In 1798, when John Adams was president of the United States, the feds enacted four pieces of legislation called the Alien and Sedition Acts. One of these laws made it a federal crime to publish any false, scandalous or malicious writing – even if true – about the president or the federal government, notwithstanding the guarantee of free speech in the First Amendment.
The feds used these laws to torment their adversaries in the press and even successfully prosecuted a congressman who heavily criticized the president. Then-Vice President Thomas Jefferson vowed that if he became president, these abominable laws would expire. He did, and they did, but this became a lesson for future generations: The guarantees of personal freedom in the Constitution are only as valuable and reliable as is the fidelity to the Constitution of those to whom we have entrusted it for safekeeping.
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Excellent article. We should all think about the Constitution, what's in it and if our elected officials are following it before each election. Too many times do people vote the "like" factor and that is what has gotten us in trouble.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it -- if Jefferson was alive today, most of the "representatives" and members of the other branches of government would already be dead. The rest would be in hiding. We would be in the middle of the SECOND American Revolution, ESPESCIALLY after he read the Patriot Act (one of the biggest misnomers in the history of the USA) and saw it was voted on and approved by these "leaders". The NDAA, and the subsequent trashing of the Bill of Rights would have made his friends George and John jump out of their graves and join him.
ReplyDeleteThe constitution is dead. Cute idea, just never really caught on.
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