1798

 

Year 1798

__________ 

Three alien acts gave the president the power “without trial or even a statement of his reasons, to banish foreigners from the land.” 

Benjamin Andrews

__________

 

February 13, Elizabeth Southgate writes her father to tell him about her experience at a boarding school run by Susanna Rawson, author of Charlotte Temple, what some call the first best-seller in America. 

Honored Father: 

I am again placed at school, under the tuition of an amiable lady, so mild, so good, no one can help loving her; she treats all her scholars with such a tenderness, as could win the attention of the most savage heart, though scarcely able to receive an impression of the kind. I learn embroidery and geography at present, and wish your permission to learn music. You may justly say, my best of fathers, that every letter of mine is one which is asking for something more, – never contented. I only ask; if you refuse me, I know you do what you think best, and I am sure I ought not to complain, for you have not yet refused me anything that I have asked. My best of parents, how shall I repay you? You answer, By your good behavior. Heaven grant it may be such as shall repay you.

 

A year will have rolled over my head before I shall see my parents. I have left them at an early age to be so long absent, but I hope I have learnt a good lesson by it; a lesson of experience, which is the best lesson I could learn. I have described one of the blessings of . . . in Mrs. Rawson, and now I will describe Mrs. Wyman, as the nurse. She is the worst woman I ever knew: nobody knows what I suffered from the treatment of that woman.

 

I had the misfortune to be a favorite with Miss Haskell, and Mrs. Wyman treated me as her own evil heart dictated; but whatever is, is right, – I learnt a good lesson by it. I wish you, my father, to write me an answer soon, and let me know whether I may learn music. Give my best respects to my mother, and may it please the Disposer of all Good to restore me safe home to the bosom of my family. I never was happier in my life. My heart overflows with gratitude to my heavenly Father for it, and may it please him to continue in you “his favor which is life, and his loving kindness which is better than life,” is the sincere wish of

 

Your daughter, Eliza Southgate. 

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: Her letters, generally, might interest some students. Rawson’s book, Charlotte Temple, is also found online.

 

* 

July 6: In the heat of the fighting vs. France, the Federalists passed what Andrews calls “tyrannical legislation.” “A new naturalization act was passed, requiring of an immigrant as prerequisite to citizenship, fourteen years of residence instead of the five heretofore sufficient.” Three alien acts gave the president the power “without trial or even a statement of his reasons, to banish foreigners from the land” 

The Sedition Act made it legal 

to fine in the sum of $5,000 each and to imprison for five years any persons stirring up sedition, combining to oppose governmental measures, resisting United States law, or putting forth any “false, scandalous, or malicious writings” against Congress, the President, or the Government.

 

Matthew Lyon “charged the President with avarice and with ‘thirst for ridiculous pomp and foolish adulation.’ He was convicted of sedition and fined $1,000 and sentenced to four months in prison.” 

“Adams refused pardon, but in 1840 Congress paid back the fine to Lyon’s heirs.” 

“It was surely a travesty upon liberty when a man could be arrested for expressing the wish,” Andrews wrote, “as a salute was fired, that the wadding might hit John Adams’s behind.” (2/257-258)

NOTE TO TEACHERS: In my opinion, it is always a good time to discuss the importance of the free press. The Sedition Act, for example, did not make it a crime to criticize the vice president, which meant the Federalists could continue to lambast Vice President Jefferson. 

As Alexander Hamilton once said, the job of the free press was, “To give us early alarm and put us on our guard against the encroachments of power.”