Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

So here's a situation that probably sounds familiar. The President of the United States, furious at his critics.

In particular, a congressman who attacked him as swallowed up in a continual

grasp for power, in an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish

avarice. This sounds like 2018, right? Donald Trump, the current U.S. president, has been accused of far worse.

In fact, he's been so viciously attacked that he suggested Congress should change libel laws.

Why? I guess to protect him from criticism, whether true or false.

But no, the apoplectic president this congressman was referring to was America's second commander-in-chief, John Adams.

He took things a step beyond changing libel laws and actually made it illegal to criticize the president.

In 1798, the United States was preparing for a possible war with France.

Adams and his Federalist Party supporters used the threat to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts,

a set of new laws that increased the residency period for people to become citizens,

allowed the president to deport aliens who were deemed dangerous to the state,

and restricted language that was critical of the government.

Though the act was created under the guise of national security, its true intent was to suppress

the backers of the Democratic Republican Party. Among their differences, the party, led by

Vice President Thomas Jefferson, supported stronger ties with France. An early target of the

Sedition Act was Representative Matthew Lyon of

Vermont, the guy who accused Adams of ridiculous pomp. In the fall of 1798, the government accused him

of being a malicious and seditious person and of a depraved mind and a wicked and diabolical disposition.

Lyon was convicted of sedition, fined $1,000, and sentenced to four months in prison.

He campaigned for re-election from jail and won in a landslide.

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