Freedom's fetters

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This first of two volumes on the Alien and Sedition Laws, therefore, concentrates as exclusively as possible on the enactment and enforcement of the Federalist measures of 1798 and attempts to assess their influence in shaping the development of the political process of republicanism, with its dual goals of majority rule and individual rights. A second volume, on the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, will deal with the opposition to this repressive legislation, the issues which this opposition raised concerning fundamental rights, and the significance of the Resolutions as an exposition upon the nature of the American constitutional system. Together they will form an integrated investigation of the relationship between liberty and authority in a popular form of government, thus constituting a chapter in the evolution of the American civil liberties tradition. - Preface.