Posted on 07/04/2010 10:53:10 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March
Free Speech and the Constitution are under attack. These research notes will help us gain historic perspective.
The Sedition Act of 1798.
A. The Philosophical Difference
Hamilton and John Adams were the driving force behind the philosophy of power. They wanted strong military, powerful industry, and strong central government -- the Federalist Party. Thomas Jefferson led the opposing view -- lean military budget, weak central government, and an agricultural society that was considered to be more virtuous. [For the most part, I like America to be strong. But how much power should one political party have?] Democrats claim that Thomas Jefferson was their founder. [While I suspect it was actually the KKK that founded the democrats, I'll let it pass. Technically speaking, Jefferson was leader of a group that called itself the Republican Party. To avoid confusion, I will refer to them as anti-Federalists.]
B. The French Revolution
Many U.S. citizens were excited by the French Revolution. This terrified the Federalists who feared that our great expermiment might unravel by these new ideas before our Constitutuion even had a chance to be tried. Class warfare led to beheadings in France. It was intolerable.
C. Alien and Sedition Acts
In a desperate attempt to suppress French Revolutionary-style bloodlust, the Federalist Party outlawed anti-government speech. But this was also exploited by partizans within the party who wanted to suppress political speech.
The Struggle Begins
Newspapers at that time were often small. Rush recently described them as the bloggers of the 18th Century. Throughout the Thirteen States, small printing presses cranked out furious responses to the new laws. Theoretically, a press owner could be thrown in jail. In their view, that was a violation of free speech. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison agreed with the rebellious press.
On June 5, 1798, one particular paper, the Mount Pleasant Register, copied and reprinted accurate criticisms of President John Adams. The publisher [Durrell] was tried for sedition. The trial was handled in such a way that it drained the paper of resources and drove the Mount Pleasant Register out of business. The publisher's large family was impoverished before he was convicted. Even John Adams took pity on him and gave the publisher a partial pardon.
The Aurora
The Aurora, run by Benjamin Franklin Bache, also defied the Federalist Party. The Federalists formed “committees of surveillance” to spy on them. These committees went after sponsers who paid the Aurora for advertising. They sent Bache and his pregnant wife death threats. They vandalized the Baches' home [Bache claimed that the vandals were a drunken mob that had dined with John Adams on the same day.] All of that occurred prior to the Sedition Acts.
Later in 1798, year of the Sedition Acts, pro-Federalists became more aggressive. Abel Humphreys physically attacked Mr. Bache. As son of a ship-builder, one could imagine what that was like. But Bache survived. Later that year, the son of a Federalist editor [John Ward Fenno] accused Bache of being a British spy. A fight ensued. During the brawl, Fenno bit one of Baches' knuckles. Mr. Bache pressed him until Fenno's back was to the wall. Bache then proceeded to beat him in on the head with a cane. People had to pull the two apart.
Violence alone wasn't enough to cow the Aurora. On June 26, 1798, Mr. Bache was arrested for “libeling the President & the Executive Government, in a manner tending to excite sedition, and opposition to the laws, by sundry publications and republications.” Perhaps stress took its toll on his immune system. On Sept. 10, 1798, Benjamin Franklin Bache died of Yellow Fever.
The Aurora, however, had not finished the Fight. William Duane took the reins. First the Federalists questioned his citizenship. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering claimed that Duane also lied about fighting in the Revolution and was a British subject who could be deported from the U.S. [Alien Act]. Pickering went on to claim that Mr. Duane “deliberately procur[ed] an assembly of people with the determination of subverting the government of the United States” [through a petition drive to end the Alien Friends Act]. A jury quickly acquitted William Duane of all charges.
A few weeks later, pro-Federalist cavalry soldiers stormed Aurora’s office, dragged him out, whipping and beating him until he was unconscious. The Federal government later charged Duane with sedition. The state indicted him for “riot and assault". He fled and went into hiding.
