1 00:00:38,439 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: If you want to get the show early and ad free, 2 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,600 head on over to the Peakcinyonas Show dot com. I'm 3 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:47,359 going to say this slow because I know a lot 4 00:00:47,399 --> 00:00:48,679 of you are doing this at one and a half 5 00:00:48,719 --> 00:00:53,600 speed or two time speed. If you want an RSS feed, 6 00:00:54,079 --> 00:00:59,159 it is only available if you subscribe through substack or Patreon. 7 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,920 You will get the audio file. If you subscribe through 8 00:01:03,039 --> 00:01:08,560 my website, subscribe Star or gum Road, and the links 9 00:01:08,599 --> 00:01:12,680 are all there at the Pekanyonas Show dot com. I 10 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,840 just want to give thanks, continued thanks to all of 11 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:18,159 you who support me and allow me to do this 12 00:01:18,519 --> 00:01:21,000 and be able to put out the amount of content 13 00:01:21,079 --> 00:01:23,760 I can do and hopefully the kind of quality that 14 00:01:23,879 --> 00:01:27,159 keeps you coming back. So I'm only able to do 15 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:29,400 this because of you, So head on over to the 16 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,400 Pekinyonashow dot com and you will get the episodes early 17 00:01:33,719 --> 00:01:38,120 and ad free. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone 18 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:42,560 back to the Pekinyonas Show. George Bagbee is back and 19 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:46,640 we are going to continue the series looking at the 20 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:51,760 lead up to America's Civil War. How are you doing 21 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:53,680 this evening, mister Bagbee. 22 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,359 Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I'm as busy as a bee. I've 23 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:02,799 been under the weather lately. It's really weird when when 24 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,200 you get a fever and you have delirium. Have you 25 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:07,760 ever had that happen before? 26 00:02:08,719 --> 00:02:09,319 Speaker 1: Only once? 27 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:15,159 Speaker 2: Really once? Yes. Well it's really strange because you feel 28 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,680 very detached, but you become or at least I become 29 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:23,800 obsessed about very obscure matters, and I'll stay up all 30 00:02:23,879 --> 00:02:28,080 night thinking of things that have no significance. Yeah, which 31 00:02:28,159 --> 00:02:30,680 is what I went through a couple of nights ago. 32 00:02:31,199 --> 00:02:32,919 But I'm on the mend now. 33 00:02:34,159 --> 00:02:38,039 Speaker 1: Well that's good, that's good. Yeah, I remember. I think 34 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,479 the reason is because you can't think straight, you can't 35 00:02:41,599 --> 00:02:45,039 keep a thought, so you're constantly bouncing from one subject 36 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:46,240 to the next in your mind. 37 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very confused situation. It's a strange mental state. 38 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: Yeah. 39 00:02:55,319 --> 00:03:00,759 Speaker 2: But I've got here for us tonight material about the 40 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:08,159 Alien and Sedition Acts and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. 41 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:14,000 So we continue on this theme of conflict between the 42 00:03:14,039 --> 00:03:21,800 Federalists and the Republicans, the Republicans being Jefferson's faction in 43 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:29,360 the early Republic, better identified with the Democrats what becomes 44 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:33,759 the Democratic Party later on, but at this stage they're 45 00:03:33,879 --> 00:03:39,759 more commonly called the Republicans. So back during the Washington administration, 46 00:03:40,159 --> 00:03:44,960 in this period that we've been discussing recently with the 47 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,560 debate over the bank and the debt and the constitutional 48 00:03:49,639 --> 00:03:57,240 powers and interpretations of the Republic of France, was just 49 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:04,800 getting started. The French Revolution was underway. You remember, at 50 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:11,800 the start of Washington's administration, he recalls Thomas Jefferson, who 51 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:20,680 was the very Francophile American ambassador in Paris. He replaces 52 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,319 Thomas Jefferson. Well, Thomas Jefferson becomes a Secretary of State, 53 00:04:24,439 --> 00:04:29,040 so is foreign minister. He replaces Thomas Jefferson with Governor Morris, 54 00:04:30,319 --> 00:04:37,040 the famous New York Federalist man who physically wrote the 55 00:04:37,079 --> 00:04:42,040 Philadelphia Constitution. He was known to have a very good hand, 56 00:04:42,639 --> 00:04:46,319 and so they asked him to be the penman. But 57 00:04:47,199 --> 00:04:52,160 Governor Morris goes to Paris and he's quite appalled by 58 00:04:52,199 --> 00:04:57,839 the progress of the French Revolution. Even Thomas Jefferson was 59 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:03,639 eventually startled by the excesses of the French Revolution, their 60 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:08,959 war on the clergy. They're martyring the priesthood in Paris, 61 00:05:09,319 --> 00:05:15,519 and really grotesque things going on there. This is all 62 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:20,800 before the terror of course, but Governor Morris becomes very 63 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:27,720 antagonistic to the Jacobin in court the Republicans in Paris. 64 00:05:29,319 --> 00:05:34,759 The French Republic has a very complex relationship with the 65 00:05:34,879 --> 00:05:42,199 United States. They assume the king's debts and assets, and 66 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:47,759 so they assume the money that the United States government 67 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:56,120 owes to the former king, King Louis, and they eventually 68 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,800 agree to some treaties and such, but the relationship during 69 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:04,399 the Washington administration is antagonistic with the French Republic. Washington 70 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:07,720 makes it known that he doesn't want to have anything 71 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:14,720 to do with the French Republic's numerous wars. Of these egalitarians, 72 00:06:15,079 --> 00:06:23,439 these dreamers revolutionaries, they declare liberty, equality, fraternity, and then 73 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,120 they declare war on all of their neighbors and propose 74 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:34,800 to disestablish their churches, presumably martyr their clergy, and liberate 75 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:41,519 them all from their nobility and monarchs, which their neighbors 76 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:44,600 are not so interested in having done to them. So 77 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:48,839 there's war that springs out across Europe. On the French 78 00:06:48,879 --> 00:06:56,959 republic sins Citizen Ghanay to America as their ambassador. Citizen 79 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:01,920 Ghanay has a brief tenure in America, but he is 80 00:07:01,959 --> 00:07:08,160 the cause of much controversy. While he is here. It's 81 00:07:08,199 --> 00:07:13,399 interesting to note that for all the differences that we've 82 00:07:13,399 --> 00:07:20,279 delineated between Hamilton and Jefferson and their perspectives, that Hamilton 83 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,240 is from the start a great critic of the French 84 00:07:24,279 --> 00:07:33,759 Revolution and a great sympathizer with the King. Jefferson not 85 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:40,279 surprisingly being a very radical Democrat and a personal friend 86 00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:43,759 of Thomas Payne. Thomas pain is a figure here that 87 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:46,920 is always lurking around. The People who are willing to 88 00:07:46,959 --> 00:07:52,160 be friends with Thomas Paine discredit themselves to some degree 89 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,160 in this generation, and it is important to note how 90 00:07:56,199 --> 00:08:01,199 friendly Jefferson was, and also Jefferson's protege, the future President 91 00:08:01,319 --> 00:08:07,800 James Monroe, was very good friends with Thomas Paine actually 92 00:08:07,879 --> 00:08:11,319 has Thomas Paine live with him for long periods of time. 93 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:19,480 So their affections in this stage it reflects their political 94 00:08:19,519 --> 00:08:23,879 beliefs in disposition here in America, but it plays out 95 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:30,079 very dramatically over in France. So Ganay is sent to 96 00:08:30,279 --> 00:08:34,879 America to collect the debts that were owned owed