The Parallel Lives

Last time in these pages, I wrote about the sharp division within George Washington’s Presidential administration, that between Alexander Hamilton, founder of the Federalist Party, and Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party. 

     That division between the two parties accelerated throughout the 1790’s.

     In the election of 1796, John Adams won the presidency with 71 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson’s 68 votes. Per the Constitution then, the one with the most votes would serve as President, and the one with the second most votes would serve as Vice-President. 

     It was an unpleasant situation, Adams as President and Jefferson as Vice-President. In their respective newspapers, the two parties pummeled each other and fell into vicious name calling.

     Newspaper editors who favored the Jeffersonians called John Adams “a hideous character, who has neither the force and firmness of a man nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” The same editors labeled Adams “a fool, a hypocrite, and a tyrant.”

     Editors who supported Adams called Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, a weakling, an atheist, and a libertine.” In addition, they called into question Jefferson’s English parentage.

     A certain Federalist was convinced that Jefferson intended to “unleash the terrible evils of democracy,” allowing the unwashed masses to seek office in the Federal government. Another Federalist said that “when the pot boils, the scum will rise.”

     In early 1798, Matthew Lyon, a fierce anti-Federalist and a Congressman from Vermont, drifted into a war of words, trading back and forth put-downs, with Roger Griswold, a volatile Democratic-Republican, also a Congressman, but from Connecticut. 

     On January 31, Lyon propelled tobacco juice into Griswold’s eyes.     

     Two weeks later, on February 15, Griswold “walked up to Lyon’s desk and hit him about the head and shoulders with a hickory walking stick. Lyon grabbed a pair of fireplace iron tongs and beat Griswold back. The two men dropped their weapons and threw fists at each other.”

     Because the Federalists had the votes in Congress, they passed four laws that summer. 

     On June 18, 1798, Congress passed the Naturalization Act, that extended the residency requirement for immigrants from five to fourteen years before they could attain citizenship.

     On June 25, Congress passed the Alien Friends Act, that authorized the President to deport any non-citizen deemed dangerous to the peace and safety of the U.S.

     On July 6, Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act, that authorized the President to detain or deport immigrants from a hostile nation during wartime. 

     On July 14, Congress passed the Sedition Act, that made criminal any “false, scandalous, or malicious writing against the government,” in pamphlets or newspapers.

     Jefferson and his fellow Democratic-Republicans were aghast. They perceived those four laws as a political attack upon their party. The four laws raised questions about the proper balance between the two parties, and the limits of free speech and a free press. 

     The Alien Friends Act and the Sedition Act both expired in 1800, and Congress repealed the Naturalization Act in 1802. The Alien Enemies Act (AEA) though is still the law of the land.

     Presidents have used it four times: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. The AEA was used to intern in camps certain Japanese, German, and Italian people during World War II.

     Last March, Donald Trump attempted to use the 1798 AEA to “justify deporting Venezuelans to El Salvador, that they were members of a Venezuelan gang that had infiltrated the U.S.”

     In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson received 73 votes, the same as Aaron Burr. A vote in Congress made Jefferson President and Burr Vice-President. The Federalists were swept out.