Page 207 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The president missed the political point. The Federalists wanted the army not to
7.1 thwart French aggression but to stifle internal opposition. Indeed, militant Federalists
used the XYZ Affair to institute what Jefferson termed the “reign of witches.” The threat
to the Republicans was not simply a figment of the vice president’s overwrought imagi-
7.2 nation. When Theodore Sedgwick, a Federalist senator from Massachusetts, learned
of the commission’s failure, he observed in words that capture the High Federalists’
vindictiveness, “It will afford a glorious opportunity to destroy faction. Improve it.”

7.3 During summer 1798, a provisional army gradually came into existence. Washington
agreed to lead the troops, but only if Adams appointed Hamilton second in command. This
demand placed the president in a dilemma. Several revolutionary veterans—Henry Knox,
for example—outranked Hamilton. Moreover, the former secretary of the treasury had con-
7.4
sistently undermined Adams’s authority. To give Hamilton a powerful position seemed awk-
ward at best. When Washington insisted, however, Adams was forced to appoint Hamilton.
The chief of the High Federalists threw himself into recruiting and supplying the
7.5
troops. No detail escaped his attention. He and Secretary of War James McHenry made
certain that in this political army, only loyal Federalists received commissions. They
even denied Adams’s son-in-law a post. The entire enterprise took on an air of unreality.
Hamilton longed for military glory. He may have contemplated attacking Spain’s Latin
American colonies. His obsession, however, was to restore political order. No doubt he
agreed with a Federalist senator from Connecticut who predicted that the Republicans
“never will yield till violence is introduced; we must have a partial civil war … and the
bayonet must convince some, who are beyond the reach of other arguments.”
Hamilton should not have treated Adams with such open contempt. Adams was
still the president. Without presidential cooperation, Hamilton could not fulfill his
grand military ambitions. Yet whenever pressing questions concerning the army arose,
Adams was nowhere to be found. He let commissions lie on his desk unsigned; he took
overlong vacations to New England. He made it clear his first love was the navy. In
May 1798, the president persuaded Congress to establish the Navy Department. For
this new cabinet position, he selected Benjamin Stoddert, who did not take orders from
Quick Check Hamilton. Moreover, Adams further infuriated the High Federalists by refusing to ask
Why did Republicans oppose the Congress for a declaration of war. When they pressed him, Adams threatened to resign,
creation of an American standing making Jefferson president. As the weeks passed, the American people increasingly
army?
regarded the idle army as an expensive extravagance.

Silencing Political Opposition: The Alien and Sedition Acts

The Federalists did not rely solely on the army to crush dissent. During the summer of
Alien and Sedition 1798, Congress passed four bills known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. This
Acts collective name given to four legislation authorized using federal courts and the powers of the presidency to silence
laws congress passed in 1798 to the Republicans. The acts were born of fear and vindictiveness. To punish Jefferson’s
suppress criticism of the federal
government and curb liberties followers, the Federalists created the nation’s first major crisis over civil liberties.
of foreigners living in the United Congress drew up three Alien Acts. The first, the Alien Enemies Law, vested the
States. president with extraordinary wartime powers. On his own authority, he could detain
or deport citizens of nations with which the United States was at war and who behaved
in a manner he thought suspicious. Since Adams refused to ask for a declaration of
war, this legislation never went into effect. A second act, the Alien Law, empowered the
president to expel any foreigner from the United States by executive decree. Congress
limited the acts to two years. While Adams did not attempt to enforce them, the mere
threat of arrest caused Frenchmen to flee the country. The third act, the Naturaliza-
tion Law, was the most flagrantly political. It established a 14-year probationary period
before foreigners could apply for U.S. citizenship. Recent immigrants, especially the
Irish, tended to vote Republican. The Naturalization Law, therefore, was designed to
keep “hordes of wild Irishmen” away from the polls for as long as possible.
The Sedition Law struck at the heart of free political exchange. It defined criticism
of the U.S. government as criminal libel; citizens found guilty by a jury were subject
to fines and imprisonment. Congress entrusted enforcement of the act to the federal
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