America’s Earliest Political War

 From Daniel McCarthy:

Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party, the ancestor of today’s Democratic Party, thought Adams and his Federalist Party were monarchists and traitors to the American Revolution because they were pro-British and anti-French. The Federalists thought Jefferson’s pro-French party was as radical as France’s own revolutionaries: The phrase “godless communists” didn’t exist yet, but Federalists perceived Jeffersonians as atheists who would abolish private property if they got the chance.

Federalists were anti-democratic, said Republicans. Republicans were against the Constitution, Federalists shot back.  Each side fervently believed the other was “illiberal” and in league with foreign regimes antithetical to America’s principles. Immigration was a red-hot issue then as well and tied to fears of anti-American influences from abroad. Under President Adams, Congress raised the number of years a foreigner would have to live in the United States before being naturalized as a citizen.

The Federalist-controlled Congress also gave the president broad powers to deport immigrants — or “aliens,” as they were then called. How about complaints of government being used against domestic opponents? With the Sedition Act of 1798, Congress criminalized “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” critical of the government. Nowadays, administrations like President Biden’s lean on social media companies to do their censoring for them, as critics of COVID policy, such as Jay Bhattacharya, discovered.

Jefferson and his supporters didn’t just oppose the Alien and Sedition Acts, they were prepared to resist them to the point of inciting states to defy the federal government. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 — the former written by Jefferson, the latter by James Madison, both making their case anonymously — argued states could obstruct or even “nullify” federal law. The “sanctuary city” progressive mayors declare this in response to federal immigration restrictions that have a precedent here. (Read more.)