which he lamented. In this casual expression one sees the germ of the Alien and Sedition Laws which brought about his downfall.
It has been said in his defense—in fact, it was said by Adams himself—that these notorious laws originated not with him but with Hamilton and his friends. However true this may be, they could never have been the laws of the land, had it not been for Adams. The fact is that this famous legislation grew out of the failure of Adams and other Federalists to properly understand public sentiment.
The exposure of the famous X. Y. Z. dispatches, showing an attempt on the part of Talleyrand and his friends in Paris to hold up the ambassador of this government for money, brought to Adams and the Federalists strong popular support in 1798, and turned national sympathy away from the French party. Republicanism was at its ebb; New England was carried in phalanx by the Federal Americans, as they called themselves, and John Jay was re-elected governor of New York by more than 2,000 votes over Livingston. Newspapers that had been neutral began to support the administration, while the Aurora and other strong Republican papers suffered heavily in circulation.[1]
For a brief time Adams was the hero of the hour. It was then, in what now seems a moment of madness, that the Federalist leaders conceived the Alien and Sedition acts—aimed, because of the unpopularity of France, against French ideas, and particularly at "Popular Liberty and free speech."[2]
Jefferson, from the vantage ground of the Vice-presidency, was closely watching his opponents in their hour of
