The Revolution of 1800 and the USA PATRIOT Act

In this election year, there are significant parallels between the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Enacted in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the PATRIOT Act has augmented the power of federal authorities to pry into the affairs of innocent Americans. In the summer of 1798, the United States Congress passed and President John Adams signed similar legislation.

At base, the Alien and Sedition Acts prohibited criticism of the federal government and gave President Adams the power to deport any alien he viewed as suspicious. Americans found guilty of sedition faced prison terms of up to five years and hefty fines. In certain circumstances, aliens remaining in the United States could be imprisoned "so long as, in the opinion of the President, the public safety may require."

This legislation made a mockery of the First Amendment and deprived aliens of basic due process of law. The Alien and Sedition Acts were the federal government's first direct assault on American civil liberties. From this assault and the response, we can learn lessons relevant to our own time.

As is often the case with illiberal legislation, the Acts were a product of temporary Strum und Drang. In the 1790s, a number of Americans feared that the democratic excesses of the French Revolution would be exported to the United States. They believed that French agents were plotting the destruction of the Constitution and the overthrow of the Adams administration. Rumors abounded in Philadelphia that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison planned to assist a French invasion force that was sailing across the Atlantic. Some expected that a guillotine would be set up to deal with patriotic Americans.

In this environment, Adams and the Federalists pushed for legislation that would secure the home front in the face of invasion and that would also, they hoped, secure Federalist political hegemony.

Fearing revolutionary France, many Americans at first supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. In Thomas Jefferson's words, the people were "made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves."

But the Federalist attacks on civil liberties were soon met with opposition. Local meetings were held throughout the union and the people affixed their signatures to sundry petitions.

These public meetings were well attended and sparked much interest. In Lexington, Ky., for example, a meeting scheduled at a local church to consider the Acts had to be moved to the town square because 5,000 citizens — twice Lexington’s population — assembled.

To combat the Acts, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In these Resolutions, Madison and Jefferson accused Congress of exceeding its powers and declared the Alien and Sedition Acts void. Times were so tense that Madison and Jefferson hid their authorship because they feared prosecution under the dreaded Sedition Act. The Acts were seen as such a danger to liberty that there was also some discussion of resisting the measures by force and secession.

Fortunately, drastic measures were not needed because the people had a very powerful weapon at their disposal: the ballot box. In addition, Jefferson and the Republican Party posed quite a contrast to Adams and the Federalist Party. In the so-called "Revolution of 1800," the Republicans won a 24-seat majority in the House of Representatives and Jefferson was elected to the presidency.

Upon taking office, Jefferson suspended all pending prosecutions under the Sedition Act and pardoned those convicted under the unconstitutional Act. Jefferson would later boast how this revolution was brought about not by the sword "but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people."

Under today's PATRIOT Act, government investigators can more easily eavesdrop on Internet activity, FBI agents are charged with gathering domestic intelligence, Treasury Department officials are charged with creating a financial intelligence-gathering system for use by the CIA, and the CIA, banished from the field of domestic intelligence because of abuses in the Vietnam era, is permitted to resume domestic operations.

Separate from the PATRIOT Act, the Bush administration unsuccessfully argued to the Supreme Court that it could detain American citizens and foreign nationals on U.S. soil indefinitely and without access to legal counsel — all when the writ of habeas corpus has not even been suspended. Even John Adams only claimed such a power over aliens, not citizens.

Civil libertarians have been very critical of the PATRIOT Act, believing that the balance between liberty and power has tipped too far toward the latter. But, with an election around the corner, the American people can have the final say on this question.

Unlike 1800, the people are given no meaningful choice. Sen. John Kerry, the president's only real challenger, voted in favor of the PATRIOT Act and authored some of its provisions. According to the Kerry campaign, the problem is not with the PATRIOT Act itself, but with those enforcing it, i.e., Attorney General John Ashcroft. His message for Americans is to keep the powers in place and to trust him with these powers that he admits have been abused.

The ballot box is a powerful weapon in the people's hands when they have real choices. With the franchise the people can defend their liberties and reform the government. To paraphrase Jefferson, they can effect a bloodless revolution.

However, when both parties offer the people candidates with indistinguishable views on issues relating to fundamental liberties, the franchise is an impotent weapon. And if democracy so falters, the people are left with few attractive options in defense of their freedoms.

