Sedition Act, Ratification of the First Amendment
- Artist/Author/Producer: Twenty-five Citizens
- Confronting Bodies: U.S. Government
- Dates of action: 1798
- Location: United States
- Description of the Art Work
- Twenty-five Republican editors and printers were prosecuted under
the Sedition Act (1798) for "criticizing federalist policies."
The law, initiated by president John Adams "..made it a crime, for
example, to publish any "false, scandalous and malicious" writing
against the government, the Congress, or the President "with intent to
defame" them or bring them "into contempt or disrepute" or to stir up
sedition." The crime carried a penalty of $2,000 fine and two years in
jail." (The First Freedom Today, R. Downs, ALA,Chicago, 1984 Pg.5 ) "even
drunks who were overheard condemning (President) Adams were duly charged
and fined." (The Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green, Facts on
File, N.Y.C., Pg. 275)
- Description of incident
- The imminence of war between the U.S. and France(1798) coupled with
the thousands of French refugees in the U.S. created a wide spread
hysteria in the U.S. It was in this climate that the First Amendment
would meet its first major challenge, the Sedition Act. The Sedition Act,
put into effect not even a decade after the First Amendment was ratified
was in opposition to everything that the First Amendment represented.
In 1791 the First Amendment, drafted primarily by James Madison, was
ratified: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press...'
"In effect, sedition ceased to be a crime under the broad
prohibitions of the First Amendment, though breaches of the peace which
destroyed or endangered life, limb or property, were still punishable by
law..."
With the passing of the Sedition Act "an immediate uproar ensued.
One side contended that "a conspiracy against the Constitution, the
government, the peace and safety of this country is formed and is full
operation. It embraces members of all classes; the Representatives of the
people on this floor, the wild and visionary theorist in the bloody
philosophy of the day, the learned and the ignorant. Such arguments were
met with impassioned pleas for freedom of speech and press, led by Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison."( The First Freedom Today, R. Downs,
ALA,Chicago, 1984 Pg.5 )
- Results of incident
- Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801, pardoning all those convicted
under the law. The Sedition Act expired in 1801 with laws passed by the
Fifth Congress.
Source: The New York Public Library, New York City