STATE PAPERS. 



7-^7. 



Uisturb it, the artillery of the press 

 Jias I)een levelled against us. charged 

 with whatever its licentiousness 

 could devise or dare. These abuses 

 of an institution so important to 

 freedom and science, are deeply to 

 be regretted, inasinuch as they tend 

 to lessen its usefulness, and to sap 

 it^ safety. They might, perhaps, 

 have been corrected by the whole- 

 some punishments reserved to, and 

 provided by, the laws of the several 

 states, against falsehood and defa- 

 mation. But public duties more 

 urgent, press on the time of public 

 servants, and the otifondtrs have 

 therefore been left to find t^ieir pu- 

 nishment in the public indignation. 

 Now, was it uninteresting to the 

 world that an experiment should be 

 fairly and fully made, whether free- 

 dom of discussion, unaided by 

 power, is not sufficient for the pro- 

 pagation and protection of truth ? 

 Whether a government, cofiducting 

 itself in the true spirit of its consti- 

 tution, wiih zeal and purity, and 

 doing no act which it would be un- 

 willing the whole world should wit- 

 ness. can bewrittendownbyfalsehood 

 and defamation ? The experiment 

 has been tried. You have witnessed 

 the scene. Our fellow-citizens iiave 

 looked on cool and c:;l!ected. 'J'hey 

 saw the latent source from whiclx 

 these outrages proceeded. They 

 gathered around their public func- 

 tionaries ; and, when the constitu- 

 tion called them to the decision by 

 suffrage, they pronounced their ver- 

 dict, honourable to those who had 

 f<erved them, and consolatory to the 

 friend of man, who believes he may 

 be entrusted with the control of 

 his own alfairs. No inference is 

 here intended tl^it the laws provided 

 by the states against false and defa- 

 matory publications, should not be 



enforced. He who has time renders 

 a service to the public morals and 

 public tranquillity, in reforming 

 these abuses by the salutary coer- 

 cions of the law. But the experi- 

 ment is noted to prove that, since 

 truth and rea-son have maintained 

 their ground against false opinions, 

 in league with false facts, the press, 

 confined to truth, needs no othec 

 legal restraint. The public judg- 

 ment will correct false reasonings 

 and opinions, on a full hearing of 

 ail parties, and no other definite 

 line can be drawn between the ines- 

 timable liberty of the press, and its! 

 demoralising licentiousness. If there 

 be still improprieties which this rule 

 would not restrain, its supplement 

 must bo sought in the ceasorship of 

 public opinion. Contemplating the 

 union of sentiment now manifested 

 so generally, as arguing harmony 

 and happiness to our future course, 

 I otter to our country sincere con- 

 jjratulations. With those too, not 

 y^-^t rallied to the same point, the 

 disposition to do so is gaining 

 strength. Facts are piercing through 

 the veil drawn over them ; and our 

 doubting brethren will at length see, 

 that the mass of their fellow citizens, 

 with whom they cannot yet resolve 

 to act, as to principles and measures, 

 think as they think, and desire what 

 they desire. That our wish, as well 

 as theirs, is th?,t the public efforts 

 may be directed honestly to the 

 public good, that peace be culti- 

 vated, civil and religious liberty un- 

 assailed, law and order preserved, 

 equality of rights maintained, and 

 that state of property, equal or un- 

 equal, which results to every man 

 from his own industry or that of his 

 fathers. When satisfied of these 

 views, it is not in human nature 

 that they should not approve and 

 3 B support 



