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shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

"And be it further enacted and declared, That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act, for writing or publishing any libel as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to give in evidence, in his defense, the truth of the matter contained in the publication charged as a libel. And the jury who shall try the cause shall have a right to determine the law and the fact, under the direction of the court, as in other cases.

"And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force until the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and one, and no longer: Provided, that the expiration of the act shall not prevent or defeat a prosecution and punishment of any offense against the law, during the time it shall be in force. Approved July, 1798."

After which followed a naturalization law, in the following words: "Be it enacted, &c., that no alien shall be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, or of any state, unless he shall have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States five years, at least, before his admission, and shall at the time of his application to be admitted, declare, and prove to the satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction in the case, that he has resided in the United States fourteen years, at least, and within the state where the court shall be held, five years. Approved June 18, 1798."

These three several acts were so much at variance with republican ideas, that they were made the subject of special consideration by the legislature of Virginia, upon the coming in of a powerful report of a committee of that body to whom the subject had been referred. They were

regarded as innovations upon the original policy of the government, infringements upon natural rights, and without justification by the constitution or any high necessity. They were obnoxious to the public sentiment of the country, and could not be sustained.

The alien law was received by Republicans as alarming evidence of the monocratic tendency of Federal legislation-as a confirmation, indeed, of their previous apprehensions of such a danger. It lodged an amount of power in the executive over certain persons whose residence here had been invited, not inferior to that which was wielded by the emperor of Russia, and was liable to the greatest abuses. It was believed to have originated, moreover, not in any public necessity, not on account of the existence of any real danger in that quarter, but in a misconception that the general sympathy manifested by alien residents of the country for one or the other belligerent nations of Europe-a sympathy which a large proportion of the native born citizens of the country were themselves unable to repress-indicated an actual or prospective conspiracy by them against our own. It followed as a consequence, that a law so impolitic, unwise, oppressive, and dangerous, did not receive the sanction of an intelligent and liberal people.

The sedition law was alleged to belong to the same obnoxious policy-to be another and a greater usurpation of undelegated power. It exacted an homage for the administration, not less obeisant than the Austrian Gessler had demanded of the people of Switzerland, and instituted a censorship equally offensive with that which was enforced by the Vehmic courts of Germany. It revived, and, by implication, reässerted, as having application to our federal government, the regal idea "that the sovereign can do no wrong"-an idea repudiated at the outset of

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the revolution-and sought to engrave it upon the columns of our American structure. In the language of that day, "it converted the president into a monarch, his cabinet into a star chamber, and the judiciary into an inquisition. It enjoined the press, silenced natural speech, and laid even the thoughts of the people under tribute."

It lifted the government from its dependency on the popular will, cut away the pillars which had previously supported it, insulted the sovereignty which resided only with the people, and revived a system of intolerance which, it was hoped, the revolution had effectually overthrown. It indicted, as criminals, so many of the people of the United States as disapproved in any tangible form of the policy of the Federalists toward their brethren in Europe, who were struggling through the bloody labyrinths of tyranny, for their "long lost liberty;" ignoring the maxim that "errors of opinion may safely be tolerated where reason is left free to combat them." It invoked for the support of the administration, in its translated character, the aid of forces despotic in their nature, and offensively severe in their operation, thereby distrusting and libeling both the capacity for voluntary government and the patriotism of the American people. It was denominated "The Federal Gag Law."

The naturalization law, by which the term of probationary residence in the United States was extended from five to fourteen years, was regarded by the Republicans of that day, as a return to the British policy which had been repudiated by the revolution, and enumerated as one of the grounds of complaint against King George, in the Declaration of Independence. He had endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass laws to encourage their migration hither. The

B

justice of that complaint had been vindicated. Independence had been achieved and acknowledged. Another and different policy in respect to naturalization had been inaugurated; acquisitions, by emigration, to the industry, military strength, and wealth of the country had been invited. An opportunity of five years' duration for enabling emigrants to form and signify a desire and a bona fide intention of embarking their lives and fortunes permanently with us, and of sharing the burdens of our system, had been, under the administration of Washington, deemed sufficient. The denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years, was perceived to be a refusal of the privilege to the greater proportion of those who asked it, and certain to result in the positive evil of having in the country, unpledged to our government, great numbers of persons owning no allegiance, and unamenaable to our laws defining and punishing treason. And such a refusal to the friends and fellow countrymen of Lafayette, Montgomery, Thompson, Koskiusco, De Kalb, Rochambeau and Steuben, in view of their services in the revolution, was felt to be not only at variance with the beneficent and enlightened policy of the founders of this government, but a measure deeply fraught with ingratitude toward those illustrious men.

It moreover assailed the great idea of the continental congress, expressed in their appeals to Great Britain; THE GREAT IDEA Of Washington, contained in his farewell address to the army, and the great idea of the federal congress of 1783, announced to the people of the United States in a memorable address penned by Madison, that the rights of America, for which she had contended with the power of Great Britain, and which she claimed to have secured by the revolution, were not the exclusive franchises of the few, whom the providence of Almighty God had left

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here at the close of the struggle, and of their posterity, but were THE RIGHTS OF HUMAN NATURE; which the builders of thrones had rejected, but which the architects of this republic had set at the "head of the corner;" which was invested with a sublimity, a majesty and worldwide benificence that certified the divinity of its origin; and which, being an emanation from the Deity, comprenended all the nations of the earth-all the children of men.

These measures, it is known, were not the suggestions of Adams himself. They originated with his political friends and advisers, and were forced upon him, as there is much reason to believe, against the better dictates of his own judgment. They were Federal measures, nevertheless, adopted during his administration, and as they were officially approved by him, he was made responsible for them before the country. But when he discovered how obnoxious they were to the public sentiment, and the convulsions they occasioned, he availed himself of the earliest opportunity afforded by the French Directory to negotiate a peace. Thus, after a few collisions at sea, terminated the war which had been the cause of their passage, against the advice of Hamilton, who had expected laurels, as a general, from its continuance, and after such extraordinary preparations for carrying it on.

But the adjustment of the difficulty with France did not restore to his administration the confidence which it enjoyed before the passage of those obnoxious laws. From the published arguments of the responsible majority in both houses of congress which enacted them, the spirit and temper exhibited by the public officers who under. took, by prosecutions of Thomas Cooper, Matthew Lyon, and others, to enforce the sedition law, and the general character of all the measures resorted to by them, the