The Vitality of the Free Press
“ The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
The Idea
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1786
Jefferson believed in the necessity of a free press as a watchdog to keep citizens informed and involved in government affairs, but the press had an obligation to accuracy in reporting. In Jefferson’s words: "Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press confined to truth needs no other legal restraint.”
Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but whether or not the right should have boundaries is an ongoing societal and legal debate..
Making the Idea a Reality
Freedom of the press was a major controversy in early America and its role as a watchdog and forum to criticize public officials is no less controversial today.
“ There are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government, and which yet, governments have always been fond to invade. These are the rights of thinking and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing.”
1st Amendment guarantees freedom of the press
Although there was disagreement about the necessity of including a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, Americans broadly supported protections for a free press, freedom of religion, etc. In 1789, James Madison proposed amending the U.S. Constitution to address these issues. The First Amendment incorporates the rights that the Founders thought were fundamental to liberty: freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and the right to petition the government.
Sedition Act denies freedom of the press
In 1798, the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Sedition Act to silence its critics, making it illegal to publish “false, scandalous or malicious writing” against the U.S. or a public official. Jefferson argued the Act violated the First Amendment; Freedom of the press became a campaign issue in the election of 1800. Scores of individuals were prosecuted under the Act. Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont was convicted under the Act for attacking John Adams in print. The most prominent newspapermen convicted under the Act were Benjamin Franklin Bache (Benjamin Franklin's grandson), William Duane, and James Thompson Callender, all of whom openly defied the Act by attacking President Adams and the Federalist Congress in print. When Jefferson won the Presidency, he noted that freedom of the press would be a hallmark of his administration and issued a blanket pardon to every person convicted under the Sedition Act.
Alexander Hamilton Defends Freedom of the Press
New York newspaperman Harry Croswell, a staunch Federalist and supporter of John Adams, used his paper “The Wasp” to attack Thomas Jefferson. Under New York libel law, Croswell was charged and convicted of “being a malicious and seditious man ... deceitfully, wickedly and maliciously devising, contriving and intending, toward Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, President of the United States of America, to detract from, scandalize, traduce and vilify, and to represent him, the said Thomas Jefferson, as unworthy of the confidence, respect and attachment of the people of the said United States.”
In 1804, Croswell appealed his case to the New York Supreme Court where the judges deadlocked following Alexander Hamilton’s defense that Croswell printed the truth and that American law, derived from natural rights and Roman common law, should reject the English legal precedent that the truth is no defense in libel cases. The following year, the New York legislature amended its libel laws, adopting Hamilton’s argument that printing the truth was not libel “where published with good motive and justifiable ends.” Over time, the rest of the States and the Federal government incorporated Hamilton’s reasoning, enshrining the truth as a defense as a cornerstone of freedom of the press.
Jefferson and the Partisan Press
The partisan politics arising from the creation of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties gave birth to the partisan press, and newspapers throughout the United States aligned themselves with one party or the other. Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson worked anonymously and behind the scenes to encourage their respective partisan presses.
Over time, Jefferson’s letters reveal that, while he strongly supported freedom of the press, he was not immune to the partisan and personal attacks made upon him, and he supported some prosecutions for libel and sedition. Ultimately, he came to view attacks of the partisan press as a necessary evil.
Behind the scenes, Jefferson helped to develop the partisan press
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"For god’s sake, my dear Sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him [Alexander Hamilton] to pieces in the face of the public."
- Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1793 -
“His paper has saved our constitution which was galloping fast into monarchy, & has been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper”
- Thomas Jefferson, recalling the founding of John Freneau’s National Gazette to attack the Federalists, 1818 -
Jefferson, Freneau, and the Founding of the National Gazette:
"Quere—whether this salary is paid him for translations: or for publications, the design of which is to vilify those to whom the voice of the people has committed the administration of our public affairs—to oppose the measures of government, and by false insinuations, to disturb the public peace?
In common life it is thought ungrateful for a man to bite the hand that puts bread into his mouth; but if the man is hired to do it, the case is altered."
POLITIC CARTOONS AND JEFFERSON
Jefferson attempting to burn the Constitution on the altar of French despots.
Jefferson and Satan attempting to pull down the federal government.
Jefferson as a prairie dog being stung by a Napoleon wasp, making him spew money for the Louisiana Territory.
The Embargo Act of 1807 that Jefferson championed received backlash after the toll it took on the American economy.
Jefferson holds his hand up while being threatened by King George III and robbed by Napoleon.
Thomas Jefferson still appears in political cartoons of the 21st century.
“ If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
A Civic Engagement Initiative sponsored by and in collaboration with The New York Community Trust – The Peter G. Peterson Fund.
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