to 97 00:08:34,919 --> 00:08:41,559 the former king. He wants to re establish French holdings 98 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,919 in the Americas, so he wants to foment rebellion in 99 00:08:47,039 --> 00:08:52,960 French Canada. He wants to get French Louisiana back from Spain, 100 00:08:54,039 --> 00:08:57,840 which is a Catholic monarchy that the Republic is now 101 00:08:57,879 --> 00:09:05,080 at war with, and he's also interested in interfering in 102 00:09:05,159 --> 00:09:10,200 American internal affairs. In the early Republic, he wants to 103 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:16,799 make the United States a base of privateers against British 104 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,840 merchantmen in the Atlantic, so he brings a budget along 105 00:09:21,919 --> 00:09:24,759 for this and he talks with lots of local officials 106 00:09:24,799 --> 00:09:28,320 to get this established. Now, this obviously could make us 107 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:34,279 a kind of party to France's war in Europe, so 108 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:41,919 it's a naturally a security concern. Gannat's privateers, which he 109 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:47,360 sponsors in the Americas, they sail up the Delaware River 110 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:51,440 one day and just happen to find a British merchant 111 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,159 ship there. They capture it and tow it back to 112 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:00,279 Philadelphia as a prize. So this is going on inside 113 00:10:00,279 --> 00:10:07,360 of our territorial waters. Gannay really wants to draw in 114 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:12,080 the American Republic on the side of the French Republic's 115 00:10:12,159 --> 00:10:22,679 European adventures, and he is constantly writing correspondents to officials 116 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:29,759 and private persons across the United States trying to lobby 117 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:35,840 for these efforts, and he does have a budget involved here. Surprisingly, 118 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:44,200 he gets George Rogers Clark, General Clark from Kentucky to 119 00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:50,519 correspond with him about the possibility of leading Kentucky riflemen 120 00:10:51,039 --> 00:10:54,799 down to the lower Mississippi Valley to take New Orleans 121 00:10:54,799 --> 00:11:00,000 from the inland from the Spaniards who are in charge 122 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:05,279 of it at that point, so Ganay goes quite a distance. 123 00:11:05,919 --> 00:11:16,039 Ganay eventually corresponds with Secretary of State Jefferson. Jefferson unwisely 124 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:24,759 corresponds with Ganay, but his correspondence isn't ultimately discrediting to him. 125 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:29,519 Jefferson is a lifelong Francophile and initially a big fan 126 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:34,799 of the French Revolution. Ghanay is asking Secretary of State 127 00:11:34,879 --> 00:11:41,600 Jefferson what the American attitude would be to General George 128 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:46,039 Rogers Clark leading a personal expedition down to take Louisiana 129 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:53,799 from the Spanish, and Jefferson responds very tactfully and tells 130 00:11:54,039 --> 00:11:58,240 citizen Ghanay, being that the Spanish are not at war 131 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:02,159 with the United States, and being that these are American citizens, 132 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,279 you're talking about doing this, this could mean trees in 133 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:10,919 charges for all involved if they are undertaking on their 134 00:12:11,039 --> 00:12:15,360 own initiative war with a foreign power to try to 135 00:12:15,399 --> 00:12:20,360 get us involved in entanglements in Europe. We are totally 136 00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:25,159 against that. We don't want that, and anyone that enlisted 137 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:28,799 with you to do that would probably get a treason charge. 138 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:32,759 But Jefferson was also careful to sign his correspondence on 139 00:12:32,759 --> 00:12:37,960 this occasion. He says, I write you as citizen, mister Jefferson, 140 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:41,679 not in the capacity of Secretary of State. So he's 141 00:12:41,919 --> 00:12:45,080 kind of trying to divide his office from his person here. 142 00:12:47,279 --> 00:12:50,600 But we see some of the dangerous things that Gannay 143 00:12:50,879 --> 00:12:55,879 is up to. In the eventful year seventeen ninety three, 144 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:03,159 the French Republic declares normal war on Great Britain and 145 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:10,000 Washington responds with a declaration of neutrality. Once again, we 146 00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:14,840 see a division between Jefferson and Hamilton, as we usually 147 00:13:14,879 --> 00:13:20,840 do in the cabinet. Hamilton says that the executive should 148 00:13:20,919 --> 00:13:27,759 have the prerogative to make these major foreign policy declarations. 149 00:13:27,879 --> 00:13:33,840 Jefferson says, no, this should be a representative process. It 150 00:13:33,879 --> 00:13:37,759 should come out of Congress. Congress should debate pros or 151 00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:42,200 cons of neutrality, and then Congress should declare the policy, 152 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:45,639 and then the president does it with the authority of Congress. 153 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,679 The president just proclaims whatever Congress has to say. So 154 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:54,440 we see that very procedural sort of process. And this 155 00:13:54,480 --> 00:14:01,679 is part of Jefferson's ultimate idealism about the democratic process 156 00:14:01,759 --> 00:14:05,240 as of form. He believes that this is going to 157 00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:07,559 solve all manner of problems. And of course this is 158 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:14,159 not how these things efficiently work. The president does make 159 00:14:14,279 --> 00:14:20,159 any number of policies and declarations, so Hamilton has the 160 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:23,440 description there that is ultimately how it ends up working. 161 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:32,200 But Ganay, with the declaration of neutrality. The French Republic 162 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:36,200 takes this as a hostile statement from the Americans that 163 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:40,360 they are not willing to signal solidarity with fellow republics 164 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:46,799 like themselves. Ghanay is given instructions from his handlers back 165 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:52,200 in Paris to foment popular demonstrations in the new capital 166 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:59,720 of Philadelphia against Washington. So these are pro war demonstrations 167 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:06,879 going on in Philadelphia. This so alarms Vice President Adams 168 00:15:07,759 --> 00:15:13,399 that he orders chests of arms to be brought in 169 00:15:13,559 --> 00:15:17,039 to defend the government because he's worried about a violent riot. 170 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:28,000 Adams calls this the terrorism excited by Ghanay in his memoirs. 171 00:15:28,879 --> 00:15:33,840 In a Cabinet meeting in the summer of ninety three, 172 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:38,720 when Ghanay is up to his Shenanigans there in Philadelphia, 173 00:15:38,759 --> 00:15:43,440 trying to pressure the Washington administration to declare in France's 174 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:47,759 favor and to give them concessions or even an alliance. 175 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:56,240 Secretary of War Knox presents the President with a lithograph 176 00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:05,159 made in Philadelphia presenting George Washington in line at a guillotine. 177 00:16:05,759 --> 00:16:12,399 So this is this is what Ganay is promoting in Philadelphia, 178 00:16:11,759 --> 00:16:17,440 a violent riot or threats of violence against the President 179 00:16:19,159 --> 00:16:25,840 and his ministers. This ultimately overwhelms even the friendly Thomas Jefferson, 180 00:16:25,919 --> 00:16:31,679 who won't tolerate too much criticism of France. Even Thomas 181 00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:36,799 Jefferson eventually agrees this this man is persona non grata. 182 00:16:36,919 --> 00:16:40,799 We cannot tolerate this kind of activity by an official 183 00:16:40,879 --> 00:16:47,879 agent of an erstwhile ally, what results in the following 184 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:52,559 years is very interesting. The proclamation of neutrality uh the 185 00:16:52,559 --> 00:16:57,480 famous Farewell Address, where Washington is advising a continued policy 186 00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:04,000 of neutrality in the Adams administration which follows, we have 187 00:17:04,599 --> 00:17:11,880 the interesting quasi war with France. So France starts attacking 188 00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:18,279 American shipping in the Atlantic. This is mostly operation taking 189 00:17:18,279 --> 00:17:23,799 place at sea, and this lasts from seventeen ninety seven 190 00:17:23,839 --> 00:17:30,319 to eighteen hundred. This is all but declared war with France. 