|
|
How Jefferson Saved The First Amendment
On the Fourth of July, not only the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was celebrated. Also honored, in various orations, was the Bill of Rights. How many Americans know that the Constitution was not ratified by the individual states until those 10 amendments, the Bill of Rights, were added? From the First Amendment -- which guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press -- all our other liberties flow. Jefferson was a strong advocate of the Bill of Rights.
But Thomas Jefferson's luster among the Founders is dimming as some historians agree with David McCullough, and Pauline Maier, an expert on the Founding, that -- as she wrote in a New York Times review of McCullough's best-selling book, "John Adams," "On virtually all points of comparison" between Adams and Jefferson, "Jefferson comes in second."
Maier omitted from her review, however, the fact that Jefferson saved the First Amendment after our second president -- the very same John Adams -- and the Federalist Congress, nearly extinguished freedom of speech and press. Only seven years after the Constitution -- including the Bill of Rights -- was ratified, Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made the president -- any president -- and members of Congress immune from criticism by "We the People of the United States."
Even McCullough wrote that the Alien and Sedition Acts "are rightfully judged by history as the most reprehensible acts of Adams's presidency."
The legislation punished -- by imprisonment and fine -- anyone who spoke, wrote or published anything that brought the President or Congress "into contempt or disrepute," or might excite against them "the hatred of the good people of the United States," thereby stirring up "sedition within the United States."
Revolutionary War veterans and other individuals could be imprisoned under this law for up to two years and fined up to $2,000 -- a princely sum in those days.
Thomas Jefferson disrespected President Adams and Congress by calling the Alien and Sedition Acts an "unconstitutional reign of terror." But historian Joseph Ellis tries to partially absolve John Adams by saying we should not impose "our modern notion of civil liberties or freedom of the press on an age that was still groping toward a more expansive version of First Amendment protections."
Then how come Jefferson, James Madison and other Americans immediately saw the danger of this suppression of free speech and press?
The first victim of the Act was Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont, who had fought in the Revolution. In a letter to the Vermont Journal, he had attacked the Adams administration for its "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation and selfish avarice."
Paraded under guard through the town of Vergennes, Vt., Lyon was marched into a 12-foot-by-16 foot cell. So much for the Declaration of Independence!
On hearing the news, Jefferson said, "I know not which mortifies me most, that I should fear to write what I think or that my country bear such a state of things."
Also imprisoned were the editors of four of the five most important opposition newspapers. In Dedham, Mass., a number of nonjournalists had set up a Liberty Pole with the sign: "No Stamp Act, No Sedition, No Alien Bills, No Land Tax. Downfall to the Tyrants of America."
One of those Dedham lawbreakers -- a common laborer and a veteran of the Revolutionary Army -- was convicted of creating a "rallying point of insurrection and civil war." He was jailed for two years.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not strike down the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 until 1964 (New York Times vs. Sullivan). Justice William Brennan wrote then, "The attack on its validity has carried the day in the court of history."
Jefferson did not wait. On succeeding Adams as president, he pardoned and remitted the fines of the convicted and imprisoned Americans.
These days, when most American students -- all the way through graduate school -- have not been taught much American history, except in its multicultural requirements, the lesson of the Alien and Sedition Acts is a reminder that our liberties are not set in stone. And on this crucial point of comparison with John Adams, Mr. Jefferson comes out way ahead
b.150m.com http://www.b.150m.com/ http://www.geocities.com/individualistanarchist/ geocities.com/individualistanarchist anarchy individualist anarchism individualist anarchist individualist anarchists libertarianism libertarian libertarians individual individualism individualists individualistanarchist@yahoo.com haarp tesla coils echelon tempest van eck hacking tools hackers hacker kevin mitnick crypto cryptographic decss software downloads denial of service attack cypherpunks cypherpunk crackers open source code linux bsd unix computer security network hong kong blondes laurie holden drool brigade blondie wong secret cells serialz death by ping cryptography exploits phreaking virus viruses herf emp electromagentic pulse electro-magnetic pulse phreaking digital millenium copy-right act copy right copy rights copyright copyrights copy-rights copy left copyleft copy-left patent patents intellectual property rights ip html computer languages personal privacy internet privacy encrypt encryption anonymity anonymous terrorism hijacking pentagon world trade center new york city anti war anti-war antiwar isolation isolationism isolationsist isolationists neutral neutrality peace du depleted uranium lysander spooner benjamin tucker mark austin murray rothbard george orwell max stirner david friedman nessie mikhail