Thomas Jefferson, a Character Sketch | Page 5

it was now decided that the president might drive out
of the country any alien he chose thus to banish, and to do it without
assigning any reason therefor. It was not necessary even to sue or to
bring charges; if an alien receiving such notice from the president
refused to obey, he could be imprisoned for three years.
President Adams afterward declared that he did not approve of this
stern measure which was the work 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