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 ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com