191 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:36,480 There are casualties French and American warships or meeting each 192 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:41,440 other in exchanging fire in the Atlantic. And you also 193 00:17:41,559 --> 00:17:49,680 have a coincident with this, the curious XYZ affair in Paris. 194 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:58,480 So this is emission of Elbridge, Jerry, Charles Pinckney, and 195 00:17:58,759 --> 00:18:04,279 I forget who else. Several American diplomats in Paris were 196 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:10,440 told more or less by French agents code named X, 197 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:15,319 Y and Z, that they must pay a substantial bribe 198 00:18:15,759 --> 00:18:20,960 to the French in order to be recognized in the court. 199 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:30,079 And this was just a shocking attempt of corruption, and 200 00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:36,400 it really exasperated American officials and it was a major 201 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:43,119 source of frigid relations between the United States and France 202 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:46,440 with following years. It's really quite remarkable that at this 203 00:18:46,519 --> 00:18:49,960 stage we avoided war with France. With everything that was 204 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:56,039 going on, these insults to our ambassador's demands for bribes 205 00:18:56,160 --> 00:19:01,960 in order to have normal diplomatic corresponds the quasi war, 206 00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:06,039 which goes on for several years, all in response to 207 00:19:06,079 --> 00:19:09,000 this to lead up to my point and the main 208 00:19:09,039 --> 00:19:16,359 subject of our episode today. John Adams in seventeen ninety 209 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:23,200 eight requests and receives from the Federalist Congress. So these 210 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:29,000 are mostly New England congressmen who write these bills and 211 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,279 sign off on them. As Speaker of the House and such, 212 00:19:33,279 --> 00:19:38,799 he gets the Alien and Sedition Acts. So it's necessary 213 00:19:39,039 --> 00:19:42,640 for us to understand the circumstances. This doesn't come out 214 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:53,039 of nowhere. These are circumstances very close to a major 215 00:19:53,119 --> 00:20:00,839 war with the European great power. So the Alien Incident Acts, 216 00:20:00,599 --> 00:20:04,279 there's a whole series of them. I'm going to read 217 00:20:04,319 --> 00:20:09,799 to you excerpts from two main elements so that we 218 00:20:09,839 --> 00:20:18,599 can get a reading understanding of what these legislative acts constitute. 219 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:26,559 So an Act concerning Aliens June seventeen ninety eight, being 220 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:30,000 enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives the United 221 00:20:30,039 --> 00:20:33,839 States of America and Congress assembled, that is lawful for 222 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,200 the President of the United States, at any time during 223 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,039 the continuance of this Act, to order all such aliens 224 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,799 as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety 225 00:20:44,839 --> 00:20:48,960 of the United States, or have reasonable grounds to suspect 226 00:20:49,519 --> 00:20:55,279 are concerned in any treasonable or secret mechinations against the 227 00:20:55,319 --> 00:20:58,720 government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the 228 00:20:58,799 --> 00:21:03,839 United States within such as time, or such time as 229 00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:07,279 shall be expressed in such order, which order shall be 230 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:11,279 served on such alien, by delivering him a copy thereof, 231 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:16,480 or leaving the same at his usual abode, and returned 232 00:21:16,519 --> 00:21:18,960 to the office of the Secretary of State by the 233 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,440 Marshal or other person to whom the same shall be 234 00:21:22,559 --> 00:21:28,960 directed in. And in case an alien so ordered to 235 00:21:29,039 --> 00:21:31,880 depart shall be found at large within the United States 236 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,519 after the time limited such order for his departure, and 237 00:21:35,599 --> 00:21:39,359 not having obtained a license from the President to reside therein, 238 00:21:40,279 --> 00:21:45,079 or having obtained such license, shall not have confirmed there too. 239 00:21:45,799 --> 00:21:49,200 Every such alien shall, on conviction, be imprisoned for a 240 00:21:49,279 --> 00:21:53,359 term not exceeding three years, and shall never after be 241 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:58,160 admitted to become a citizen of the United States. Now, 242 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,920 this is very interesting act. Now, this is not the 243 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:06,799 one that caused so much controversy. This does not get 244 00:22:07,079 --> 00:22:13,839 a such a angry response from the States and from 245 00:22:13,839 --> 00:22:22,519 the Republicans. Ghanay had certainly overstayed his welcome and had 246 00:22:22,759 --> 00:22:29,920 fomented rebellion against the legitimate authorities of the country to 247 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,839 make all this very ironic. The same year he is 248 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:40,200 rabble rousing in Philadelphia and apparently promoting images of George 249 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:45,440 Washington waiting to lose his head at the guillotine. Ghanay 250 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:50,880 is identified as an enemy of the revolution back in 251 00:22:51,079 --> 00:22:58,319 Paris of the French authorities the Republicans. They request that 252 00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:04,480 Ghanay be returned to Paris to face his trial, and 253 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,599 Ghanay is forced to go had in hand to the 254 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,839 American authorities to beg their leave to stay so he 255 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:19,960 might keep his head. This the Americans obliged to do. 256 00:23:20,559 --> 00:23:24,319 He actually settles in the state of New York lives 257 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:29,079 the rest of his days there. But we can see 258 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:35,000 the origin of the Alien Act. John Adams is quite adamant, 259 00:23:35,079 --> 00:23:42,200 as are his fed Federalist allies in Congress at the time, 260 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,359 that they do not want any of these foreign agents. 261 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:51,160 There's a lot of worry about these foreign lobbyists that 262 00:23:51,279 --> 00:23:57,519 are trying to work their way into influencing American policy. 263 00:23:57,599 --> 00:24:02,759 That they're throwing money around, like citizen Kanay was doing, 264 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:10,680 trying to intimidate American elected office holders and trying to 265 00:24:10,759 --> 00:24:16,640 manipulate them into intervention on their side in another continent. 266 00:24:18,319 --> 00:24:24,839 And this is very subversive and legitimate interest. So hence 267 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:29,839 we have the Alien Act. Now we have the more 268 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,920 controversial of the two acts, the Sedition Act. Now sedition 269 00:24:34,039 --> 00:24:39,920 is another word for treason. July seventeen, ninety eight, so 270 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,319 we see that there is a slight date difference between 271 00:24:43,319 --> 00:24:45,599 the two. The Alien Act I just read was from 272 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:50,519 June of the same year. Be it enacted that if 273 00:24:50,519 --> 00:24:56,480 any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together with intent 274 00:24:56,599 --> 00:24:59,359 to oppose any measure or measures of the Government of 275 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,880 the United States, which are or shall be directed by 276 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,039 proper authority, or to impede the operation of any Law 277 00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:11,039 of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any 278 00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:16,039 person from holding a place or office in under the 279 00:25:16,039 --> 00:25:20,480 Government of the United States, from undertaking, performing, or executing 280 00:25:20,519 --> 00:25:23,920 his trust or duty. And if any person or persons, 281 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:29,079 with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to 282 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:39,519 procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, 283 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,160 council advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, 284 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:50,079 he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor. 285 00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:54,799 And on conviction before any Court of the United States 286 00:25:54,799 --> 00:25:58,400 having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not 287 00:25:58,559 --> 00:26:03,880 exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term 288 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,839 not less than six months nor exceeding five years. And further, 289 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,480 at the discretion of the Court, may be holden to 290 00:26:11,519 --> 00:26:15,400 find sureties for his good behavior in such sum and 291 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,079 for such time as the said Court may direct. Now, 292 00:26:20,519 --> 00:26:24,119 this is the section that is less controversial. It is 293 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:30,079 against the law to plot to overthrow the government. This 294 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:36,759 is kind of self evident. You know, the government can 295 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:43,559 arrest you for plotting to overthrow the president. To overthrow 296 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:50,880 the constitution is the legitimate risk of such a conspiracy. 