"a monkey just put into breeches"

“section 1. be enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the united states of america, in congress assembled, that if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the united states, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the united states, from undertaking, performing, or executing his trust or duty, and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempts shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor…” from “an act in addition to the alien and sedition acts of 1798 entitled, and act for the punishment of certain crimes against the united states “SEC. 2. And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act… being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.”___________________ That section 2 of this piece of legislation was purposefully intended to stack the deck of variables in the 1800 presidential election can be shown by the fact that the only newspaper editors prosecuted under this act were those of democratic-republican papers supporting the candidacy of thomas Jefferson and the only journalists so treated ( james Thompson callender in virginia and david brown in massachucetts leap to mind ) were those writing for those same democratic-republican newspapers…so much for the purity of “public service” wrought by the “founding fathers”…they were all politicians and they behaved as such…little mud may have been slung washington’s way however the honeymoon for leadership came to an end with his leaving office as contempt for the leadership of political parties and for their members in congress, as well as the office of the presidency came to be the status quo of campaigns…from William maclay writing of john adams “i cannot help thinking of a monkey just put into breeches when i saw him betray such evident marks of self-conceit”(the journal of william maclay 1798-1792. May tenth 1789 entry )to adams himself writing in a letter to benjamin rush that alexander hamilton’s ambitions stemmed from “… a superabundance of secretions which he could not find whores enough to draw off” it was clear that there was never much of anything like respect for rivals in swamptown from the beginning…”to bring them…into contempt or disrepute” didn’t seem to require much effort on the part of publishers when the founders held one another in such over contempt ( ultimately expressed when aaron burr, at the time a sitting vice-president of the united states, killed said hamilton in new jersey in 1804 )...a close reading of both sections leaves me thinking national ( or local for that matter ) politics have not evolved much in two hundred and twenty-three years or so…fake news…alternate facts…cover-ups…procuring insurrection (aspirational or not the phrase “shall have the proposed effect or not he or they will be deemed guilty should apply )probably suborning perjury…all clearly defined facets of the politics of the late empire…the next seventeen months ( at the very least ) should prove interesting times.