The Nation - Scott Walker Goes All 1798: Arrests Elected Official, Editor in Wisconsin

[Ellipsis]

The first great test of the American Constitution came in 1798, when President John Adams became so agitated with his critics that he disregarded the Bill of Rights and the rule of law and arranged for the arrest of dissenting elected officials and editors.

Adams was so lawless that his own vice president, Thomas Jefferson, organized the opposition. Two years later, Adams was the first American president to be removed from office. And rightly so.

James Madison, the essential drafter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, referred to the “Alien and Sedition Acts” that Adams and his associates used to justify their assault on the First Amendment as “a monster that must forever disgrace its parents.”

Unfortunately, the monster still breaks loose. And not just in Washington.


http://www.thenation.com/blog/175796/scott-walker-goes-all-1798-arrests-elected-official-editor-wisconsin

[unblock]

1. "adams was the first american president to be removed from office"? no, he lost re-election

he was the first American president to seek re-election and lose. i suppose that's what he meant.

"removed from office" is usually taken to mean by impeachment and removal, or at least by resignation under threat of impeachment and removal and/or criminal charges.

these are not normally the words used to describe an incumbent simply losing an election.

i've never heard it said that either ford or carter was "removed from office".

[Ellipsis]

2. ...guess you had to be there

In the presidential election of 1800, Adams and his fellow Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, went against the Republican duo of Jefferson and Burr. Hamilton tried his hardest to sabotage Adams' campaign in the hope of boosting Pinckney's chances of winning the presidency. In the end, Adams lost narrowly to Jefferson by 65 to 73 electoral votes, with New York casting the decisive vote.

[kestrel91316]

3. That's definitely not "removal from office".

[midnight]

4. Any opposition quickly gets usurped and is controlled until the hackable voting machines green light

further lawlessness....