2179. DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES, Proposed bill against.—
We are in suspense in
Virginia to see the fate and effect of Mr.
Pitt's bill against democratic societies. I
wish extremely to get at the true history of
this effort to suppress freedom of meeting,
speaking, writing and printing. * * *
Pray get the outlines of the bill Sedgwick
intended to have brought in for this purpose.
This will enable us to judge whether we have
the merit of the invention; whether we were
really beforehand with the British minister on
this subject, whether he took his hint from
our proposition, or whether the concurrence
in the sentiment is merely the result of the
general truth that great men will think alike
and act alike, though without intercommunication.—
To William B. Giles. Washington ed. iv, 132.
Ford ed., vii, 65.
(M.
March. 1796)
