Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech

In 1798, President John Adams and the Federalist-controlled Congress enacted legislation that criminalized criticism of the government and its leaders, imposing heavy fines and imprisonment as punishment. The Sedition Act affected a diverse range of people, from a bar patron to a politician to Benjamin Franklin's grandson. Americans responded by publishing editorials, signing petitions, and erecting liberty poles in protest. Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, contending that the Federalist government had overstepped its authority. Liberty's First Crisis examines these critical early events in the nation's history, showing how the Founding Fathers worked to define and preserve the freedoms they had fought to establish, as the young republic faced an internal threat to free speech.