Page 112 - Dragon Flood

rebels in those territories which they held. Some may think that this situation changed once
the war was ended and the American government was formed. After all, the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution secures for all Americans the right to freely
speak their minds. The First Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, and states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.

In practice, however, this Constitutional right has always had limits placed upon it, and has
frequently been suspended. Just seven years after passage of the First Amendment,
Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

In 1798, Congress, which contained several of the ratifiers of the First Amendment at the
time, adopted the Alien and Sedition Acts. The laws prohibited the publication of "false,
scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United
States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United
States, with intent to defame ... or to bring them ... into contempt or disrepute; or to excite
against them ... hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within
the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or
resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States]

In 1798 war between America and France was looming, and members of Congress sought
to silence those who wrote anything in defense of France, or critical of the policy of the
United States. About 25 people were arrested under the Sedition Act, and ten of them
convicted. One who was convicted was a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Like his
grandfather, Bache was a newspaper editor, overseeing a publication called the Aurora. In
April 1798, Benjamin Franklin Bache was arrested when he referred to the president as "old,
querulous, bald, blind, crippled, toothless Adams."

The Sedition Act of July 14, 1798 included the following words:

That if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to be
written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in
writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or
writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of
the United States, or the President 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 or any
of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to excite any unlawful
combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act
of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers
in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any
such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation
against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof