slow. Discontent and resultant criticisms soon made the whole venture very unpopular. Within a short time the large standing army, which was in the slow process of formation, was used as an important argument against the Federalists.

The mingled feelings of rising patriotism in the face of a foreign attack and of lingering sympathy for an old friend put the Kentuckians in a dilemma. But their long experience with the rule of the Federalist Administration placed them in no state of enthusiasm for Federalist leadership in this crisis of French relations. In order to give the proper setting to the sentiments of the average Kentuckians at this time, it is necessary to notice his former attitude toward the Federalist regime.

The feeling had long been widespread that the Federalist Administration was largely responsible for the rivalry, distrust, and misrepresentation that the East had been holding toward the West. One of the very first acts of the National Administration had been the passage of the hated excise taxes, and especially the taxes on liquors. The violence of

the "Whisky Boys" in Pennsylvania culminating in the Whisky Rebellion was looked upon by Kentuckians as the logical outcome of the policy pursued by the Federal Government. The excise taxes were often made the subject of resolutions of protest. In 1793 a meeting was called in Lexington which issued an address to the people and promised to memorialize both the State Legislature and Congress. It attacked especially the provisions that the taxes should be paid in specie, declaring that it operated unequally between the Atlantic States and the West, since the Mississippi River remained closed and the West thereby was deprived of its markets. It offered as a partial solution the payment of taxes in the products of the country.1

The calling out of 15,000 troops to crush the whisky rebellion served only to increase the hostility and distrust toward the Federalist regime. Though Kentuckians looked upon this show of force as a direct threat at themselves, and came to believe that the Federal Government was only looking for an excuse to invade the country. Isaac Shelby declared that he believed "the Executive of the United States was disposed, upon slight pretext, to send an army into this state to drive the citizens thereof

1 Kentucky Gazette, August 10, 1793.

into submission of the excise law and to quell a disorderly spirit which had been represented to exist in our citizens with respect to the dislike of the British Treaty and other obnoxious acts of the Government." He said a Congressman had confirmed him in this impression.2 As long as Washington was President the confidence reposed in him had largely allayed the people's fears; but when Adams came into power their apprehensions were greatly increased.

Harry Innes declared that he lived in daily fear of an invasion of the state by Federal troops and John Taylor of Caroline observed "That Judge Innes' suspicions were in his opinion well founded as to Adams' views & policy to send an army into the Western Country on any favorable pretext presenting itself." Caleb Wallace also labored under the same impression as to the intentions of the Federalists. In his opinion from the beginning of the whisky rebellion "it was apprehended by several of the most respectable & intelligent of my acquaintances, that the Federal government wished for a pretext to send an army into this country to awe the people, and enable it to punish those, who by speaking, writing, or otherwise, should oppose such of its measures as were thought to be unconstitutional or rigorous." He declared there was much excitement over the various Federal measures inimical to the interests of the West. "And I concurred in opinion with those I conversed with on the subject, that any army which thot Government was able to support, for the purpose I have mentioned, could only excite resentment and disgust, and might produce what it was meant to prevent." 4

The plot of the Spaniards in 1796 and 1797, which Power and Corondolet sought to entice Kentucky from the Union, was not communicated to the Federal Government by Innes, Nicholas, and the other Kentuckians who knew about it, because they distrusted the Federal Government and not on account of any sympathies for what the Spaniards had proposed. Innes declared in an affidavit that "the reason why he and Colonel Nicholas did not communicate the subject to the president of the United States were these:

"Ist. That it was well known that neither of us approved of Mr. Adams' administration, and that we believed he kept a watchful eye over our actions; that the communication must depend upon his opinion of our veracity; and it would have the appearance of courting his favour.

"2nd. That we both had reason, and did believe, that the then administration were disposed upon the slightest pretext to send an army to this state; which we conceived would be a grievance upon the people; and therefore declined making any communication on the subject, as we apprehended no danger from the Spanish government.” 5 John Taylor of Caroline, from the prospective opinion "that had a communication been made by Innes or Nicholas of the proposition of Power it. would have offered one [pretext] that probably would have been taken advantage of by the then Administration."

James Morrison in an affidavit given in 1806 set forth the reason Nicholas gave for not informing the Federal Government on the Spanish plot: "He then went on, in consequence of some questions which I asked, to state the reasons which had prevented him from giving the Executive information of the hostile disposition of the Spanish Government. Amongst others, he observed that the General Government was leaning strongly in favor of monarchical principles; that the Executive was deeply prejudiced against the leading men in our State; that he would lay hold of the information with pleasure and avidity, and make Shelby to Innes, October 5, 1808.

2 Innes MSS., Vol. 19, No. 70. 8 Ibid., No. 76.

Wallace to Innes, June 6, 1807.

