Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Political and Jurisprudential Worlds in Conflict in the New Republic
- 2 Politics in the New Republic
- 3 Criminal Libel in the Colonies, the States, and the Early Republic During the Washington Administration
- 4 Federalist Partisan Use of Criminal and Seditious Libel – Statutory and Common Law – During the Tumultuous Adams Administration
- 5 Criminal Libel During the Jefferson and Madison Administrations, 1800–1816
- 6 Partisan Prosecutions for Criminal Libel in the State Courts: Federalists Against Republicans, Republicans Against Federalists, and Republicans Against Dissident Republicans in Struggles for Party Control
- 7 Established Jurisprudential Doctrines (Other than Criminal Libel) Available in the New Republic for Suppression of Anti-Establishment Speech
- 8 Still Other 19th-Century Doctrines for Suppression of Anti-Establishment Speech: The Law of Blasphemy and the Slave State Anti-Abolition Statutes
- 9 Conclusion
- Table of Cases
- Index
1 - Political and Jurisprudential Worlds in Conflict in the New Republic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Political and Jurisprudential Worlds in Conflict in the New Republic
- 2 Politics in the New Republic
- 3 Criminal Libel in the Colonies, the States, and the Early Republic During the Washington Administration
- 4 Federalist Partisan Use of Criminal and Seditious Libel – Statutory and Common Law – During the Tumultuous Adams Administration
- 5 Criminal Libel During the Jefferson and Madison Administrations, 1800–1816
- 6 Partisan Prosecutions for Criminal Libel in the State Courts: Federalists Against Republicans, Republicans Against Federalists, and Republicans Against Dissident Republicans in Struggles for Party Control
- 7 Established Jurisprudential Doctrines (Other than Criminal Libel) Available in the New Republic for Suppression of Anti-Establishment Speech
- 8 Still Other 19th-Century Doctrines for Suppression of Anti-Establishment Speech: The Law of Blasphemy and the Slave State Anti-Abolition Statutes
- 9 Conclusion
- Table of Cases
- Index
Summary
The numerous commentators on the Sedition Act of 1798 have typically been so appalled at its role in American history that they have largely neglected to examine its enactment and enforcement in the light of the jurisprudence of which it was an integral part. How was it possible for the generation of the Framers who had so wisely launched this country with the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to have adopted this repressive statute? The Act went so far as to criminalize “any false, scandalous, and malicious writing … against the [federal] government … or either house of the Congress or the President, with intent to defame … or to bring … either of them, into contempt or disrepute.” It was then employed in a determined effort to shut down the opposition Republican press by prosecuting and jailing editors of numerous leading Republican newspapers on the eve of the 1800 presidential election. Truly, it was one of the country's most unattractive political episodes.
This volume seeks to review this deservedly much condemned episode in American legal history in the light of the accepted jurisprudential and constitutional standards of the times. As we will see, it was not a departure from the legal standards of the age. Criminal libel was only one element of the repressive jurisprudence of the times. This is a critical dimension that the discussions of the Sedition Act have failed to take adequately into account.
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- Repressive Jurisprudence in the Early American RepublicThe First Amendment and the Legacy of English Law, pp. 1 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010