In a message dated 06/04/2000 2:58:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << 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. >> here we have yet another example of the conveniently compartmentalized critical method of Wei -- attack John Adams, and to buttress this attack, enlist the aid of Thomas Jefferson -- and do this without blanching, and without accounting for Jefferson's appeal to Pound. this is a method that demonstrates chutzpah, and little else. here's Pound on this kind of critical morphing: "have no twisty thoughts." jb...