Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

LYING.

As the good people of New-Jersey detest liars and malicious slanderers, either of individuals or public bodies, I have no doubt they will be happy to know, that on the 14th of July, 1798, Congress (among other things calculated to insure the peace, happiness, liberty and independence of their constituents) passed a law, which enacted, " That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or cause to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly or wilfully aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing, any FALSE, SCANDALOUS and MALICIOUS writing, against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President of the United States, with INTENT to defame the said government, or either House of Congress, or the President, or to bring them, or either of them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them, or either or them, the hatred of the people of the United States ; or to excite unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any LAW of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States. done in pursuance of such law, or of the powers vested in him by the constitution of the United States; or to oppose or defeat any such law or act; or to aid, encourage or abet, any hostile designs of any foreign nation, against the United States ; their people or government, such person shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding two years.'

The act further provides, that the person accused of a libel, shall be tried by a jury, and may plead in his justification, the truth of the publication as a defence ; so that whatever is true, cannot be within the act.

Now, Mr. Craft, no man of common honesty, and who is a good citizen, who loves his country, and regards the truth who detests liars, and the venders of malicious scandal, designed to sap the foundations
of our free and happy federal constitution and government, can read the foregoing law, without giving to it his full and entire approbation; yet this is the law which Virginia and her little satellite Kentucky, denounce as a law restraining the natural rights of the American people.

I shall here subjoin the substance of the foregoing matter, contained in this act, relative to seditious publications, to give you, and your readers a prospectus of what the Virgininians, and all jacobins and democrats, hold to be an infringement of their " natural rights." 'I would just observe however, in the first place, that this act takes no cognizance of any defamatory words spoken of the government, or about it, but merely of writings ; and it enacts, that if any person shall be found guilty, on a full trial by a jury of his country, of having written, or caused to be written, or aided in writing, and publishing, any false, scandalous and malicious writing.

1. Against the GOVERNMENT of the United States; or
2. Against the PRESIDENT of the United States ;
3. Against either HOUSE OF CONGRESS; with INTENT to defame them, or either of them, and to bring them into contempt, or to excite against them the hatred of the people of the United States, or with INTENT 4 To excite unlawful combinations in the United States,
1. For opposing or resisting any law of the United States ; or,
2. For opposing any lawful and constitutional act of the President of the United States ; or,
3. For aiding and encouraging any hostile designs against the United States, their people, or their government ;

SUCH PERSON shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. (It ought to be by hanging. )

Thus we see what the democrats consider as the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS; what they hold to be among the " natural rights of republican citizens." Surely every honest man ought to pray night and day, that a law which is made to protect the country against sedition, rebellion and destruction, may be made perpetual-

These men had the effrontery, when convinced, and when they admit that none but traitors and notorious villains can be punished under this act, to pretend it is unconstitutional. They know better than this; Gallatin, Livingston, Nicholas, all know this, though they weave syllogisms and sophistical tions by the mile, to prove the contrary; and I have no doubt, if it answered their purpose as well, of bringing the government into contempt, they could prove that a President or Senate was unconstitutional.