A Different Type of July 4 Anniversary | Opinion

On July 4, 1798, the United States Senate passed a sedition law that made it illegal to criticize the Federalist administration or their allies in Congress . Today, the nation once again faces the threat of persecution for political speech. Former President Donald Trump 's campaign statements, as well as his first term track-record, demonstrate that he intends to use the enormous power of the executive branch to target his political opposition.

As part of Trump's campaign, he has pledged to investigate NBC and MSNBC for their coverage of him if he wins reelection in the fall. This threat is not just empty rhetoric. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates radio, television, cable, and satellite to ensure a "competitive framework" for communications. Traditionally, the FCC is independent, but the commissioners are appointed by the president and Trump could inflict enormous pressure on the FCC to revoke MSNBC's licenses in retaliation for their critical coverage.

The Sedition Bill of 1798 posed similar threats to political speech. The bill prohibited citizens from gathering or conspiring "with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States," and outlawed any person from writing, printing, uttering, or publishing "any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States."

William Duane was one of the most prominent targets of the Sedition Act. Duane was the editor of the Aurora Daily Advertiser, a prominent Democratic-Republican newspaper in Philadelphia that had tormented the Washington and Adams administrations for years. U.S. Attorney William Rawle brought several rounds of charges against Duane for "false, scandalous, defamatory, and malicious assertions."

History suggests that media figures likely won't be the only targets in a second Trump term. Some of the earliest charges 226 years ago were brought against Matthew Lyon, a representative from Vermont. On October 6, 1798, Lyon was arrested for publishing a series of letters attacking President John Adams. The warrant described Lyon as a "malicious and seditious person, and of a depraved mind and a wicked and diabolical disposition." Lyon was found guilty and sentenced to four months in jail and a fine of $1,000 (worth almost $26,000 in today's dollars).

Lyon wasn't the only Democratic-Republican to feel the palpable threat, however. Sen. Henry Tazewell promised to send James Madison "an account of whatever may occur that can be interesting, if I am not Guillotined." Vice President Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that "all my motions at Philadelphia, here, and every where, are watched & recorded." He stopped writing anything political in his letters to his friends and family because he worried his letters would be opened and used in prosecutions against him.

We could see similar attacks on politicians in 2025. Opponents of Trump's agenda have expressed fears that he could use other executive departments to seek vengeance. In a social media post, Trump wrote that the members of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 attack "should go to jail." Many of the congressmen who served on the committee are taking the threat seriously. Representative Adam Schiff said "he's having 'real-time conversations' with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump" is reelected.

Trump's first term gives Schiff good reason for concern. In 2019, former FBI Director James Comey learned that his 2017 tax records were under a rare form of audit that the Internal Revenue Service jokingly calls , "an autopsy without the benefit of death." That same year, Andrew McCabe , former acting director of the FBI, had his records selected for audit as well. These types of audits are rare—one in 30,600 individual returns are selected. They are also expensive and time consuming. Both Comey and McCabe had offered sharp criticism of then-President Trump and the audits of both seems unlikely to be a coincidence.

There is one critical difference between the Sedition Act and today. In 1798, the president was not the animating force behind the attacks on his opponents. Congress created the legislation and Secretary of State Timothy Pickering spearheaded the prosecutions. President Adams does not fully escape blame—he signed the legislation and approved several of the prosecutions.

The Sedition Act expired on March 3, 1801, as planned, the day before Thomas Jefferson's inauguration. Other bills that restricted free speech, including the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 , have come and gone as well. But the threat posed by a second Trump administration would present dangers to civil liberties on a whole other scale. Since Matthew Lyon in 1798, no congressman has been prosecuted for political speech. We have never seen what political persecutions look like when pushed by the full weight of the presidency, the many departments within the executive branch, and most importantly, the Department of Justice .

Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D. is a presidential historian and author of the forthcoming book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic . She is on social media .

The views expressed in this are the writer's own.