FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH IN AN ACTION FOR LIBEL. WHEN a man is a candidate for a public office, depending on the suffrages of the people, he invites an examination into his character and qualifications; and agrees that, if he is deficient in either, it may be made known to the electors. If the defendants had good reason to believe the plaintiff had been guilty of violating the laws of his country, it was their duty to inform the public. The occasion not only justified, but demanded it. It may be said, that when good men are candidates for public office, their characters may be greatly injured, if they can maintain no action for damages, although the defamatory assertions published respecting them may be wholly unfounded. A little reflection will satisfy us, that the reputation of such men is protected with sufficient care, by the law which has been mentioned. When a man is a candidate for a public office, and defamatory words are published respecting him, the presumption is, that they were published without malice; but still he is permitted to remove that presumption by extrinsic evidence. There is no danger to be apprehended from the operation of this law. To obtain extrinsic evidence would not often be attended with difficulty. Indeed, if a man should publish of a candidate for office, unfounded calumnies, and should be prosecuted for a libel, if he could produce no evidence, or very slight evidence of the plaintiff's guilt, this circumstance alone would show his malicious intention, and that he used the occasion, on which the publication was made, to gratify his malice. But, on the other hand, if the defendant, when thus prosecuted, should produce such evidence as to show that he had good reason to believe the truth of what he published, it would repel the idea of malice, and show that the action could not be supported. And whether a defendant has good reason to believe the truth of what he published or not, must be decided by a jury. When the people of this State formed the constitution, they declared, that "the liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state." Every reflecting man must assent to the truth of this declaration. Let the freedom of the press be destroyed in any country, and its inhabitants will soon be involved in the profoundest ignorance; they will sink to the lowest, the most abject state of slavery. To protect, therefore, with ceaseless vigilance, this guardian of our invaluable rights, is an object of the highest importance. The principle of law, for which I contend, preserves the liberty of the press, while it gives no countenance to its licentiousness. The government under which we live rests on the virtue and knowledge of the people. These are the main pillars that support our political fabric. If the great body of the people possessed such a degree of virtue as to lead them to sacrifice their private interest to promote the glory and happiness of their country; this alone would be insufficient to give permanency to their government. They must possess knowledge as well as virtue. They must have sufficient knowledge to enable them to judge of the tendency of those measures that are adopted for the advancement of the public welfare. They must have a knowledge of the duties incident to those offices that are conferred by their suffrages, and of the character and qualifications of those who are proposed to fill them. When different individuals are candidates for an office, the mass of the people are ignorant of their character and qualifications. They must, then, be in FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 303 formed as to both. If they are not, instead of the wise and virtuous, they may elect the incompetent and unprincipled to manage their affairs. Thus the administration may become corrupt; the interests of the people may be sacrificed to those of their rulers; and the government itself may eventually be destroyed. How is the necessary information to be given but by means of the press? It can be given in no other way. But who will undertake to inform the people, if he must suffer from the verdict of a jury unless he can demonstrate, by legal evidence and with perfect certainty, the truth of all the information he shall communicate? Suppose a person should be candidate for the office of President of the United States; that letters should be discovered purporting to be signed by such person, in which it should appear that he and others had formed a plan to overturn the government. Suppose the letters and signatures should be written in a hand bearing a striking resemblance to that of the candidate, and that there were other strong circumstances to prove him to be the writer. If a person should publish in a newspaper, that the individual, who was thus a candidate for the presidency, was an enemy to his country; that he had formed a design to destroy the government; and if it should turn out that the letters were forgeries, and the story unfounded; should the person, who published the information from the best and most patriotic motives, be made to suffer? Should his patriotism subject him to punishment? If so, the press will no longer diffuse information among the people; and the voices of your wisest and most virtuous citizens will be silent. The liberty of the press would be as effectually destroyed as if there was a law prohibiting the publication of any information respecting candidates for office, His labors are mere exercise, Which saves him from pains and physicians; Then, farmers, you truly may prize Your own as the best of conditions. From competence, shared with content, The life of a farmer is blent With more real bliss than a king's. SPRING IS COMING. BY HUGH MOORE. EVERY breeze that passes o'er us, Rouse thee, boy! the sun is beaming All the plumage of her pinions Gentle maiden, vainly weeping O'er some loved and faithless one; Rouse thee! give thy tears in keeping To the glorious morning sun! Roam thou where the flowers are springing, Rouse thee, hoary man of sorrow! Though you now weep tears of sadness, Like a withered flower bedewed; Soon thy heart shall smile in gladness Frosty Winter, cold and dreary, |