When the United States government passed the Bill of Rights in 1791; its uncompromising protection of speech and of the press were unlike anything the world had ever seen before. But by 1798; the once-dazzling young republic of the United States was on the verge of collapse: partisanship gripped the weak federal government; British seizures threatened American goods and men on the high seas; and war with France seemed imminent as its own democratic revolution deteriorated into terror. Suddenly; the First Amendment; which protected harsh commentary of the weak government; no longer seemed as practical. So that July; President John Adams and the Federalists in control of Congress passed an extreme piece of legislation that made criticism of the government and its leaders a crime punishable by heavy fines and jail time. In Liberty’s First Crisis; writer Charles Slack tells the story of the 1798 Sedition Act; the crucial moment when high ideals met real-world politics and the country’s future hung in the balance.From a loudmouth in a bar to a firebrand politician to Benjamin Franklin’s own grandson; those victimized by the Sedition Act were as varied as the country’s citizenry. But Americans refused to let their freedoms be so easily dismissed: they penned fiery editorials; signed petitions; and raised “liberty poles;†while Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drew up the infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions; arguing that the Federalist government had gone one step too far. Liberty’s First Crisis vividly unfolds these pivotal events in the early life of the republic; as the Founding Fathers struggled to define America off the page and preserve the freedoms they had fought so hard to create.
#1730069 in Books Johns Hopkins University Press 2004-08-18Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x .80 x 6.13l; 1.19 #File Name: 0801880610384 pages
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