Part 2 of two posts


Jefferson, in his private letter to Madison, expresses concern for
politically active immigrants, for freedom of the press,
and for freedom to organize political parties without fear of being accused
of "sedition" ( or of being charged with being an agent of a foreign power,
in this case, the French).  Yet Adams pushed the Alien and Sedition acts
through Congress, just as Jefferson feared he would.  Pound completely
ignores this rather unseemly aspect of Adams presidency in his poetic
narrative.

Richard N. Rosenfeld details the conflict of those early years, referring to
what he calls "the suppressed history of our nation's beginnings".  His
technique, unlike Pound's, is highly dialectical, giving more than one side,
more than one perspective on the period of Adams' presidency.  For instance,
his history is reported through documents of the participants and direct
observers of events, history through primary sources as it were.   Various
perspectives are given, including those of pro-government newspapers of the
day, such as the Gazette of the United States, and Adams' wife, Abigail.
Here is an example of a letter from Abigail Adams,  who is looking forward
to a day when the Sedition Act will reign in scurrilous attacks upon her
husband, the President.


Yet daringly do the vile incendiaries keep up in Bache's paper the most
wicked and base, violent and calumniating abuse    It was formerly
considered as leveled against the Government, but now it is contrary to
their declared sentiments daily manifested, so that it insults the Majesty
of the Sovereign People.  But nothing will have an Effect until the Congress
pass a Sedition Bill which I presume they will do before they rise.    Not a
paper from Bache's press issues but what might have been prosecuted as libel
upon the President . . . . For a long time they seem as if they were now
desperate . . . .    The wrath of the public ought to fall upon their
devoted Heads.

[Abigail Adams letter to a relative, April 1798].

As it was, the libel laws were tightened that very year, the Sedition Act
put in place, and shortly thereafter, dozens of newspapers were bankrupted
in government suits against them, and their reporters and editors, in many
cases, jailed (remaining in jail, until after the election of Jefferson in
1800).

There is much grist for the intellectual mill in this book by Rosenfeld,
which should be read in conjunction with Pound's Adam's Cantos.  This
background, I would argue is essential, if we are to interpret Pound's views
of Adams without falling prey to Pound's and Adams' sanitized views of early
American History.


Regards,

Wei

Regards,

Wei



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