northern
confederacy, comprising five New England States, and New York and New
Jersey. The third was Aaron Burr's wild scheme in the Southwest.

The fourth, the resolution of the New England States to withhold
cooperation in the War of 1812.

The fifth, the nullification acts of South Carolina in 1832.

The sixth and last, the effort of eleven states to form the Southern
Confederacy. This brought the burning issue to a head and settled the
question for the ages to come.

It seems incredible in these times that the country submitted for a
month to the intolerable Alien and Sedition acts. Should any congressman
propose their reenactment to-day, he would be looked upon as a crank
and be laughed out of court. They were enacted when Jefferson was Vice
President and were the creation of the brilliant Alexander Hamilton,
whose belief was in a monarchy rather than a republic.

The Sedition act made it a felony punishable with a fine of $5000 and
five years imprisonment for persons to combine in order to impede the
operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate persons from
taking Federal office, or to commit or advise a riot or insurrection or
unlawful assembly.

It declared further that the writing or publishing of any scandalous,
malicious or false statement against the president or either house of
congress should be punishable by a fine of $2000 and imprisonment for
two years.

It will be noted that this law precluded all free discussion of an act
of congress, or the conduct of the president.

In other words, it was meant to be the death blow to freedom of speech.

But bad as it was, the Alien act, which congress passed at the same
session, 1798, was ten fold worse.

There had been much unrest caused by the intermeddling of foreigners in
the States, and it was now decided that the president might drive out
of the country any alien he chose thus to banish, and to do it without
assigning any reason therefor. It was not necessary even to sue or to
bring charges; if an alien receiving such notice from the president
refused to obey, he could be imprisoned for three years.

President Adams afterward declared that he did not approve of this stern
measure which was the work of Hamilton, and boasted that it was not
enforced by him in a single instance.

Nevertheless, the Sedition act was enforced to a farcical degree.

When President Adams was passing through Newark, N. J., he was saluted
by the firing o