297 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:58,000 But obviously the wording of this law certainly resonates with 298 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:07,039 me quite differently. After the Summer of Love, people counseling, advising, 299 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:12,000 or attempting to procure insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination. 300 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:19,680 This all resonates with me very much, maybe because we 301 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:27,400 don't see any effort to prosecute people who are obviously 302 00:27:27,519 --> 00:27:35,920 guilty of sedition. The second part of the Sedition Act, 303 00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:40,920 this is the controversial part. So Section two it be 304 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,680 further enacted that if any person shall write print, utter, 305 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:51,599 or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered, 306 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,680 or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid 307 00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:01,559 in writing, printing, uttering, or publishing in a fall scandalous 308 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:06,519 and malicious writing or writings against the Government of the 309 00:28:06,599 --> 00:28:10,279 United States, or either House of the Congress of the 310 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,559 United States, or the President of the United States, with 311 00:28:14,839 --> 00:28:20,319 intent to defame the said government, or either House of 312 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,319 the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, 313 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:29,119 or either of them into contempt or disrepute, or to 314 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,759 excite against them, or either or any of them, the 315 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,240 hatred of the good people of the United States, or 316 00:28:37,279 --> 00:28:40,200 to surrubsidition within the United States, or to excite any 317 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,759 unlawful combinations therein for opposing or resisting any law of 318 00:28:43,799 --> 00:28:45,759 the United States, or any act of the President of 319 00:28:45,759 --> 00:28:48,720 the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, 320 00:28:48,839 --> 00:28:51,200 or the powers in him vested by the Constitution of 321 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:57,160 the United States, and so on. The state. The person 322 00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,880 being convicted thereof before any court of the United States 323 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,839 Ian jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 324 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:07,200 two thousand dollars and by imprisonment not exceeding two years. 325 00:29:07,559 --> 00:29:12,720 So that is the troublesome law. This is the one 326 00:29:12,799 --> 00:29:20,839 that gets the Adams administration excoriated on the state levels. 327 00:29:22,839 --> 00:29:29,680 We must remember that with Jefferson's failure in his opinion 328 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:37,079 on the bank, the Jeffersonians are going down to the 329 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:42,839 state level for their main opposition. They are not in 330 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:49,920 the Adams administration. John Adams, unlike Thomas or unlike George Washington, 331 00:29:50,279 --> 00:29:55,880 he does not ask people of the anti federalist persuasion 332 00:29:56,039 --> 00:30:06,039 into his cabinet. Adams has a thoroughly federal most cabinet. Jefferson, however, 333 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:13,640 is John Adams's vice president, not because they are good friends, 334 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:18,680 but because Thomas Jefferson got the second highest number of 335 00:30:18,759 --> 00:30:24,559 electoral votes. So the way that the presidency works in 336 00:30:24,599 --> 00:30:30,880 this period is that the primary electoral vote getter becomes 337 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,079 President of the United States. The person who comes in 338 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,559 second becomes vice president of the United States. So they 339 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:45,400 do propose party tickets and recommend, you know, certain support. 340 00:30:46,039 --> 00:30:50,799 The Federalists wanted Pinkney of South Carolina to be the 341 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,599 vice president, but he didn't make it. He came in third. 342 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,519 So Jefferson, who is member of the Republican opposition, he 343 00:30:59,559 --> 00:31:06,319 is actually vice president at this time. But the various 344 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:15,720 states who are Republican heavy decide to oppose this federalist overreach. 345 00:31:16,039 --> 00:31:23,920 This is obviously a abrogation of freedom of speech and 346 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:34,880 freedom of the press. The vagaries of misleading people, lying 347 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:41,839 about the intentions of the government, what does it say, 348 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:50,880 publishing false, scandalous and malicious writings to defame the government 349 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:56,160 or the president, to bring them into contempt or disrepute. 350 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:04,119 These these are all less than objective uh sorts of 351 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:09,519 descriptions of activity. We we have seen plenty of recent 352 00:32:09,599 --> 00:32:17,640 examples in our own legislation and enforcement based on alleged 353 00:32:18,359 --> 00:32:28,559 malice or falsehood in people's pleas or public speech. It 354 00:32:28,599 --> 00:32:35,839 is very interesting that the January sixth rioters come to mind, 355 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:41,519 UH the they are pleading that they went to a 356 00:32:41,559 --> 00:32:45,559 peaceable demonstration, that they did not break any laws while 357 00:32:45,559 --> 00:32:48,720 they were there. They're charged with attempting to overthrow the 358 00:32:48,759 --> 00:32:51,799 government and lying in their plate that they're part of 359 00:32:51,839 --> 00:32:55,240 a conspiracy and so on. So we see how how 360 00:32:55,400 --> 00:33:04,759 this criminalization of saying saying false things, saying scandalous things. 361 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,880 You know, there's so much about the January sixth people 362 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:17,559 that they believed and promulgated what the federal authorities said 363 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:25,799 was a false reckoning of the election. And this is 364 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,480 basically their charge against them. Oh, you aren't allowed to 365 00:33:29,559 --> 00:33:35,640 believe that about the election. It's illegitimate to demonstrate concerning that. 366 00:33:36,839 --> 00:33:41,920 And these are all interesting details, but we see some 367 00:33:42,079 --> 00:33:49,920 of the civil aspects of the Sedition Act. The first 368 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:54,920 part of the Sedition Act is not so controversial. I 369 00:33:54,960 --> 00:34:02,119 suppose it's just a restatement of law forbidding treason. And 370 00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:05,559 you must remember this was done in a time of 371 00:34:06,079 --> 00:34:11,480 practical war, all but declared war with France. The second 372 00:34:11,559 --> 00:34:20,559 part doesn't work so well, especially considering the First Amendment. Now, 373 00:34:20,599 --> 00:34:25,079 this was precisely what the Bill of Rights was supposed 374 00:34:25,119 --> 00:34:34,000 to protect. The Republicans are unwilling to speak too loudly 375 00:34:34,119 --> 00:34:40,039 about this in public places because that would now malign 376 00:34:40,559 --> 00:34:46,960 the president or the intentions of Congress. These are specifically 377 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:51,800 excluded by the Sedition Act. Thomas Jefferson is quite upset 378 00:34:52,599 --> 00:34:54,920 by the Sedition Act. He is Vice President of the 379 00:34:55,039 --> 00:34:59,119 United States when this is passed by Congress and signed 380 00:34:59,119 --> 00:35:06,440 into law. He is fearful that if he speaks publicly 381 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,719 and in his own name about this act, that he's 382 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:15,920 going to get rounded up. He is going to have 383 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:21,119 this law enforced against him. It is enforced against other 384 00:35:21,199 --> 00:35:27,199 public characters. There's a very amusing fellow from Vermont. His 385 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:35,679 name is Matthew Lyon. He's a newspaper editor, a colorful figure. 