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CHAPTER XXV.

LAST SCENES IN MR. ADAMS'S PRESIDENCY-THE "ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS" AGAIN-HIS ADMINISTRATION— ITS BENEFITS TO THE COUNTRY-HAD LUCK ANY PART IN HIS SUCCESSFUL CAREER?

THE

HE most important affairs of Mr. Adams's Administration were those relating to France. No man

in America better understood the character of the French leaders, or probably more thoroughly detested it, than Mr. Adams. The most violent Jacobins of this country shuddered over the bloody deeds perpetrated in the name of liberty in France during the last of General Washington's and the first half of Mr. Adams's term. No part of the history of that nation is so full of interest to the people of this country, perhaps, as that embraced in the last ten years of the eighteenth century. Within this period a great torrent of infidelity and immorality carried France into a carnival of rapine and blood, misnamed the "Republican Revolution." In the first year of Mr. Adams's second term in the Vice-Presidency, the true friends of France in America were shocked by the murder of Louis XVI., the patron of the United States, and one of the best kings of France, and his heroic and noble conduct in his solitary trials, greatly deepened their sadness, and displayed the utter futility of looking to the "French Revolution" for any strengthening of the cause of gen

uine republican government, or the intellectual and moral advancement of man. This conviction was further fixed by the sad fate of the beautiful queen, Marie Antoinette, whose memory the people of this country associated closely with their most cherished fortunes.

But the individual policy of Mr. Adams saved the United States from a war with France, while maintaining the honor of his country. His policy also preserved this country from dangerous foreign alliances. A considerable body of the Federal party, especially, censured him for a course resulting so beneficially to the Nation. He was also censured for delivering Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan Robbins, to the British government. But Nash was convicted of murder, and finally vindicated the action of the President, by confessing that he was born in Ireland, and was not a citizen of the United States. But little calmness characterized the times, and every species of official calumny was practiced.

To his Administration, with the pretense of odium, has been referred the "Alien and Sedition Laws." With a partisan effect they are still brought into requisition, and often without a thought of their true character and the circumstances which produced them. The "Alien Law" gave the President power to banish from the United States such aliens as were known, or suspected on good grounds, to be dangerous or to be engaged in intriguing against the public welfare; and further, in the case of alien enemies, after a declaration of war, to arrest, restrain, secure, or remove them. The "Sedition Act" authorized fining or imprisoning for conspiring to impede the operation of the laws, to

intimidate officers in the discharge of their duties, in raising riots or unlawful combinations against the Government; and more limited penalties of the same kind were attached to the publication of false, scandalous, or malicious writings against the Government, Congress, or the President, when the intent was to aid the enemies of the country, or stir up sedition.

When these laws were enacted, thirty thousand French and fifty thousand British had taken refuge in this country. The French were friends of the so-called "Republic," and the British having left England for crime or oppression were also partisans of France. Their purposes and efforts were to stir up strife, oppose the Government, and give strength to the American advocates of the cause of France. The effect of these laws was to drive from the country hundreds of these alien French, of their own accord, at a time when their presence was in every way destructive to its peace, harmony, and best interests. The whole country was, in fact, swarming with secret enemies; foreign agents were exciting the Indians to war with the United States; and spies and foes, alien and native, were making every exertion to divide the counsels of the Nation and weaken its power and integrity. Then, too, these acts were passed for the emergency, and were to be operative for two years only. The state of the country and the limitation of the continuance of these laws took away the grounds of respectable opposition, to a great extent. Yet by the opponents to the Administration the "Alien and Sedition Laws" were regarded as despotic and intolerable measures, and as favoring the side of Great Britain. And although the laws were not put in operation except in

a few desperate cases, many took it into their own hands to leave the country from fear of the execution of the "Alien Law," and no acts connected with the legislations of the Government gave more dissatisfaction and caused wider-spread opposition. The consti tutionality of these laws may have been doubtful, yet they seemed a necessity, and the benefits of their limited operation could only be realized in a similar state of national peril.

In 1798 and 1799, Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions (the productions of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson), censuring the "Alien and Sedition Laws," and called upon the other States to join them in opposition. It has been claimed that these resolutions were not only subversive of the national authority, but also destructive of the Federal Union itself. The other States did not respond favorably, but the resolutions remained as a kind of evil spirit to be conjured up in times of great party strife. In 1865, the dogmas they taught, it was supposed, had received. their mortal wound. Yet they have been again and again revived in the old outcry of State Rights. At the elections of 1878, a protest was made against the appointment of supervisors of election by the General Government, and in some instances it was declared an unjust interference with the rights of States, which should not be tolerated.

The Jacobin clubs or "democratic societies," as they were called, which were formed during Washington's Administration continued with some strength throughout the French Revolution. The extreme republicans held to the side of France, and Mr. Jefferson and most of the Anti-Federal leaders fought to the last against

the preparations for war and defense against the insults and aggressions of that country. A bitter, reckless, unscrupulous, and unwise warfare was waged, in Congress, in the public press, and among the people, against almost every act or purpose of the Government during that period of Mr. Adams's Administration.

An able Revolutionary writer says of Mr. Adams: "The measures of his four years were honorable and useful to the country; incomparably more so than those of the next eight years. If the purpose of establishing a national constitution was to maintain the honor, dignity, and independence of the United States, with foreign powers; to preserve peace and security within our own limits; to provide for the pure and able administration of justice, and to use all the powers delegated as they were used the first eight years, that is, for the good of the whole, and not for the benefit of a party, the Federal Administration under Mr. Adams accomplished these purposes." He had upheld the honor of the country against France without a formal declaration of war, and finally established a treaty with Napoleon; a favorable treaty with Tripoli was made; the navy was elevated to more importance; naturalization was placed on a just basis; agriculture and commerce advanced; and morals and religion somewhat revived, during his Administration.

Ten persons were removed from office by Mr. Adams, and one of those was a defaulter. General Washington had removed nine, and one of those was a defaulter.

The representations against Mr. Adams and his Administration in Wood's History are so one-sided, and appear to have been actuated by such doubtful motives

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