What happens to democracy when dissent is treated as treason?
In May 1798, after Congress released the XYZ Affair dispatches to the
public, a raucous crowd took to the streets of Philadelphia. Some
gathered to pledge their support for the government of President John
Adams, others to express their disdain for his policies. Violence, both
physical and political, threatened the safety of the city and the Union
itself. To combat the chaos and protect the nation from both external
and internal threats, the Federalists swiftly enacted the Alien and
Sedition Acts. Oppressive pieces of legislation aimed at separating
so-called genuine patriots from objects of suspicion, these acts sought
to restrict political speech, whether spoken or written, soberly planned
or drunkenly off-the-cuff. Little more than twenty years after Americans
declared independence and less than ten since they ratified both a new
constitution and a bill of rights, the acts gravely limited some of the
very rights those bold documents had promised to protect.
In The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Terri Diane Halperin discusses
the passage of these laws and the furor over them, as well as the
difficulties of enforcement. She describes in vivid detail the heated
debates and tempestuous altercations that erupted between partisan
opponents: one man pulled a gun on a supporter of the act in a
churchyard; congressmen were threatened with arrest for expressing their
opinions; and printers were viciously beaten for distributing suspect
material. She also introduces readers to the fraught political divisions
of the late 1790s, explores the effect of immigration on the new
republic, and reveals the dangers of partisan excess throughout history.
Touching on the major sedition trials while expanding the discussion
beyond the usual focus on freedom of speech and the press to include the
treatment of immigrants, Halperin's book provides a window through which
readers can explore the meaning of freedom of speech, immigration,
citizenship, the public sphere, the Constitution, and the Union.
