ties." Such a state of mind can be understood only
by a diligent reading of the newspapers and political tracts of the
time. Republican journalists, many of whom were of alien origin, still
gloried in the ideals and achievements of the French Revolution. But
liberty and democracy, as preached by a Tom Paine and glorified by a
Callender and exemplified by the Reign of Terror in France, had caused
an ominous reaction in the minds of upholders of the established order
in the United States.

Under these circumstances, when, in the minds of those in authority,
party was identified with faction, and faction was held to be synonymous
with treason, the position of the Republicans was precarious. War with
France they bitterly opposed, but were powerless to prevent. The path of
opposition was made all the more difficult by the well-known attitude of
conspicuous Federalist leaders who favored war as an opportunity for
discrediting their political opponents, or, as Higginson expressed it,
for closing the "avenues of French poison and intrigue."

Laboring under the conviction that they had to deal not only with an
enemy without but with an insidious foe within, the Federalists carried
through Congress in June and July, 1798, a series of measures which are
usually cited as the Alien and Sedition Acts. The first in the series
was the Naturalization Act, which lengthened the period of residence
required of aliens who desired citizenship, from five to fourteen years.
The Alien Act authorized the President, for a period of two years, to
order out of the country all such aliens as he deemed dangerous to
public safety or guilty of treasonable designs against the Government.
Failure to leave the country after due warning was made punishable by
imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and by exclusion from
citizenship for all time. A third act conferred upon the President the
further discretionary power to remove alien enemies in time of war or of
threatened war. Finally, the Sedition Act added to the crimes punishable
by the federal courts unlawful conspiracy and the publication of "any
false, scandalous, and malicious writings" against the Government,
President, or Congress, with the intent to defame them or to bring them
into contempt or disrepute. For conspiracy the penalty was a fine not
exceeding five thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding five
years; for seditious libel, a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars
and