5976. NEWSPAPERS, Restraint on.—[continued].
The papers have lately advanced in boldness and flagitiousness beyond
even themselves. Such daring and atrocious
lies as fill the third and fourth
columns of the third page of the United
States Gazette of August 31st were never
before, I believe, published with impunity in
any country. However, I have from the beginning
determined to submit myself as the
subject on whom may be proved the impotency
of a free press in a country like ours,
against those who conduct themselves honestly
and enter into no intrigue. I admit at
the same time that restraining the press to
truth, as the present laws do, is the only way
of making it useful. But I have thought
necessary first to prove it can never be dangerous.—
To William Short. Washington ed. v, 362.
(M.
Sep. 1808)