The Boston Independent Chronicle
Prior to the Sedition Acts, this Anti-Federalist paper was already critical of President Adams. It even criticized the salary that the President paid his son, John Quincy Adams [who was off on diplomatic services]. Apparently no relation, the papers' editor was Thomas Adams [I'll frequently refer to him as Thomas-A to avoid confusion]. Even prior to the Sedition Acts, Federalists sought to pressure the Chronicle politically and ostracized Thomas-A [socially]. They publicly burned copies of the paper on the Fourth of July.
Here were some of their rants: “A Jacobin, at this day, should not be admitted into the company of honest men." Federalists called Adams “A flaming minister of anarchy.” The Chronicle was a “treasonable engine”.
Not even the Sedition Act could intimidate the Boston Independent Chronicle. Thomas-A was so critical of the Sedition Acts that he was arraigned before a circuit court on Oct. 23, 1798 and charged for “sundry libelous and seditious publications ... to defame the government of the United States.”
While out on bail for that, he and his brother [the paper's bookkeekeeper] were both arrested for sedicious libel by the state of Massachusetts [libeling the state court]. Thomas-A became very sick and was allowed not to go to trial. His brother was tried on March 1, 1799 for seditious libel, found guilty, thrown in jail for 30 days, and forced to pay a $500 surety bond [no small sum back then] as a way to gag him. The bond would not be recovered if he turned 'seditious' again. All of this made it impossible to stay in the printing business. They sold the Boston Independent Chronicle on May 2, 1799. Thomas Adams died eleven days later. It was widely reported that he spoke defiantly of the Federalist Party to the bitter end. With his dying breath, he reportedly "expressed his warm attachment to the liberties of his country”.
Harrison Gray Otis [a Federalist] wrote that Thomas Adams was “finally arrested, not by the Marshal of the district, but by that grim messenger whose mandate strikes terror to the heart of the false and malicious libeler.”
Matthew Lyon & Judah P. Spooner
Congressman Matthew Lyon was a veteran of the Revolution and a fiery Irishman who mistrusted the Federalist Party and Hamilton in particular. He accused Hamilton of "screwing the hard-earnings out of the poor people’s pockets” to enable government to “vie with European Courts in frivolous gaudy appearances.” Matthew Lyon wanted to see nothing remotely resembling the lords and kings of England. Federalists openly mocked his Irish accent. Things escalated.
Connecticut Congressman Roger Griswold tried to belittle Lyon's war record. Lyon spat in his face. The Federalists called for Lyon's removal from the seat but failed to achieve the necessary two-third's vote. Failing that, Griswold whacked at him with a hickory walking stick. The attack has been described as 'savage'. The Federalist House members sat back and enjoyed the spectacle.
Forever defiant of of the Federalists, Lyon wrote a letter that caught someone's eye: Judah P. Spooner.
So impressed was he that Mr. Spooner published and printed the letter which was critical of President Adams. Judah P. Spooner was reportedly arrested and charged with sedition [possibly in October 1798]. The quoted letter wasn't even his own words -- it was written by Vermont Rep. Matthew Lyon who that “every consideration of the public welfare [was] swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice.”
Some papers disputed Spooner's arrest, but Haswell Lyon [who ran a paper] and Matthew Lyon [congressman] were both charged for sedition. The congressman was indicted on Oct. 5, 1798 for sedition [talk about an October Surprise], arrested, fined $1,000, and sentenced to four months in prison. From his prison cell, he overwhelmingly won his re-election. But the Federalists kept him locked up anyway. On Feb. 9, 1799, he was released from prison. Lyon walked out like a lion -- the people cheered. They had a parade ready for him.
Much more happened, but I'd like to leave it on that high note. Happy Fourth of July!
[Part 2 will move on to Woodrow Wilson.]
Happy Fourth of July!
I leaned on this for information:
First Amendment Center library manager
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/Sedition_Act_cases.pdf.
html version:
GREAT NOTES: Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY!
