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
5 - Criminal Libel During the Jefferson and Madison Administrations, 1800–1816
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
Introduction
With the 1800 elections, a dramatic change had transformed the government. There was a Republican President, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate. With the Republicans firmly in control of the government, the country was on the brink of vigorous change.
On the commencement of his administration, President Jefferson took vigorous steps to undo the remaining consequences of the Sedition Act, which had expired in accordance with its terms. He immediately ordered the discontinuance and dismissal of all pending federal seditious libel prosecutions and pardoned all persons convicted under the Act who were still in jail. In his view the Act had been unconstitutional, and he moved to expunge its lingering traces.
The dramatic change commencing with the 1800 elections was only the beginning of the Federalist decline. The Republicans built on their narrow 1800 triumph. Jefferson, a narrow victor in 1800, with 73 electoral votes against 68 votes for Adams, won an overwhelming victory in 1804 over the Federalist candidates, Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King, with 162 electoral votes to a mere 14 for the Federalists. With the 1804 elections, the Republicans had increased their control of the Senate to an overwhelming margin with 27 Republicans and a token 7 Federalists; the House consisted of 117 Republicans with only a handful of 25 Federalists.
With the triumph of the Republicans, the arena for criminal libel prosecutions was fast becoming a matter of state law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Repressive Jurisprudence in the Early American RepublicThe First Amendment and the Legacy of English Law, pp. 148 - 186Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010