Fortunately, drastic measures were not needed because the people had a very powerful weapon at their disposal: the ballot box. In addition, Jefferson and the Republican Party posed quite a contrast to Adams and the Federalist Party. In the so-called Revolution of 1800," the Republicans won a 24-seat majority in the House of Representatives and Jefferson was elected to the presidency. Upon taking office, Jefferson suspended all pending prosecutions under the Sedition Act and pardoned those convicted under the unconstitutional Act. Jefferson would later boast how this revolution was brought about not by the sword, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people. Under today's Patriot Act, government investigators can more easily eavesdrop on Internet activity, FBI agents are charged with gathering domestic intelligence, Treasury Department officials are charged with creating a financial intelligence-gathering system for use by the CIA, and the CIA, banished from the field of domestic intelligence because of abuses in the Vietnam era, is permitted to resume domestic operations. Separate from the Patriot Act, the Bush administration unsuccessfully argued to the Supreme Court that it could detain American citizens and foreign nationals on U.S. soil indefinitely and without access to legal counsel -- all when the writ of habeas corpus has not even been suspended. Even John Adams only claimed such a power over aliens, not citizens. Civil libertarians have been very critical of the Patriot Act, believing that the balance between liberty and power has tipped too far toward the latter. But, with an election around the corner, the American people can have the final say on this question. Well, not quite. Unlike 1800, the people are given no meaningful choice. Senator John Kerry, the president's only real challenger, voted in favor of the Patriot Act and authored some of its provisions. According to the Kerry campaign, the problem is not with the Patriot Act itself, but with those enforcing it, i.e., Attorney General John Ashcroft. His message for Americans is to keep the powers in place and to trust him with these powers that he admits have been abused. The ballot box is a powerful weapon in the people's hands when they have real choices. With the franchise the people can defend their liberties and reform the government. To paraphrase Jefferson, they can effect a bloodless revolution. However, when both parties offer the people candidates with indistinguishable views on issues relating to fundamental liberties, the franchise is an impotent weapon. And if democracy so falters, the people are left with few attractive options in defense of their freedoms.
Valid historical comparisons are made, especially id the Dems get into power again.
Does anyone really believe that they wouldn't use this power if they had it?
i hope no one will find out i took out "crime and punishment" from my local library!!!
Why? Are you in the "Crime" end or the "Punishment" end? ;^)
"and" was my favorite part.
Just making a joke about how all the complaining i hear about the Pat Act is that the gov. will know what books i checked out of the library. I know there is more too it than that but that seems to everyone biggest complaint.
Pre-9/11 an alient could be held in immigration detention indefinitly. There is nothing new there.
Pre-9/11 most of the content of the Patriot act did exist in a hodgpodge of case law. There rest in statute.
What is really a danger is the Democrat attempt to split the presidency into an elected executive and appointed, budget controlling security czar. Imagine if Ronald Reagan did not have firing power over Patco.
Has anyone actually READ the Patriot Act? Guess what, it is not the big bad evil law that everyone says it is. Educate yourselves and actually reading the law.
The sedition act was prolly needed. Adams has aways been demonized overly
Pure alarmist blather!
The Patriot Act mostly made applicable to terrorism the same provisions which had been applicable to various white-collar crimes.
And everything is subject to judicial oversight.
What a crock. If the Alien and Sedition Acts were stout, then the Patriot Act is something like Near Beer.
The bottom line of this article is that KERRY WOULD KEEP THE ACT JUST ENFORCE IT AGAINST REPUBLICANS.
The Patriot Act was a knee jerk reaction to a specific moment in time that was taken advantage of by our government to intrude to a great degree into our privacy.
I agree that a good amount of the Patriot Act existed, in slightly different form, in a hodgepodge of case law. The slightly different form/wording/interpretation is what makes all the difference.
It's my belief that barring the horrific moment in time that was 9/11 the Patriot Act would not have had a snowball's chance in he!! of EVER passing.
(s)But that would require reading the Patriot act and acknoledging the truth(/s)
I have listened to Adams bio. Jefferson was a dem (think Jefferson JAsckon dinner).
The federalists were demeaned like whigs and then the republicans.
The nation was fragile and some spies had been caught. Also Adams had info that a french fleet was in haiti.
Btw If it weren't for Jefferson, we would not have built a navy and would have been in big trouble.
No, it's not, it's just another step along the way to the big bad evil law.
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
After the fact.
I've been wondering lately if anyone would ask Kerry if he would repeal the Patriot Act, and, if not, how that would uproot all the Liberal outrage in this election cycle...and if so, how that would look to the 'national security' voters...I'm sure the story would be in the 'nuances...'
If he get's in - Not a chance he would even ask for a repeal.
first they put criminals in jail then logically they will start to put innocent people in jail. therefore we should not have any jails at all
First they put criminals in jail, then they let them loose, then they take away the innocent people's self protection, then they make everyone a criminal so there is no need for any jails, then they charge you for protection from the 'other' criminals.
I believe he has said that he would allow the Patriot Act to lapse.
It has a sunset provision so it doesn't havde to be repealed.
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