New Light on the Sedition Act of 1798: The Missing Half of the Prosecutions

Abstract

Federalist enforcement machinery ground out at least seventeen verifiable indictments. Fourteen were found under the Sedition Act, and three were returned under the common law ... . James Morton Smith A spate of recent books, and even a smash Broadway musical (Hamilton), have celebrated the Federalist Party for state-building, active government, decisive leadership, forward-looking plans, and other political virtues. However, the rehabilitation of the Federalists cannot succeed without successfully confronting the Alien and Sedition Acts, which the Hamiltonian Federalists sponsored and which the recent books tend to speak softly about (and to which the musical does not give a song).