284. ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS, Suits under.—
I discharged every person
under punishment or prosecution under the
Sedition law, because I considered, and now
consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute
and as palpable as if Congress had ordered us
to fall down and worship a golden image;
and that it was as much my duty to arrest
its execution in every stage, as it would have
been to have rescued from the fiery furnace
those who should have been cast into it for
refusing to worship the image. It was accordingly
done in every instance, without
asking what the offenders had done, or
against whom they had offended, but whether
the pains they were suffering were inflicted
under the pretended Sedition law.—
To Mrs. John Adams. Washington ed. iv, 536.
Ford ed., viii, 309.
(W.
July. 1804)
