[287] At the time the country numbered among its population a very large number of aliens. French refugees from the West Indies, to the number of perhaps 25,000, were here. _Cf._ _Report of the American Historical Association for 1912_: “The Enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Laws,” by F. M. Anderson, p. 116. England, also, had her quota of citizens here, not a few of whom were fugitives from justice, and some of whom, like William Cobbett and J. Thomson Callender (_cf._ McMaster, _History of the People of the United States_, vol. ii, p. 338), either drew the fire of the advocates of French principles or busied themselves in the affairs of government on this side of the ocean. The amount of scurrilous abuse, aimed at the heads of government, which issued from the public press had become appalling. No innuendoes were too indelicate, no personalities too coarse, no slanders too malicious, no epithets too vile to be of service in the general campaign of villification. The prostitution of the public press in America has never been more abject than it was at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. (Duniway, _The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts_, pp. 143, 144.) Unfortunately, Federalists compromised their position and scandalized their cause by writing as scurrilous and libelous articles as their enemies; but the agencies of administration were in their hands, and, as the Democrats charged, their offences were not noticed. [288] Morison, _The Life and Letters of Harrison Cray Otis_, vol. i, pp. 106 _et seq._ Morison’s treatment of this tempestuous period is characterized by keen discrimination and fine balance. It is one of the most satisfying as well as one of the most vivid accounts of the situation to be found. [289] _Connecticut Courant_, July 8, 1799. [290] _Independent Chronicle_, Dec. 3, 1798. [291] _Report of the American Historical Association for 1912_: “The Enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Laws,” by F. M. Anderson, pp. 115 _et seq._ _Cf._ _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, vol. vii, pp. 256 _et seq._, 262, letters of Monroe to Jefferson.