174 THOMAS JEFFERSON 



the Hamiltonian theory of strong government has 

 been of great value. We could not have got along 

 without it. But it is a theory that needs to be applied 

 with care and held in check with a curb rein. Other- 

 wise it is sure to end in class legislation and plutoc- 

 racy, and the reaction shows itself in labour agitation, 

 strikes, and anarchical doctrines among the classes of 

 people that feel themselves in some way deprived of 

 their fair share in the good things of life. 



In 1 798 the Tory character of Hamiltonian federal- 

 ism showed itself with crude frankness in the alien 

 and sedition acts. At that time, as an indirect result 

 of the feud between Hamilton and Adams, Jefferson 

 had become Vice-president under a Federalist Presi- 

 dent. His protest against the abominable alien and 

 sedition acts was uttered in the famous resolutions of 

 Kentucky and Virginia, which seemed to tread danger- 

 ously near the confines of nullification. To avoid 

 repetition I shall reserve what I have to say about 

 these resolutions for my lecture on Madison. 1 By 

 1800 the lines between the party which could enact 

 the alien and sedition laws and the party which could 

 approve the Virginia resolutions had become so 

 sharply drawn that the presidential canvass was as 

 fierce as in 1860, or in 1876, or in 1884. Just as a 

 good many people believed some years ago that the 

 election of Mr. Cleveland meant the assumption of 

 the rebel war debt, the undoing of the work of recon- 

 struction, the instantaneous overthrow of the tariff, 



1 In this affair both the Hamiltonian and the Jeffersonian parties showed 

 their weak sides. Against the excesses of a federalism which had lost 

 its temper, the protest of republicanism was so energetic as to savour, for 

 the moment, of political disintegration. 