GREAT NOTES: Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY!
!
Happy Fourth of July to you too, Arthur!
bump for l8r
The question of sedition is a very thorny one in US history. It will become even more difficult as America tries to throw up the poison of progressivism that was ingested a hundred some-odd years ago. Balancing the truly American notion of Free Speech against advocacy for the anti-American idea of progressivism (which rejects individual liberty and responsibility and envisions a self-appointed elite of feudal overlords to guide us for our benefit) will require a deft hand to avoid running into the ditch of dictatorship.
Ominously, the Left is already sending up trial balloons about charging conservatives and tea partiers with sedition.
I look forward to your next installment.
The question of sedition is a very thorny one in US history. It will become even more difficult as America tries to throw up the poison of progressivism that was ingested a hundred some-odd years ago. Balancing the truly American notion of Free Speech against advocacy for the anti-American idea of progressivism (which rejects individual liberty and responsibility and envisions a self-appointed elite of feudal overlords to guide us for our benefit) will require a deft hand to avoid running into the ditch of dictatorship.
Ominously, the Left is already sending up trial balloons about charging conservatives and tea partiers with sedition.
I look forward to your next installment.
Would you cite the source(s) please? Thanks!
Thank you for the encouragement. Please note that I’m not a deep, devoted researcher on this topic. But it might be a good starting point. FRegards ....
Main source is linked from post 3. I had been writing off 9 month old notes [been putting this project off]. So there is a possibility of some revisions at the site [why I didn’t emphasize it — not to mention there could be some accidental errors.] The link at post 3 is more solid for accurate quoting than my personal take, which is hasty and ‘story-based’ to build suspense.
[The congressman’s parade ‘hit me in the head’ and spurred me to get this done quickly on the 4th.]
Thank you very much. I’ve been hearing Wilson’s name quite alot lately and looked him up. Specifically, Glenn Beck had mentioned something about him jailing 30K people for dissent? Or did I misunderstand that? Anyway, I couldn’t verify what Beck said.
Thanks again AW. I will be reading with great interest. If it isn’t too much problem, please ping me when you post the next installment.
Yes, I did look up the political prisoners claim and it’s historically accurate. In fact, I noticed one page that mentioned Wilson had his own Sedition Act. I’ll ping you to part 2 which deals with Woodrow Wilson. [And that should wrap it up.]
It is? Unbelievable. That is something I will be trying to learn more about. In any case Wilson sounds like he was a left wing radical (for that time period. Thanks for the info aw and thanks in advance for the ping.
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Thanks Arthur Wildfire! March. John Adams was just a bitch. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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Adams was the defense attorney for the British soldiers who fired in the Boston Massacre.Feuding Founding Fathers, Part II: The Pursuit of CrankinessJohn Adams rose from very humble origins to become a great patriot, a statesman and the second president of the United States. But did that make him feel good about himself? Did it make him more magnanimous towards his fellow man? No and no. He was a bundle of insecurities, a notorious carper, a man who, in the words of historian Jack D. Warren, qualified as "America's crankiest Founding Father."
Discover
1999
For starters, he hated being the nation's first vice president, presiding over the Senate like an impatient schoolmaster and complaining to his wife, Abigail, that "my country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
While he initially admired George Washington -- personally pushing through the Continental Congress his nomination for commander in chief -- Adams bitterly seethed once he was in Washington's shadow. He portrayed Washington as a man who was all style, utterly lacking in substance. He once sarcastically listed Washington's talents, all of them involving his appearance, form and pedigree. "Here," he sneered, "you see I have made out 10 talents without saying a word about reading, thinking, or writing."
He also thought Washington was a poseur, pretending to prefer the simple life with the hope of hiding his unbounded ambition. Washington "ought to pass" as a genuinely disinterested hero, Adams noted, if only because he played the part so well. Even more than a decade after the death of the "Father of Our Country," Adams still fumed about the degree of Washington-worship in the land.
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