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elder999
10th July 2003, 14:24
Many Americans are suggesting that the Patriot Act, and its proposed “improvements” in Patriot II is totally new in the experience of America and may spell the end of both democracy and the Bill of rights. History, however, shows another vie, which offers both warnings and hope,

Although you won’t learn much about it from reading the :”Republican histories” being published and promoted in the corporate media these days, the most notorious stain on the presidency of John Adams began in 1798 with the passage of a series of laws startlingly similar to the Patriot Act.


It started when Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and editor of the Philadelphia newspaper The Aurora began to speak out against the policies of then-President John Adams. Bache supported Vice President Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party (today called the Democratic Party) when John Adams led the conservative Federalists (who today would be philosophically identical to the GOP). Bache attacked Adams in and op-ed piece, calling the President “old, querulous, bald, blind, crippled, toothless Adams.”

To be sure, Bache wasn’t the only one making fun of Adams, and Federalist supporting papers did their damndest to turn the rumor (he he) of Jefferson’s liaisons with his deceased wife’s half sister, slave Sally Hemmings into a full blown scandal
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While Jefferson and his Democratic-Republicans had thick skin about it all-even through Jefferson’s presidency-Adams and his wife spun into a self-righteous frenzy.

Federalist senators and congressmen-spurred on by Adams and his wife Abigail-passed a series of four laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Empowered with this early version of the Patriot Act, President John Adams ordered his “unpatriotic” opponents arrested, and specified that only Federalist judges on the Supreme Court would be both judges and jurors.

Bache was first to be hauled into jail-before the laws became effective, followed by New York Time Piece editor John Daly Burk, which put his paper out of business. Bache died of yellow fever while awaiting trial, and Burk accepted deportation to avoid imprisonment, and then fled.

Others didn’t avoid prison so easily. Editors of seventeen of the twenty or so non-Federalist aligned papers were arrested, and ten were convicted and imprisoned, many of their newspapers went out of business.

Imprisoning his opponents in the press was only the beginning for Adams. Knowing Jefferson would mount a challenge to his presidency in 1800, he and the Federalists hatched a plot to pass secret legislation that would have decided presidential elections decided “I secret” and “behind closed doors.” Evidence of the plot was published in the opposition press, and the responsible editor was arrested and hauled before Congress on Sedition Act charges. The editor would have stayed in jail had not Thomas Jefferson intervened, letting the editor out to consult his attorney. The editor went into hiding until the end of Adams’ presidency.

The Alien and Sedition Acts caused the Democratic-Republican papers, which were constantly vilifying it, to become more popular than ever.

Jefferson beat Adams in the election of 18090 on a wave of voter revulsion over Adams’ phony and self-serving “patriotism,” along with concerns about Adams’ belligerent war rhetoric against the French.

The rot within Adams Federal party was exposed by Jefferson, and they lost their hold on Congress in 1800, beginning a 30-year slide into total disintegration-later to be reincarnated as Whigs……then Republicans.

In what became known as “the Revolution of 1800,” or “the Second American Revolution,” Thomas Jefferson freed all the men imprisoned by Adams as one of his first acts of office, even reimbursing the fines they’d paid, with interest, along with granting formal pardons and apologies.

The history of John Adams’ failed presidency gives hope and encouragement to those committed to real democracy and genuine freedom. History shows that when enough people become politically active, they can rescue the soul of America from becoming a corrupt, abusive police state…..

Vapour
10th July 2003, 23:59
Can you post the link, that is if this is from web.

elder999
11th July 2003, 00:03
Originally posted by Vapour
Can you post the link, that is if this is from web.

Dude, I told you that you should read my posts....

this is from no link-merely the crazed musings of a mind that's occupied with far too many things, and fast reading speed......MINE.

I guess you could buy a textbook on American history, or do a search on the Alien and Sedition Acts.

A. M. Jauregui
11th July 2003, 00:46
John Adams was a rabid idealist and a greedy man that did not want anyone to take what he believed was his. That is why he wanted to centralized the government along with similar minded laws [Alien and Sedition Acts] (to fight his perceived threat from within), stock piled weapons of war (to fight threats from outside {France}), swindled his re-election, caused a fairly massive fiduciary loss, etcetera.

Thomas Jefferson joined the Democratic-Republicans because of it support of the French Revolution. But I would have to say that personally Jefferson was more of a libertarian in today terms then anything else. A lot of things fell into place for him...

Try my Benjamin Franklin pimp question in Budo Fun...