5967. NEWSPAPERS, Prosecution of.—
The federalists having failed in destroying
the freedom of the press by their gag-law,
seem to have attacked it in an opposite direction;
that is by pushing its licentiousness and
its lying to such a degree of prostitution as
to deprive it of all credit. And the fact is
that so abandoned are the tory presses in
this particular, that even the least informed
of the people have learned that nothing in
a newspaper is to be believed. This is a
dangerous state of things, and the press
ought to be restored to its credibility if possible.
The restraints provided by the laws
of the States are sufficient for this, if applied.
And I have, therefore, long thought that a
few prosecutions of the most prominent offenders
would have a wholesome effect in
restoring the integrity of the presses. Not a
general prosecution, for that would look like
persecution; but a selected one.—
To Thomas McKean.
Ford ed., viii, 218.
(W.
Feb. 1803)
