. Protest rather than action was uppermost in their
minds. As Jefferson said to Madison, they proposed to "leave the matter
in such a train as that we may not be committed absolutely to
extremities, and yet may be free to push as far as events will render
prudent." What they desired was such an affirmation of principles as
should rally their followers and arrest the usurpation of power by their
opponents. The fundamental position assumed is that the Federal
Government is one of limited powers and that citizens must look to their
State Governments as bulwarks of their civil liberties, whenever the
express terms of the federal compact are violated. The Federal
Government was not to be allowed to become the judge of its own powers.
By recalling the party to its original position of opposition to the
consolidating tendencies of the Federalists, the resolutions of 1798
served much the same purpose as a modern party platform. In this light,
their ambiguities are not greater nor their political theories more
vague than those of later platforms.

In the early months of 1799, petitions for the repeal of the Alien and
Sedition Acts began to pour in upon Congress from the Middle States; but
the Federalists felt secure enough in popular favor to ignore these
protests. With a keener ear for the voice of the people, Jefferson
summoned his Republican friends to seize the moment to effect an entire
"revolution of the public mind to its republican soundness." "This
summer is the season for systematic energies and sacrifices," he wrote
to Madison. "The engine is the press. Every man must lay his purse and
pen under contribution." The response was immediate and hearty. Not only
were political pamphlets printed and distributed from Cape Cod to the
Blue Ridge, but an astonishing number of newspapers were founded to
disseminate Republican doctrine. The three or four years before the
presidential election of 1800 are marked by an unprecedented
journalistic revival. Instead of being mere purveyors of facts, these
newspapers became, as a contemporary observes, "Vehicles of discussion,
in which the principles of government, the interests of nations, the
spirit and tendency of public measures, and the public and private
characters of individuals, are all arraigned, tried, and decided." Such
a systematic attempt to direct public opinion had not been made since
the early days of the Revolution.

[Map: Vote on the Repeal of the Alien and Sedition A