386 00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:42,559 At one point he gets into a real fight with 387 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:49,320 a congressman from Connecticut in Congress. I believe he I 388 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,679 believe he spits in the congressman's eye before he starts 389 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,360 caning him over the head. It's one of the famous 390 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:04,719 caning incidents in Congress. He's a Vermonter, Matthew Lyon, shout 391 00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:11,480 out to my favorite New England state, Vermont. Lyon is 392 00:36:11,599 --> 00:36:16,360 also a Republican and he is bent on saying what 393 00:36:16,519 --> 00:36:21,320 he thinks. So after the Sedition Act is passed, Lyon 394 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:26,760 goes back to his hometown newspaper is running for re 395 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,599 election for Congress at the same time, and maligns the 396 00:36:31,679 --> 00:36:35,719 president in print. Well. The President then sends a marshall 397 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:40,880 up there to find the congressman and imprison him for 398 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,320 his offense of bringing into disrepute the president of the 399 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:50,559 United States. So we see this is an abrogation of 400 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:56,400 freedom of speech, freedom of the press. Matthew Lyon ironically 401 00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,960 is popularly elected back into Congress out of his jail cell. 402 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:07,239 So it's a funny little story that's incident here. Meanwhile, 403 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:15,599 in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson, No, it might be, it might 404 00:37:15,639 --> 00:37:18,719 be actually in Washington at this stage. I think. I 405 00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,719 think Adams is the first president occupy the White House, 406 00:37:22,519 --> 00:37:24,400 so I think they might be in Washington City. At 407 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:33,280 this point, Jefferson and his colleague James Madison are privately 408 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:41,239 approached by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. They are 409 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:49,159 asked to anonymously write resolutions from both states condemning the 410 00:37:49,159 --> 00:37:57,679 Sedition Act and also outlining their strict construction of the Constitution. 411 00:37:59,039 --> 00:38:03,760 And so we find the famous Kentucky and Virginia resolutions. 412 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,400 I'm going to focus today just on the Kentucky resolution 413 00:38:08,559 --> 00:38:11,880 because it is in some ways more forthright, and it's 414 00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:18,000 also Thomas Jefferson's. So this gets adopted by the legislature 415 00:38:18,039 --> 00:38:23,559 of Kentucky. It is some years later, it's eighteen fourteen, 416 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:31,039 I believe, when our own John Taylor of Caroline reveals 417 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:35,760 that Thomas Jefferson was the author of this resolution, it 418 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:39,519 was assumed before then that it was a Kentucky statesman 419 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,519 by the name of Breckenridge who had authored this, but 420 00:38:43,639 --> 00:38:47,000 he had not publicly avowed it. It was just assumed. 421 00:38:47,039 --> 00:38:50,880 So later on it comes out that it's Thomas Jefferson, 422 00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:55,400 and it was John Taylor who actually revealed that. So 423 00:38:55,480 --> 00:39:01,079 the Kentucky Resolution of seventeen ninety eight resolved that the 424 00:39:01,159 --> 00:39:05,440 several states composing the United States of America are not 425 00:39:05,679 --> 00:39:11,360 united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government, 426 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:17,280 but that by compact under the style and title of 427 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:22,639 a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments there too, 428 00:39:23,199 --> 00:39:31,159 they constituted a general government for special purposes. So we 429 00:39:31,199 --> 00:39:36,000 see the framing here. It's important to note just how 430 00:39:36,039 --> 00:39:41,239 they understand the formation of the Union. They say, look here, 431 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:46,360 we have all these sovereign states. They've won their independence 432 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:55,519 from Great Britain. Now they've organized a union government for themselves. 433 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,679 This is their special agent. They have not so rendered 434 00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:07,079 all of their legal powers to this creation of theirs 435 00:40:07,159 --> 00:40:11,440 that they made just a few years ago. This is 436 00:40:11,599 --> 00:40:17,800 actually a special power meant for special purposes. And we 437 00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:22,039 know what those purposes are. They are all enumerated in 438 00:40:22,159 --> 00:40:28,360 the Constitution so you see here he's insisting the states 439 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:32,880 are the parent, the federal government is the child of 440 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:41,159 the parent. The states are preliminary. The federal government is 441 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,440 an extension of the power of the states and obviously 442 00:40:45,599 --> 00:40:48,599 subordinate to them, just as a child is subordinate to 443 00:40:48,599 --> 00:40:54,960 its parents. He says, these special purposes delegated to that 444 00:40:55,039 --> 00:41:02,159 government certain definite powers, reserving each state to itself the 445 00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:08,320 residuary mass of right to their own self government, and 446 00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:15,679 that whatever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts 447 00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:26,079 are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. So he is proposing, 448 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:33,599 ultimately here the states are a check on undelegated powers 449 00:41:33,679 --> 00:41:39,119 to the federal government. They can review things the federal 450 00:41:39,199 --> 00:41:46,880 government does, and they can reject various powers. This is 451 00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:52,639 partly the essential argument that we find in the declaration. 452 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,280 Is not surprising the Jefferson is the author of both 453 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,920 that when a government steps outside of its bounds, as 454 00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:04,199 the right of the people to alter or abolish it, 455 00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:10,559 that's what the declaration says. That this compact, each state 456 00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:15,199 has acceded as a state and is an integral party 457 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:19,239 its co states, forming as to itself the other party 458 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:22,320 that the government created by this compact was not made 459 00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:25,559 the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the 460 00:42:25,679 --> 00:42:31,079 powers delegated to itself. Okay, so he's insisting the federal 461 00:42:31,159 --> 00:42:35,920 government cannot judge the extent of its own powers, that 462 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,679 that is the definition of tyranny, in fact, since that 463 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:44,760 would have made its discretion and not the Constitution, the 464 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:48,199 measure of its powers. But that, as in all other 465 00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:52,000 cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each 466 00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:55,079 party has an equal right to judge for itself as 467 00:42:55,159 --> 00:43:00,599 well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. 