William J. Watkins Jr. is Research Fellow at The Independent Institute (www.independent.org) and author of the new book "Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2004).

To expand the quote from Jefferson:

The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful manoeuvres, & made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But time & truth have dissipated the delusion, & opened their eyes.

"In certain circumstances, aliens remaining in the United States could be imprisoned "

Let's take a look at those "certain circumstance":
"whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event"

Though "threatened" is very vague, this all seems within the Constitutional power of the President to "repel sudden attacks" on his own.
Much as I admire Madison I think he went overboard on his objections to this. I'm sure he had something very similar during the War of 1812.

The Sedition Act- though not at all like the Patriot Act, and this author really makes no case that it is- was OTOH much like the recent Campaign Finance Reform Law: an act by the federal government that was expressly forbidden.

They only SEEM different because freedom of speech is largely intact and erosion of privacy and secuirty in documents and effects has been going on for decades. Yeah, I said "PRIVACY." I also know unenumerated rights are not a nullity.

"Disturbing, but impressive combination of history and logic."

Maybe.....except there is no violation of any American's "Civil Liberties" contained in the Patriot Act, authorized by the Patriot Act, or caused by the Patriot Act.

Outside of these teensy little details.....(sarcasm)

Maybe.....except there is no violation of any American's "Civil Liberties" contained in the Patriot Act, authorized by the Patriot Act, or caused by the Patriot Act. Says a guy who makes a living based on accessing data collected on people. Ever use cops for info on people? All very nice until YOUR corrupt practices are exposed.

"Odd, I thought protection against unreasonable search and seizsure, and a demand that a warrant be issued for all searches, was a part of the Constitution. What America are you living in? (sarcasm)"

I live in Ohio, and I've actually read the Patriot Act several times.

There is no violation of Civil Rights contained within this Act. There has never been a valid example of such ever produced.

There never will be.

If you have a real world example that clearly demonstrates the Patriot Act has violated ANY AMERICAN CITIZENS RIGHTS, post it.

I think I speak for every American when I say we would all be very interested in your revelation. So to would every legal scholar, Constitutional Expert, and talking head on tv.

"Maybe.....except there is no violation of any American's "Civil Liberties" contained in the Patriot Act, authorized by the Patriot Act, or caused by the Patriot Act."

"Says a guy who makes a living based on accessing data collected on people. Ever use cops for info on people? All very nice until YOUR corrupt practices are exposed."

1. We receive written authorization from the job applicants to perform a hand search of county courthouses for criminal convictions, in accordance with the FCRA.

2. My method is far more efficent, and more importantly ACCURATE than any data available to the police.

3. Corrupt Practices? What in the world are you talking about? Public Access to Public Records is GUARANTEED under the Constitution, reaffirmed by dozens of court decisions over the past 230 years.

Nice try, cupcake. Fact remains you've attempted to misrepresent what I do for a living and failed, and you have tried to distract from my primary statement that the Patriot Act does not violate any Americans Civil Liberties.

If you have a real world example of any violation of the Civil Rights guaranteed all Americans, please post it.

Every legal scholar in the country would be interested, since they haven't found one yet. You will be an overnight sensation.

Go for it! You could do O'Reilly tonight!

You must not have read it too closely.

Click on this link, http://www.bordc.org/Theissues.htm , then go to the link to the pdf file in the second paragraph "USA PATRIOT ACT and Executive Orders". It gives exact quotes from the act, and explains which amendment can be violated by their use.

Real-world example of Americans whose rights were violated http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/26/patriot.act.ap/

I did not link to survey where 60% of U of Illinois librarians said the feds came calling wanting them to "give up" records- and of course forbinding them to tell anyone that they had demanded the records. Read any good books lately?

You keep making that bald assertion, but when I post links that utterly refute your incorrect-but-confidently-uttered statements you ignore them and continue to repeat your misinformation. I think I am done talking to you. It is not much fun.

"You keep making that bald assertion, but when I post links that utterly refute your incorrect-but-confidently-uttered statements you ignore them and continue to repeat your misinformation. I think I am done talking to you. It is not much fun."

Yeah, me and the kid that pointed out the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes get that "It is not much" talking to us stuff all the time.....(grin)

There is no viable, real world example of any violation of any Americans Civil Rights contained or implied by the Patriot Act.

Wishing doesn't make it so.

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