Almost sixty years ago, I discovered a way to make a living doing what I love: exploring America’s complicated past and sharing that journey with successive generations of aspiring scholars. I knew I wouldn’t make much money along the way, but college teaching was a respected profession, the subject was endlessly fascinating, and I loved the students. I had a Ph.D before I turned 30, not because I wanted prestige or a title, but because I was having too much fun to quit. Even as I approach my eightieth birthday, I’m still having too much fun to quit.
But I never expected the time would come when the vice president would ominously declare, “The professors are the enemy,” and the president would condemn historians as “radical leftist Marxists.” Although my profession is under attack, I still believe America has been made great, not only by patriots who glorify its past but also by the critics who acknowledge its mistakes and demand an even “more perfect union,” one that continuously strives to be the “land of the free and the home of the brave” and delivers “justice for all.”
A case in point is the President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. As a historian, my concern is that this Act is currently being applied with hardly a nod to its tortured history. That’s what happens when historians are demonized: Those in power can ignore us and the story we tell.
This Act passed in 1798 in response to a perceived threat to national security, both at home and abroad. John Adams had followed George Washington into the presidency with the support of the Federalist faction. Meanwhile, an opposition faction, Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, was also being organized. In general, Federalists believed in strong central government headed by a relatively powerful chief executive; the Democratic-Republicans called for a diffusion of power, not only among the three branches of government but also between state and national authorities. In these early days of political party development, each side viewed the other as an existential threat to the Republic. Federalists warned that if the Democratic-Republicans prevailed, the nation would degenerate into anarchy and moral decay; the Democratic Republicans warned that Federalists were conspiring to install a tyrannical government that would restore monarchy. The public had to choose: anarchy or tyranny.
When the British and French went to war, these divisions grew more dangerous, especially since the Federalists favored the British and the Democratic-Republicans sided with the French. Then the French began attacking U.S. ships to disrupt trade with their enemy. Although Adams refused to ask Congress for a formal declaration, a naval war with France ensued. For such a young, inexperienced, and ill-prepared nation to be fighting a war with one of the superpowers of the day was a truly terrifying experience, especially with such extreme internal polarization.
The Federalists reacted by tying the threat abroad (the French) to the enemy within (the Democratic-Republicans) and passed the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts. The Sedition Act negated the 1st Amendment by making it illegal to criticize officeholders. The Alien Enemies Act upended the 5th Amendment’s promise of due process to all persons (not citizens) so that the president could deport immigrants he perceived to be a security risk in wartime. Since it applied only during a declared war, Adams did not invoke the Alien Enemies Act, but his administration did prosecute opposition newspaper editors and even one member of Congress under its companion piece, the Sedition Act. A panicked public was willing to limit freedom for security.
Fortunately, by 1800, the people had seen through the Federalists’ use of fear to maintain power and swept Democratic-Republicans into office. The Alien and Sedition Acts seemed to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
However, the Alien Enemies Act remained on the books and has been periodically resurrected to initiate some of the most shameful chapters in our history, most notoriously the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, an injustice we came to regret.
At least we were at war then so that the terms of the Act did apply. Now we have President Trump invoking it when we are not at war against people whose most serious crime is that they don’t align with his politics. And he’s not just sending them to a “relocation camp” but condemning them to the most brutal prison in this hemisphere in collusion with a tyrant known for his violation of human rights. Once again, fear has prepared us to surrender freedom.
If you think President Trump can negate the rights of some but you are safe, you need to ask a historian how power works. Our only hope is that the American people today will ultimately be as aware and defensive of their rights as our forefathers were in 1800. Tyranny wins only when the people fail to defend “liberty and justice for all.”
