Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch | Page 5

of Hamilton, and boasted that it was not enforced by him in a single instance.
Nevertheless, the Sedition act was enforced to a farcical degree.
When President Adams was passing through Newark, N. J., he was saluted by the firing of cannon. One of the cannoneers, who was strongly opposed to him, expressed the wish that he might be struck by some of the wadding. For this remark, he was arrested and compelled to pay a fine of one hundred dollars.
Editor Frothingham printed his belief that Hamilton wished to buy the Aurora for the purpose of suppressing it. For expressing that opinion he was fined and imprisoned. Thomas Cooper made the remark that in 1797 President Adams was "hardly in the infancy of political mistakes," and these mild words cost him $400 and kept him in prison for six months.
It is hard to believe that the following proceedings took place within the present hundred years in the United States of America, and yet they did.
In the case against Callender, Judge Chase denounced the accused to the jurors and forbade the marshals to place any one not a Federalist on the jury. The lawyers who defended Callender were threatened with corporal punishment.
In Otsego, N. Y., Judge Peck obtained signers to a petition for the repeal of the obnoxious acts. For such action he was indicted and taken to New York city for trial.
That was the sacred right of petition with a vengeance.
Matthew Lyon, while canvassing his district in Vermont for re-election to congress, charged the president in one of his speeches with "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation and a selfish avarice," certainly mild expressions compared with what are heard in these times, but because of their utterance, Mr. Lyon spent four months in jail and paid a fine of $1000.
When he had served out his term and been re-elected, a strong effort was made to prevent his taking his seat. It failed and in 1840, his fine was returned to him with interest.
It can well be understood that the passage and enforcement of such iniquitous measures caused alarm and indignation throughout the country.
Edward Livingston declared that they would "disgrace Gothic barbarism." Jefferson's soul was stirred with the profoundest indignation. Under his inspiration, the Virginia assembly adopted resolutions calling on the state to nullify within its limits the enforcement of the Sedition act. The Alien and Sedition laws were declared unconstitutional, and the sister States were invited to unite in resisting them, "in order to maintain unimpaired the authorities, rights and liberties reserved to the States respectively or to the people."
These views were not only those of Jefferson, but of Patrick Henry, George Mason and nearly all leading Virginians.
Kentucky, the child of her loins, seconded the action of Virginia, urged thereto by Jefferson who moulded her resolutions.
The revolt against the measures was so widespread that the Alien act was repealed in 1800, and the Sedition act in the following year.
Having been essentially Federal measures, they were buried in the same grave with the Federal party.
Having rendered these invaluable services, Jefferson resigned his seat in congress, on account of the illness of his wife and the urgent need of his presence at home. Moreover, he had been elected a member of the legislature of his State and was anxious to purge its statute books of a number of objectionable laws.
He had hardly entered upon the work, when he was notified of his appointment as a joint commissioner with Franklin and Deane as representatives of the United States in France. After reflection, he declined the appointment, believing his duty at home was more important. That such was the fact was proven by his success in securing the repeal of the system of entail, thus allowing all property in the State to be held in fee simple, and by the abolishment of the connection between church and state. The latter required years in order to effect complete success, but it was reached at last.
How forceful were many of the expressions he employed during that contest, such as: "Compulsion makes hypocrites, not converts;" "Truth stands by itself; error alone needs the support of government."
Jefferson's committee abolished the frightful penalties of the ancient code; he set on foot the movement for the improvement of public education; he drew the bill for the establishment of courts of law in the State, and prescribing their methods and powers; he destroyed the principle of primogeniture, and brought about the removal of the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond.
Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of the State, at the opening of the year 1779. The two years were marked by incessant trial and the severest labor, for the war had reached Virginia soil and the State was desolated.
More than once the legislature was obliged to flee before the enemy; Gates was crushed