From the very limited source material I have just read it would indicate that Jefferson would be charged with one or more offences in accordance with “An Act for Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States” past, by the Fifth Congress of The United States sitting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday 13 November 1797.
I understand that the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were seen as a challenge to the Federalist Party and the Federal Government and therefore constituted acts of sedition. President John Adams would seek to prosecute Jefferson and Madison. His Party had a strong base and therefore Adams would feel confident that Jefferson and Madison would be found guilty.
Under the 1797 Act §1 “…if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty, and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor…”
If found guilty Jefferson and Madison could be sentenced to a custodial sentence between six months and five years and pay a fine not exceeding $5,000.
§2 of the 1797 Act “…if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in 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, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against United States, their people or government…”
If found guilty Jefferson and Madison could be sentenced to custodial sentence not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding $2,000.
If we take the maximum sentence, then it would be at least 1805/06 when Jefferson and Madison are released. Thomas Jefferson held the Office of President between 1801 and 1809 so it is evident that this would not happen or at least he would be able to stand in the 1808 Election.
In OTL James Madison, Jefferson’s Secretary of State, won this election against Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Madison won 122 votes, Pinckney 47 votes and George Clinton, the other Democratic-Republican candidate on the ballot, received 6 votes.
Art. II of the US Constitution did not imply, expressly or otherwise, that candidates would be ineligible to run for the Office of the President if they had convictions so Jefferson and Madison could have stood in the 1808 Election. If Clinton had stood as third Democratic-Republican Party Candidate that may have split the vote. In OTL New York Electors split the vote 13 votes for Madison and 6 votes for Clinton and in North Carolina, although Madison’s win in the state was undisputed, three of the Electors voted for Pinckney. In Kentucky one of the Electors did not cast a vote but Madison swept to victory, nonetheless, securing the remaining 7 votes. The victorious candidate needed at least 88 votes, so Madison’s victory was a landslide. George Clinton became the first of two VPs to serve in the Madison Administration.
James Madison became the Fourth President of the United States, which raises a question who became the Third President of the United States? Did the Federalist Party capitalise on a weak opposition using the Alien and Sedition Act 1797 to suppress Democratic-Republican Party candidates.
Question: Amendment XIV, ratified on 9 July 1869, §3 states “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
What if Adams had managed to get the 14th Amendment ratified before 1808 when Jefferson and Madison were in prison? In OTL Jefferson was Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781 and served as the United States Minister to France (the first Secretary of State) from 1790 to 1793. If Jefferson had held the same Offices in the ATL Adams, or members of the Federalist Party, could imply that since Jefferson had engaged in an insurrection this would bar him from holding a Federal Office, perhaps including the Office of President of the United States. Madison had served in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress so he too could be barred. Who would that leave us with? George Clinton…
Madison is also an architect of the Virginia Plan – which advocated for a stronger Federal government consisting of three branches and a bicameral legislature introducing checks and balances. Would that still have gone ahead. The plan was floated before 1797 Alien and Sedition Act. Would the Federalists seek to crush the Plan?