468 00:43:02,199 --> 00:43:06,280 So he continues, resolved that the Constitute or the construction 469 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:12,079 applied by the General Government, as is evinced by Sundry 470 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,199 of their proceedings to those parts of the Constitution of 471 00:43:15,199 --> 00:43:17,679 the United States, which delegate to Congress of power to 472 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,159 lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay 473 00:43:21,199 --> 00:43:25,360 the debts, and provide for the common defense and general 474 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:27,880 welfare of the United States, and to make all laws 475 00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,440 which shall be necessary and proper for curing into execution 476 00:43:32,039 --> 00:43:35,280 the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of 477 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,800 the United States or any department thereof, goes to the 478 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:44,000 destruction of all the limits prescribed to their power by 479 00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:49,199 the Constitution. That words meant by that instrument to be 480 00:43:49,519 --> 00:43:53,920 subsidiary only to the execution of the limited powers ought 481 00:43:54,039 --> 00:44:00,199 not be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers. 482 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:07,480 So this is his attack on Hamilton's expansive reading of 483 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:12,800 the vague phrases of the Constitution, namely the Necessary and 484 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:17,880 Proper Clause and the General Welfare Clause. He says, because 485 00:44:18,199 --> 00:44:22,159 if you expand those readings to mean that the government 486 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:27,400 determines the extent of its own powers, then the rest 487 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:32,280 of the Constitution is meaningless. Why put any other barriers 488 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:37,639 up on any debatable point? And there must also be 489 00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:45,880 a final check on that power. Jefferson here and by 490 00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:51,000 extension Kentucky, Virginia, and James Madison, they are proposing the 491 00:44:51,159 --> 00:44:57,039 states are a check on the federal power. The expansive 492 00:44:57,119 --> 00:45:05,400 reading that Hamilton favors resolved that the preceding resolutions be 493 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,519 transmitted to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this 494 00:45:08,639 --> 00:45:12,920 Commonwealth of Kentucky, who are hereby and joined to present 495 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:16,880 the same to their respective houses, and to use their 496 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:20,239 best endeavors to procure the next session of Congress a 497 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:30,599 repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts. Lastly resolved 498 00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:33,679 that the Governor of this Commonwealth be and is hereby 499 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:37,760 authorized and requested, to communicate the preceding resolutions to the 500 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:41,599 legislatures of the several States to assure them that this 501 00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:48,559 Commonwealth considers union for specified national purposes, and particularly for 502 00:45:48,599 --> 00:45:53,480 those specified in their relate Federal Compact, to be friendly 503 00:45:53,599 --> 00:45:56,880 to the peace, happiness, and prosperity of all the states 504 00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:00,599 that faithful to that Compact, according to the plain intent 505 00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:04,079 and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to 506 00:46:04,639 --> 00:46:09,039 by the several parties. It is sincerely anxious for its 507 00:46:09,079 --> 00:46:13,480 preservation that it does also believe that to take from 508 00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:17,599 the states all their powers of self government and transfer 509 00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:22,320 them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to 510 00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:28,599 the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that Compact, 511 00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:33,559 is not for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of these states, 512 00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:39,679 And that therefore this Commonwealth is determined, as it doubts 513 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:46,519 not its co states are tamely to submit to undelegated 514 00:46:46,559 --> 00:46:51,239 and consequently unlimited powers in no manner body of men 515 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:56,840 on earth. That if the acts before specified should stand. 516 00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,679 These conclusions would flow from them, that the general Government 517 00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:04,599 may place any act they think proper on the list 518 00:47:04,639 --> 00:47:09,119 of crimes, and punish it themselves, whether enumerated or not 519 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:15,760 enumerated by the Constitution, as cognizable by them, That they 520 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,320 may transfer its cognizance to the President, or any other 521 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:23,599 person who may himself be the accuser, council, judge, and jury, 522 00:47:24,679 --> 00:47:29,519 whose suspicions may be the evidence, his order, the sentence, 523 00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,760 his officer, the executioner, and his breast the sole record 524 00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:38,639 of the transaction, that a very numerous and valuable description 525 00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:42,280 of the inhabitants of these states, being by this President 526 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:47,519 reduced as outlaws to the absolute dominion of one man, 527 00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:52,719 and the barrier of the Constitution thus swept away from us. 528 00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:58,679 All no rampart now remains against the passions and the 529 00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:04,000 powers of the majority of Congress to protect from a 530 00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:09,519 like exportation or more grievous punishment the minority of the 531 00:48:09,559 --> 00:48:14,559 same body, the legislature, judges, governors, and counselors of the states, 532 00:48:15,039 --> 00:48:18,719 nor their other peaceable inhabitants, who may venture to reclaim 533 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,440 the constitutional rights and liberties of the state and people, 534 00:48:22,199 --> 00:48:25,320 or who for other causes good or bad, may be 535 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,639 obnoxious to the views or marked by the suspicions of 536 00:48:28,679 --> 00:48:31,960 the president, or be thought dangerous to his or their 537 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:36,239 elections or other interests public or personal. That the friendless 538 00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:40,440 alien has indeed been selected as the safest subject of 539 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:47,360 a first experiment. Who he's playing the heartstring tug right there. 540 00:48:49,400 --> 00:48:54,440 But the citizen will soon follow, or rather has already followed, 541 00:48:55,159 --> 00:48:59,519 or already has a sedition act marked him as its prey. 542 00:49:00,159 --> 00:49:03,960 That these and successive acts of the same character, unless 543 00:49:04,039 --> 00:49:08,360 arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these states 544 00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:12,880 into revolution and blood, and will furnish new calumnies against 545 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:17,199 republican governments and new pretexts. For those who wish it 546 00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,719 to be believed that man cannot be governed but by 547 00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:25,599 a rod of iron, that it would be a dangerous delusion. 548 00:49:25,679 --> 00:49:29,119 Where a confidence in the men of our choice to 549 00:49:29,199 --> 00:49:31,840 silence our fears for the safety of our rights. That 550 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:36,159 confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is 551 00:49:36,199 --> 00:49:40,880 founded in jealousy and not in confidence. It is jealousy 552 00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:45,599 and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down 553 00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:49,239 those whom we are obliged to trust with power, that 554 00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:53,960 our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and 555 00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:58,119 no further our confidence may go. And let the honest 556 00:49:58,119 --> 00:50:01,960 advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition Acts, and 557 00:50:02,159 --> 00:50:06,360 say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing 558 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,679 limits to the government it created, and whether we should 559 00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:13,559 be wise in destroying those limits. Let him say what 560 00:50:13,639 --> 00:50:18,440 the government is, if it not be a tyranny which 561 00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,920 the men of our choice have conferred on the President, 562 00:50:22,159 --> 00:50:25,000 and the president of our choice has assented to and 563 00:50:25,119 --> 00:50:29,280 accepted over the friendly strangers to whom the mild spirit 564 00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:33,039 of our country and its laws had pledged hospitality and protection. 