4072. JAY (John), Newspaper attacks.—[continued].
It is really to be lamented
that after a public servant has passed a
life in important and faithful services, after
having given the most plenary satisfaction in
every station, it should yet be in the power of
every individual to disturb his quiet, by arraigning
him in a gazette and by obliging him to
act as if he needed a defence, an obligation imposed
on him by unthinking minds which never
give themselves the trouble of seeking a reflection
unless it is presented to them. However
it is a part of the price we pay for our liberty,
which cannot be guarded but by the freedom of
the press, nor that be limited without danger of
losing it. To the loss of time, of labor, of
money, then, must be added that of quiet, to
which those must offer themselves who are capable
of serving the public * * *. Your
quiet may have suffered for a moment on this
occasion, but you have the strongest of all supports,
that of the public esteem.—
To John Jay.
Ford ed., iv, 186.
(P.
1786)
