Albert Beveridge: “If this legislation were valid, all would lose heavily; some would be financially ruined.”

The Alien and Sedition Laws were, they asserted, the beginning of monarchy, the foundation of absolutism.

Any nation, however, may by statute declare an act to be piratical which is not so by the law of nations; and such an act is punishable only by that particular state and not by other governments.

Washington was the soul of the American cause.

It could borrow money, but could not levy taxes or impose duties to pay the debt.