565 00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:37,519 That the men of our choice have more respected the 566 00:50:37,559 --> 00:50:41,239 barest suspicions of the President than the solid rights of innocence, 567 00:50:41,559 --> 00:50:45,119 the claim of justification, the sacred force of truth, and 568 00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:49,360 the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions 569 00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:54,679 of power. Let no more be heard of confidence in man, 570 00:50:55,079 --> 00:51:00,880 but bind him down from mischief by the claims the Constitution. 571 00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:05,480 That this Commonwealth does not therefore call on its co 572 00:51:05,599 --> 00:51:08,599 states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts 573 00:51:08,599 --> 00:51:11,440 concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein 574 00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:16,920 before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are 575 00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:22,079 not authorized by the federal compact. So he says here, 576 00:51:22,119 --> 00:51:26,159 and this is very important. It's ultimately up to the 577 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:32,159 states to determine whether a controversial law is constitutional or not. 578 00:51:35,159 --> 00:51:44,280 This is the doctrine of state nullification or interposition. That 579 00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:49,519 the states retain authority to judge the meaning of the 580 00:51:49,599 --> 00:51:55,000 contract of union that they assented to, because they are 581 00:51:55,079 --> 00:52:00,599 parties to this contract, and that the agent they created, 582 00:52:00,599 --> 00:52:05,480 the federal government, does not have the ultimate authority to 583 00:52:05,519 --> 00:52:11,639 determine what that contract means, which actually created it. So 584 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,599 this is the novel doctrine here, and this is a 585 00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:20,239 very important doctrine for our understanding going forward. This is 586 00:52:20,559 --> 00:52:27,000 the famous states rights doctrine of the Jeffersonian school, and 587 00:52:27,079 --> 00:52:31,239 we see its origins here in seventeen ninety eight. These 588 00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:38,280 are afterwards referred to as the Principles of ninety eight. 589 00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:45,800 This is a Jeffersonian rallying cry so to continue, and 590 00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:51,199 I'm almost unfeared with the documentary. It doubts not that 591 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:53,760 their sense will be so announced as to prove their 592 00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:58,840 attachment unaltered to limited government, whether general or particular, and 593 00:52:59,199 --> 00:53:01,440 that the rights and liberties of their co states will 594 00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:04,719 be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked on a 595 00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:09,079 common bottom with their own. That they will concur with 596 00:53:09,159 --> 00:53:13,480 the Commonwealth in considering the set ax as so palpably 597 00:53:13,519 --> 00:53:17,039 against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration, 598 00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:19,559 that the Compact is not meant to be the measure 599 00:53:19,599 --> 00:53:22,519 of the powers of the General Government, but that it 600 00:53:22,599 --> 00:53:25,920 will proceed in the exercise over these states of all 601 00:53:26,039 --> 00:53:31,239 powers whatsoever, so that the Constitution doesn't in fact limit 602 00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:36,199 what the federal government can in fact do. That they 603 00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:39,199 will view this as seizing the rights of the states 604 00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:42,400 and consolidating them in the hands of the general government, 605 00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:46,199 but a power assumed to bind the states, not merely 606 00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:49,760 in cases made federal, but in all cases whatsoever, by 607 00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:53,480 laws made not with their consent, but by others against 608 00:53:53,519 --> 00:53:57,440 their consent. That this would be to surrender the forms 609 00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:00,159 of government we have chosen, and to live under one 610 00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:03,400 deriving its powers from its own will and not from 611 00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:07,119 our authority. And that the co States, recurring to their 612 00:54:07,199 --> 00:54:11,400 natural right in cases not made federal, will concur in 613 00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:17,280 declaring these acts void of no force, and will each 614 00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:22,079 unite with this Commonwealth in requesting their appeal in the 615 00:54:22,119 --> 00:54:29,400 next session of Congress. So we see there his climactic conclusion. 616 00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:36,039 The Governor of Kentucky, through this resolution drafted by Jefferson, 617 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:42,639 declares the Sedition Act void and of no force in 618 00:54:42,679 --> 00:54:51,760 the Commonwealth. This presents ultimately a conflict between two executive roles. 619 00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:57,880 Will the President send his enforcers, ultimately backed by the 620 00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:03,440 United States Army, to ensure that the law of the 621 00:55:03,559 --> 00:55:10,679 land is enforced in Kentucky and Virginia. Will this lead 622 00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:17,559 to conflict between the governor's state forces and the army 623 00:55:17,639 --> 00:55:23,920 of the United States. It could, It did not on 624 00:55:23,960 --> 00:55:32,159 this occasion. Instead, the federal authorities backed off. John Adams 625 00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:38,320 was not interested in forcing the issue. It turned out 626 00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:42,280 to be an extremely unpopular law, and it tempted his 627 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:47,519 opponents to extremity. They were all very eager to act 628 00:55:47,559 --> 00:55:56,400 out and get charges so they could make examples. Curiously, 629 00:55:58,119 --> 00:56:03,239 what follows is in eighteen hundred, Thomas Jefferson replaces Adams 630 00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:10,760 in the White House. Jefferson then commutes various sentences, and 631 00:56:13,519 --> 00:56:18,039 there are popular drives among the Republicans to raise funds 632 00:56:18,079 --> 00:56:25,320 to restore those fined by the Sedition Act. Just all 633 00:56:25,519 --> 00:56:29,599 very interesting ordeal. But this is the story of the 634 00:56:29,639 --> 00:56:33,320 Alien and Sedition Acts, both of which may be our 635 00:56:33,639 --> 00:56:39,199 particular interest to Americans at this point in our history, 636 00:56:40,039 --> 00:56:47,440 and I feel I'm lament to say we seem as 637 00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:53,199 divided on the question now as we were then. But 638 00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:57,440 the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. The Kentucky resolution, which we 639 00:56:57,480 --> 00:57:04,480 went in some depth with here the origin of the 640 00:57:04,519 --> 00:57:10,800 substance of nullification, the major weapon of the state's rights school. 641 00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:16,679 So with the Kentucky resolution we see the pivot of 642 00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:22,679 the Jeffersonians, Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Randolph. They lose some 643 00:57:22,719 --> 00:57:28,719 of the key battles in the Washington administration. They exhibit 644 00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:33,360 their position and such, but they don't carry the day. 645 00:57:34,239 --> 00:57:39,400 Hamilton more or less gets everything that he wants. They 646 00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:43,000 take their battle back down to the state level. The 647 00:57:43,119 --> 00:57:49,360 result in the Adams administration is the resolutions against the 648 00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:54,039 Alien Institution Acts. So they're trying to rally state interposition 649 00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:59,480 as their final barrier for their vision of the strict 650 00:57:59,519 --> 00:58:04,800 construction of the Constitution. I cannot overstate just how important 651 00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:10,079 this element is in the future of the sectional conflict 652 00:58:11,119 --> 00:58:19,039 the Southern Jeffersonians. What becomes the Democratic Party later in 653 00:58:19,079 --> 00:58:23,320 our history, think of the Democratic Party of Andrew Jacks. 