Innes MSS., Vol. 19, No. 50. Marshall, History of Kentucky, II, 224, 225. 6 Innes MSS., Vol. 19, No. 76.

it the basis for increasing the army, and thereby strengthen the hands of those who were opposed to our republican form of Government; that the means of discharging the public debt would thereby be completely prevented; that our citizens would be saddled with troops, and burdened with taxes for the support of Government; and that he was well assured, from information which he could not well disbelieve, that the Executive was thirsting for a plausible pretext to send an army into our country, as he had declared, not only to curb the licentiousness of the press, but to check a daring disposition in our citizens to intermeddle with the affairs of the General Government. * * *He said he had no doubt but that our Government was already possessed of imperfect information on the subject; and that the motives of a communication from him would probably be misconstrued, and considered as a dereliction of the republican principles which he had avowed; and for which he knew he was denounced by the Executive."7

Angered by the bitter attacks of the democrats and especially as many of them were aliens, and emboldened by the general reversion of sentiment in their favor, the Federalists in the session of Congress, in 1798, passed four laws designed to curb their enemies, later grouped together and popularly known as the Alien and Sedition Laws. The first one related to naturalization. By this law the term of residence necessary for citizenship was increased from five to fourteen years. In this way it was hoped that a restraint might be placed on the influx of foreigners who almost invariably were added to the democratic ranks.

The second law dealt with aliens in time of peace. The President was empowered by this act to order out of the country any alien deemed dangerous to the public welfare and was given the additional power to inflict the penalty of three years imprisonment for disobedience.

For the better handling of aliens in time of war, another act gave the President power to order out of the country any alien or to imprison him for any length of time desired. This act was designed to operate only during the period of a war.

*

The most important of the four acts was the one known as the Sedition Law. It was made a high misdemeanor with a penalty of not more than five years imprisonment or not over $5000 fine "for any persons unlawfully to combine and conspire together with intent to oppose any measure of the Government of the United States * * and to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate persons from taking or holding public office, or to commit, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, or unlawful assembly." It was also made a misdemeanor with a less severe punishment for any persons who "should write, print, utter, or publish, any false, scandalous, and malicious, writing or writings, against the government of the United States, or the president of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, with intent to defame the said government or either house of the said Congress, or the said president, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them, or either of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or with intent to excite any unlawful combination" against the execution of any laws of the United States or acts of the president, or to "aid, abet, or encourage, any hostile design of any foreign nation against the United States." The fact that the truth of the charge or accusation was admitted as evidence did not greatly lessen the rigors of the law.

These laws immediately became the objects of bitter attacks throughout the country. The Sedition Law was singled out for special attention

American State Papers, Miscellaneous, Vol. XX, Pt. 1, 934. For the wild fears of even a man of the standing of Jefferson, see his famous letter to Mazzei.

as it was a direct attack on the freedom of the press and was the only one actually made use of. Kentucky considered these laws to be the crowning infamy of the Federalist regime. Meetings sprang up in many parts of the state in the summer of 1798 directly following the passage of the laws. The people had long considered it an unquestionable right of theirs to publish their opinions on matters of a public as well as a private nature, and the Kentucky Gazette had for a decade given them excellent training and a ready outlet.

A meeting of citizens of Clark County was called to protest against the usurpations of the Federal Administration, and among other resolutions passed the following on the Alien and Sedition Laws:

"Resolved, That every officer of the Federal Government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, is the servant of the people, and is amenable and accountable to them: That being so, it becomes the people to watch over their conduct with vigilance, and to censure and remove them as they may judge expedient.

*

"Resolved, That the Alien bill is unconstitutional, impolitic, unjust and disgraceful to the American character.

"Resolved, That the privilege of printing and publishing our sentiments on all public questions is inestimable, and that it is unequivocally acknowledged and secured to us by the Constitution of the United States; That all the laws made to impair or destroy it are void, and that we will exercise and assert our just right in opposition to any law that may be passed to deprive us of it.

"Resolved, That the bill which is said to be now before Congress, defining the crime of treason and sedition, and prescribing the punishment therefor, as it has been presented to the public, is the most abominable that was ever attempted to be imposed upon a nation of free men.

"Resolved, That there is a sufficient reason to believe, and we do believe, that our liberties are in danger; and we pledge ourselves to each other and to our country, that we will defend them against all unconstitutional attacks that may be made upon them."

It was also resolved that the proceedings of this meeting should be sent to the House of Representatives and to the Senate of the United States, to the President, and that they be published in the Kentucky Gazette." "8

Many other meetings were held throughout the state. Among these were assemblies at Lexington, Frankfort and Paris and in Lincoln, Woodford and Madison counties. Militia companies in Bracken, Mason and other counties also held meetings of protest. A Woodford County assembly denounced the Alien and Sedition Laws, declaring, "That for the servants of the people to tell those who created them, that they shall not at their peril examine into the conduct, nor censure those servants for the abuse of power committed to them is tyranny more insufferable than Asiatic." 10 A meeting in Madison County resolved,

8 Kentucky Gazette, August 1, 1798. These are quoted in McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation's History, 220, 222. The following satire on this meeting appeared in Porcupine's Gazette, September 12, 1798, quoted in E. D. Warfield, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 [New York, 1887], 46, 47, and copied in McElroy, Kentucky in the Nation's History, 222: "At Lexington, a mob assembled on the 24th of July with a fellow of the name of Fishback at their head; they got pen, ink, and paper, and to work they went, drawing up resolves to the number of ten, among which is the following one, which, for sentiment as well as orthography, is unequalled even in the Annals of An American Democracy.

"Resolved, that thar es sufishunt resen to beleev, and wee doe beleev, that our leeberte es in daingur, and wee plege ourselves too eche other, and too ouer country, that wee will defende um against aul unconstetushonal ataks that mey bee mede upon