He objected to the bill to authorize the President to suspend intercourse with Spanish and Dutch ports which should harbor French privateers, as placing an unlimited power to interdict commerce in the hands of the executive.

The bill was carried by 55 to 37.

On the question of the augmentation of the navy he opposed the building of the seventy-fours.
In February Edward Livingston presented a petition from aliens, natives of Ireland, against the Alien and Sedition laws.

Numerous similar petitions followed; one was signed by 18,000 persons in Pennsylvania alone.

To postpone consideration of the subject, the Federalists sent these papers to a select committee, against the protests of Livingston and Gallatin.