Assignment task:
Sedition Act
Consider the circumstances surrounding the passage of the Sedition Act of 1798.
The United States, under the Constitution, was not yet 10 years old. George Washington, "Father of our Country," had been replaced by his awkward and abrasive vice-president, John Adams. The French Revolution had devolved into "The Terror," and the Republicans* (behind Jefferson) were agitating for a U.S. commitment to France against its European opponents (including Britain). Newspapers were partisan, vicious, and indifferent to truth, inviting contempt and hatred of the opposition. In this setting, the Federalists, under Adams, passed the Sedition Act to quell temporarily the unbridled appeals to emotion that threatened to destroy the young Republic. We survived the crisis, elected Jefferson to replace Adams, and saw the French Republic fail without our becoming entangled in European wars.
While it is true that dissidents were punished and Madison and Jefferson risked imprisonment, was this temporary abridgement of speech rights too large a price to pay for this outcome