280. ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS, Planning Insurrection against.—
In Pennsylvania,
we fear that the ill-designing May
produce insurrection [against the Alien and
Sedition laws]. Nothing could be so fatal.
Anything like force would check the progress
of the public opinion, and rally them around
the government. This is not the kind of opposition
the American people will permit.
But keep away all show of force, and they
will bear down the evil propensities of the
government, by the constitutional means of
election and petition.—
To Edward Pendleton. Washington ed. iv, 287.
Ford ed., vii, 356.
(Pa.,
Feb. 1799)
