Contents
The Sedition Act
As early as 1798, The Sedition Act made it a crime for any person to make a disloyal statement against the government of the United States. A “disloyal” statement could be almost anything one said concerning the government; such as the taxes are too high, the army is too small, or even French ships look better than American ships. These innocuous statements could result in a fine of $2,000 and two years in prison. Was this right or wrong?
The Sedition Act was a flagrantly partisan measure designed to ensure the reelection of a Federalist majority in 1800. The act's provisions, to remain in force until 31 March 1801, made it a crime for anyone, foreign- or native-born, to "write, print, utter or publish," or to "knowingly … assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writings" concerning the members of Congress or the President; those who did so could be fined two thousand dollars and imprisoned up to two years. Conspicuously excluded from the act's protection was Vice President Thomas Jefferson—the leader of the Republican opposition. During the election of 1800, no one could, or would, be charged under the Sedition Act for "uttering or publishing" any criticism of Jefferson, no matter how false or scurrilous. Ironically, despite its repressive implementation, the Sedition Act can be considered a progressive development in the law of libel because it allowed truth as a defense and because juries, rather than judges, were allowed to decide whether the publication or statement violated the law. Although some defendants were acquitted under the law, most were convicted by partisan judges and juries who ignored the Act's more progressive provisions.
THE FEDERALIST "REIGN OF TERROR"
The Federalist campaign to silence, vilify, and weaken the political opposition made full use of the powers conveyed by the Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Acts of 1798. The fourteen-year residence requirement prevented foreigners from casting (legal) votes for members of the Jeffersonian opposition. Immediately after the passage of the Alien Act, Federalist officials drew up lists of "dangerous" immigrants and prepared deportation orders for President Adams's signature. But official measures proved unnecessary, as hundreds of immigrants, most of them French refugees from Saint Domingue (the earlier name of Haiti), set sail from America's inhospitable shores in the summer of 1798; other immigrants went into hiding. News of the treatment awaiting them also reduced the number of English and Irish radicals emigrating to America. In the end, no foreigners were deported under the provisions of the Alien Act.
The Sedition Act resulted in the arrests of twenty-five Americans. The most prominent of these was Matthew Lyon, a Republican Congressman from Vermont. Since his election in 1797, Federalists had portrayed the Irish-born Lyon as a savage and seditious "beast," a promoter of anarchy, and a tool of the French government. In October 1798 a jury, acting on the blatantly partisan charge of Supreme Court Justice William Paterson, found Lyon guilty of making remarks that heaped contempt and odium on the government and president of the United States. Sentenced to a four-month jail term and fined one thousand dollars for deriding President John Adams's "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation" and his "continual grasp for power," Lyon conducted his successful reelection campaign from jail. In New Jersey an inebriated Republican and two drinking companions were found guilty of seditious libel for hoping that one of the artillery shots that accompanied John Adams's procession through town might lodge itself in the president's posterior. The Sedition Act's harshest penalties were meted out by the Massachusetts Circuit Court on Daniel Brown, a semiliterate "wandering apostle of sedition" who, after advocating the "downfall of the Tyrants of America, peace and retirement to the President," and long life to "the Vice-President and the Minority," hoped that "moral virtue" would become "the basis of civil government." Most of the others indicted under the Sedition Act were editors of Republican newspapers. Of those arrested, ten were found guilty; untimely deaths and disappearances allowed others to evade Federalist "justice." After his election President Jefferson pardoned the men who remained incarcerated for violations of the newly expired Sedition Act.