On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Randy Cabell wrote:

> In digging through some old presidential campaign songs, I ran across
> "Jefferson and Liberty" which I understand was used not only in his 1800
> campaign, but was the song of his party for the next 20 years or so.  My
> American (and Virginia) history is not what it should be, and I wonder
> to what the words which continually recur are referring.  For example:
>
> "The gloomy night before us flies,
>   THE REIGN OF TERROR IS NO MORE,
> No GAGS, INQUISITORS, or SPIES,
>   Its HORDES OF HARPIES are no more."
>
> Is this a throw-back to some 25 years before at the beginning of the
> Revolution, or were things really (perceived) THAT bad under John
> Adams?

It depends ultimately on your point of view and how you measure degrees of
"badness." The song refers to the events and political climate of the late
1790s (chiefly)--in particular government measures like the Alien &
Sedition Acts and less formal intimidation and suppression of radical &
democratic tendencies. Recent works that emphasize the "badness" of these
actions more than your average American history text (or specialized
monograph on the period) might are: larry Tise, The American
Counterrevolution: A Retreat from Liberty (1999); and Richard Rosenfeld,
American Aurora (1998).

Doug Deal
History/SUNY-Oswego

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