654 00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:30,639 They are referencing bits like this from our former history. However, 655 00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,920 they are not the only ones to reference this. As 656 00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:39,880 I will point out presently in a future episode, this 657 00:58:40,679 --> 00:58:45,480 doctrine that the States reserved rights, and that this is 658 00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:50,679 somehow guarded by the Tenth Amendment, that they are sovereign 659 00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:58,159 powers and may restore a full measure of sovereignty when 660 00:58:58,159 --> 00:59:02,280 they choose whose potential. This comes up during the War 661 00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:04,599 of eighteen twelve in a really interesting way, and we'll 662 00:59:05,199 --> 00:59:11,159 go in some depth on that point later on. But 663 00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:15,320 this is the origin of the theory of nullification and 664 00:59:15,679 --> 00:59:20,400 its original and brilliant exponent in Thomas Jefferson in the 665 00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:24,920 Kentucky Resolution. Do you have anything else to add to 666 00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:26,079 all of this tonight, pe. 667 00:59:27,599 --> 00:59:32,039 Speaker 1: No, that was very thorough. That was very thorough, good background, 668 00:59:32,079 --> 00:59:38,920 good examples, and definitely leading up to the subject that 669 00:59:39,280 --> 00:59:44,480 we we're going to end on. This is one of 670 00:59:44,559 --> 00:59:49,760 the most important things for people to understand that if 671 00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:55,719 the States felt that a law was unconstitutional, they had 672 00:59:55,719 --> 00:59:56,760 a right to say no. 673 00:59:58,599 --> 00:59:59,079 Speaker 2: Exactly. 674 00:59:59,159 --> 01:00:02,599 Speaker 1: There's some it's it's so it's so simple, that's That's 675 01:00:02,599 --> 01:00:06,239 the thing about it is it's a very A lot 676 01:00:06,239 --> 01:00:09,760 of people think that, you know, take political theory, and 677 01:00:10,159 --> 01:00:12,239 you know, you can dive down all these rabbit holes. 678 01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:15,079 But as far as our system is designed, this is 679 01:00:15,159 --> 01:00:15,719 very simple. 680 01:00:17,559 --> 01:00:22,519 Speaker 2: Yes, and and it it can get kind of hairy 681 01:00:22,559 --> 01:00:28,039 to dissect because of the complex nature of this huge, 682 01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:35,519 continence sized union. That we have this great and mysterious 683 01:00:35,559 --> 01:00:40,320 division of sovereign powers between the state and the federal government. 684 01:00:41,039 --> 01:00:43,079 So we have all all the different states and their 685 01:00:43,119 --> 01:00:48,519 own institutions, their own stories and regions and differing laws, 686 01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:52,440 and then we have the federal level. And the federal 687 01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:55,079 government does a number of things the states don't do, 688 01:00:55,360 --> 01:00:57,559 and the states do a number of things federal government 689 01:00:57,639 --> 01:01:04,079 doesn't do. There's this interesting between them. And yet we 690 01:01:04,199 --> 01:01:11,199 see from the very start a conflict in power, and 691 01:01:11,400 --> 01:01:15,880 what the claims of power are in each sphere, how 692 01:01:16,039 --> 01:01:21,679 sovereign each is, each actor in this There is a 693 01:01:21,840 --> 01:01:27,239 very good book about this particular subject, which I really 694 01:01:27,280 --> 01:01:30,880 wish I had with me. My library is still packed 695 01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:36,840 up awaiting the sale of my house. Say a prayer 696 01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:40,079 for me. Not many people are coming to look at it. 697 01:01:41,639 --> 01:01:45,199 But there's a book called imperium at imperio. And it's 698 01:01:45,239 --> 01:01:50,360 by Forrest MacDonald, who is one of the greats on 699 01:01:50,519 --> 01:01:57,760 this issue. And it's all about this matter of states 700 01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:05,199 asserting sovereignty in whatever context. So he meticulously documents this, 701 01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:10,119 and this is an excellent work on this particular subject. 702 01:02:10,639 --> 01:02:13,960 And we see that it is not just a sectional issue. 703 01:02:14,039 --> 01:02:19,039 It's not something that only Southerners believed in. It's not 704 01:02:19,199 --> 01:02:23,679 something that was peculiar to the Dixiecrats at one point 705 01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:31,280 or something or that was done for other motives, like 706 01:02:31,519 --> 01:02:34,719 a theory that's cooked up because they really want to 707 01:02:34,760 --> 01:02:39,760 get something else done or something. It's something very old 708 01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:44,079 and it's done in many parts of the country. We 709 01:02:44,559 --> 01:02:51,760 have interesting examples which we will get to. The Maryland 710 01:02:52,079 --> 01:02:56,559 government outlaws the Bank of the United States basically taxes 711 01:02:56,639 --> 01:03:02,280 it out of existence. This is an effort to check 712 01:03:02,360 --> 01:03:06,480 federal power by a state law and by state authority. 713 01:03:07,079 --> 01:03:12,480 It's overruled famously by John Marshall in his landmark case 714 01:03:12,559 --> 01:03:18,920 McCulla versus Maryland, where he basically reads Hamilton's theory into 715 01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:25,800 the constitutional opinion. But this doesn't stop the effort of nullification. 716 01:03:26,719 --> 01:03:31,199 Even on the same manner. After McCulla versus Maryland. The 717 01:03:31,199 --> 01:03:37,079 state of Ohio, which is a Northern state, taxes the 718 01:03:37,119 --> 01:03:40,159 Bank of the United States out of existence in Ohio 719 01:03:41,400 --> 01:03:48,920 and simply ignores the Supreme Court ruling. Other examples of this. 720 01:03:49,199 --> 01:03:55,599 After the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen fifty, several Northern states, 721 01:03:55,639 --> 01:04:03,079 including Massachusetts and Wisconsin, nullify the Congressional Fugitive Slave Act 722 01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:09,559 in their states. Now that's federal law, but there was 723 01:04:09,599 --> 01:04:17,119 a popular reaction and it gets nullified at later dates. 724 01:04:18,039 --> 01:04:21,480 So we see here this issue of nullification is not 725 01:04:21,559 --> 01:04:24,679 particular to the Southern States. This is an American tradition 726 01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:29,519 and it's exercised in any number of issues, and also 727 01:04:29,559 --> 01:04:35,480 in spite of Supreme Court rulings. Because ultimately, the argument 728 01:04:35,840 --> 01:04:39,840 in the Kentucky resolution, as we just saw, is that 729 01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:45,039 the state is a party to this compact. The state 730 01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:49,920 is an adherent to this agreement that forms the Union. Therefore, 731 01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:53,079 the state has an authority to say just what that 732 01:04:53,159 --> 01:04:59,800 agreement constituted, and that the Supreme Court is not the 733 01:05:00,079 --> 01:05:04,760 ultimate authority. A federal judge doesn't have the ultimate say 734 01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:09,239 in what the law is. The state can have a 735 01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:16,119 stay too. Now that's a very complex theory, and we 736 01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:20,079 can have legitimate disagreement about just how all that works out, 737 01:05:20,159 --> 01:05:25,119 but that's the origin, all right. 738 01:05:25,239 --> 01:05:28,960 Speaker 1: Already looking forward to the next episode. Just in case 739 01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:34,599 somebody is picking this episode up first, do your plugs please. 740 01:05:35,239 --> 01:05:40,320 Speaker 2: Yes, indeed so. I'm George Bagbee. I'm doing lots of 741 01:05:40,360 --> 01:05:47,400 podcast work presently. I'm the proprietor of Tallman Books, which 742 01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:52,920 is my press. I republish lots of history books. Primarily, 743 01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:55,400 I've got a lot of stuff about the Civil War 744 01:05:55,559 --> 01:06:02,440 and reconstruction, republishing a big series about American history. It's 745 01:06:03,239 --> 01:06:08,039 fifty volumes of American history from Yale University Press from 746 01:06:08,360 --> 01:06:12,800 the nineteen twenties. It was a series called The Chronicles 747 01:06:12,840 --> 01:06:16,000 of America. You can find all of this on my 748 01:06:16,159 --> 01:06:23,239 website which is www dot Collmenbooks dot com. And I 749 01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:24,639 appreciate your patronage. 750 01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:28,760 Speaker 1: Thank you, mister Baggy. Until the next time, take care, 751 01:06:29,719 --> 01:06:30,079 Thank you.