Introduction

With the 1800 elections, a dramatic change had transformed the government. There was a Republican President, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate. With the Republicans firmly in control of the government, the country was on the brink of vigorous change.

On the commencement of his administration, President Jefferson took vigorous steps to undo the remaining consequences of the Sedition Act, which had expired in accordance with its terms. He immediately ordered the discontinuance and dismissal of all pending federal seditious libel prosecutions and pardoned all persons convicted under the Act who were still in jail. In his view the Act had been unconstitutional, and he moved to expunge its lingering traces.

The dramatic change commencing with the 1800 elections was only the beginning of the Federalist decline. The Republicans built on their narrow 1800 triumph. Jefferson, a narrow victor in 1800, with 73 electoral votes against 68 votes for Adams, won an overwhelming victory in 1804 over the Federalist candidates, Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King, with 162 electoral votes to a mere 14 for the Federalists. With the 1804 elections, the Republicans had increased their control of the Senate to an overwhelming margin with 27 Republicans and a token 7 Federalists; the House consisted of 117 Republicans with only a handful of 25 Federalists.

With the triumph of the Republicans, the arena for criminal libel prosecutions was fast becoming a matter of state law.