In the tug-of-war between freedom and security, security often has the easier sales pitch.
It points toward danger. It demands urgency. It promises that someone powerful can make the danger go away—if only we will stop asking so many questions and surrender a little more control.
Freedom asks more of us.
Freedom requires vigilance, responsibility, restraint, courage, and sometimes the willingness to live with uncertainty.
On July 14, 1798, the United States took the easier path.
That was the day the Sedition Act became law. It was one of four measures collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Together, they made citizenship more difficult, expanded presidential power over noncitizens, and criminalized certain statements against the federal government.
It was not one of America’s best days.
But it was an American day, enacted by members of America’s founding generation. Remembering that helps us resist the temptation to turn the founders into marble saints who could do no wrong.
They were building a republic.
They were also capable of fearing, overreacting, protecting their political power, and violating the principles they had so recently proclaimed.
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