bakunan pierre-joseph proudhon william godwin josiah warren wendy mcelroy walter block thomas szasz brian caplan albert henry david thoreau j nock ayn rand ludwig von mises henry hazlitt milton friedman adam smith john locke frederic bastiat aristotle aristotelian aristotelians lao tsu patrick henry thomas jefferson george mason samuel adams george washington barry goldwater charles beard karl marx aldolf hitler nazi nazis nazism pol national socialism national socialist national socialists anti communism anti communist infiltration anti communists marxism marxist marxists anticommunist anticommunists anticommunism anti-communism anti-communist anti-communists altruism altrist altruists collectivism collectivist collectivists racist racism racists state statism statist statists liberalism liberal liberals liberalist neo-liberal neo-liberalism neo-liberals conservatism conservative conservatives neo-conservativism neo-conservative neo-conservatives national nation nations nationalism nationalist nationalists tradition traditions traditionalism traditionalist traditionalists revolution revolutions revolutionary revolutionaries reaction reactionary reactionaries democracy democracies democratic democrat democrats republic republics republican republicans republicanism progressive progressives progressivism progress radical radicals radicalism extreme extremism extremist extremists new right old right far right new left right wing fabian socialism fabian socialist fabian socialists fabian society fabians utilitarianism utilitarianist utilitarianists pragmatism pragmatist pragmatists pragmatic utopia utopias utopian utopians utopianism politics political party partiesenvironment environmental environmentalism environmentalist environmentalists ecology ecological ecologist ecologists global warming greenhouse green-house green house effect carbon dioxide cfc cfs ozone layer ozone hole science scientist scientists scientific physics sociology sociologist sociologists sociological psychology psychologist psychologists psychological anthropology debate debating discuss discussion discussing argue argues arguing argument arguments argumentation news papers individual rights individual freedom right natural rights natural law common law natural laws legal system private property personal property civil liberty civil liberties human right human rights constitution constituional right constitutional rights constitutionalism constitutionalist constituitionalists injustice injustices justice bill of rights free market free-market freemarket free-trade free trade commerce laissez-faire laissez faire economics economic economical economist austrian school of economics ethic ethics ethical moral morals morality virtue philosophy philospher philosophers ancient classical modern post-modern modernism subjective subjectivity subjectivism subjectivist subjectivists real reality realism realist realists ontology ontologies ontological epistemology epistemologies epistemological meta-physics meta physics meta physical meta-phyisical cosmology cosmologies cosmological analytic synthetic logic logical facts factual a priori a posteriori emperical empericism rational rationalism tabula rasa causality proposition propositions plato idea ideas ideal idealism idealist idealists ideology ideologist ideologists ideological theory theories theorist theorists religion religions atheism atheist atheists marijuana cannabis hemp lsd drugs drug war drug prohibition minarchism minarchist minarachists capital capitalism capitalist capitalists robert bob murphy jeremy sapienza rob moody justin raimondo alan bock brad edmonds lew rockwell lewrockwell lewrockwell.com gene callahan stephan kinsella david dieteman john stossel harry browne joseph sobran charley reese vin suprynowicz joseph farah world net daily alexander cockburn ralph raico paul craig roberts hans-hermann hoppe thomas sowell gore vidal joel miller ego egoism egoist egoists atlas shrugged the fountain head anthem john galt objective objectivism objectivist objectivists self selfish virtue of selfishness right to bear arms 2nd amendment second amendment militia citizen miltias gun control gun rights guns rifles firearms arms weapons m-16 sks ar-15 m-16 m-60 ak-47 pro anti abortion abortions pro-abortion anti-abortion pro-choice anti-choice choice woman womans rights fetus feteus unborn children unborn babies illuminatti cia central inteligence agency nsa national security agency fbi batf atf mi5 twa flight 800 crash waco janet reno bill clinton al gore george w bush jr alan greenspan jfk assassination politics david rockefeller henry kissinger zbigniew brzezinski cfr council on foreign relations trilateral commission secret societies bilderberg round table carroll quigley new world order world government un united nations wto world trade organization world band imf nato federal reserve central banking gold standard fiat currency fractional reserve banking fed cointelpro conspiracy theories government conspriracies undercover covert operations government secrecy infiltrate infiltrates infiltration weather warfare mind control microchip implants secret experimentation information disinformation john birch society new american senator joseph mccarthy joe mccarthy okc bombing ok city bombing tim mcveigh conspiracy? the oklahoma city bombing timmothy mveigh tyranny oppression emergency rule martial law fema federal emergency management federal government executive dictatorship police state military rule oppressive government posse comitatus act pcivil disobedience pearl harbor ron brown why anarchy requires private property the problem with socialist anarchism
