Monday, January 19
Available at two times and locations
Vermont History Museum, 109 State Street, Montpelier (12:00 pm)
Vermont History Center, 60 Washington Street, Barre (7:00 pm)
When the U.S. government passed the 1791 Bill of Rights, its uncompromising protection of speech and of the press were unlike anything the world had seen before. But by 1798, the once dazzling young republic of the United States was on the verge of collapse: partisanship gripped the weak federal government, British seizures threatened American goods on the high seas, and war with France seemed imminent.
In both the book and this talk, Liberty's First Crisis, writer Charles Slack tells the story of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, the crucial moment when high ideals met real world politics, and the country's future hung in the balance. Slack's story begins in Vermont with Matthew Lyon, a controversial political figure in the earliest days of Vermont's statehood. To frame this crucial period through a Vermont lens, Slack will draw on research done at the Vermont Historical Society.
This program is free and open to the public, thanks to our sponsor, the ACLU of Vermont and co-sponsor Rubin, Kidney, Myer and Vincent, attorneys at law.
For more information, contact Amanda Gustin, Public Programs Coordinator, at amanda.gustin@state.vt.us or (802) 828-2180.
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