The Sedition Act Trials
Historical Documents
Justice William Paterson’s charge to the Lyon grand jury
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Vermont, October 3, 1798
In the 1790s, the presiding judge in a U.S. Circuit Court often delivered a broad-ranging instruction to a grand jury once it was impaneled to consider criminal indictments. In the style of English and American courts of the eighteenth century, these charges often included discussions of civic principles and were intended to educate the jury as well as the public about the functions of the court and the proper role of the government. Judges frequently offered comments on political issues as well, and as partisan conflict intensified in the late 1790s, the grand jury charges of openly Federalist judges became increasingly controversial.
Paterson told the Vermont grand jury that seditious libel was a grave threat to the federal government, and he lamented that many citizens of the young republic “delight in irregularity, sedition, and licentiousness as symptoms of freedom.” Paterson, like many Federalists, distrusted all organized political opposition and believed that citizens had a duty to support officials who were chosen by the people.
Paterson introduced the charge with general comments on the responsibilities of grand juries and then called attention to two types of crime. One was the forgery of bills from the Bank of the United States; the other category included the crimes of sedition and seditious libel as set out in the recent act of Congress. In a statement published in a local newspaper, the grand jury thanked Paterson for his remarks and asked him to publish the charge for “the general good of this District.” Although other justices frequently allowed publication of such charges, Paterson replied that he directed his solely at the jury and declined publication.
[Document Source:
Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800
, vol. 3:
The Justices on Circuit, 1795–1800
, Ed. Maeva Marcus, et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 292–94.]
The other class of offences, worthy of your notice, is unlawful combinations and conspiracies, seditious practices, and false, scandalous, and malicious writings, publications, and libels against the government of the United States. Transgressions of this description became so frequent, dangerous, and alarming, as at length to attract the attention of Congress, who, at a late session, passed an act relative to them. The law is entitled, “An act in addition to the act, intituled, An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States,” and runs in the following words. Here read the act . . . .
[text of act omitted]
Gentlemen,
The offences specified in this act are of a serious nature, and, when perpetrated, demand instant and full investigation. Unlawful combinations, conspiracies, riots, and insurrections strike at the being of our political establishment. They need no comment. Written or printed detraction, calumny, and lies are odious and destructive vices in private, and still more so, in public life. They are deliberate acts, perpetrated with a view to wound and do injury; and besides, their duration is longer, and their circulation more extensive than verbal obloquy and scandal. The man, who is guilty of publishing false, defamatory, and malicious writings or libels against the government of his country, its measures, and its constituted authorities, must, if not callous to the dictates of the moral sense, stand self-condemned. He sins against light; for he must be sensible, that such publications are contrary to clear and known duty. In such case, nothing short of idiocy can operate as an excuse. They destroy confidence, excite distrust, disseminate discord and the elements of disorganization, alienate the affections of the people from their government, disturb the peace of society, and endanger our political union and existence. No government, indeed, can long subsist, where offenders of this kind are suffered to spread their poison with impunity. An aggravating ingredient in the composition of the crimes described in this act is, that they are levelled against the people themselves. For the constitution, government, and constituted authorities of the United States are emphatically the creation and work of the people, emanating from their authority, and declarative of their will. To support them is our primary duty – to attempt their destruction is an offence of deep malignity. Observance of the laws and obedience to legal authority are the great bulwark of public liberty, which, however, free states find difficult to maintain; because their salutary restraint sits uneasy on turbulent spirits, and is mistaken for slavish subjection by the rude and ill informed part of the community, who delight in irregularity, sedition, and licentiousness as symptoms of freedom, and indications of republican spirit. Ah licentiousness! thou bane of republics, and more to be dreaded than hosts of external foes. The truth is, that libellous publications and seditious practices are inconsistent with genuine freedom, and subversive of good government. They tend to anarchy, and anarchy always terminates in despotism. May we avoid these evils by a cheerful and constant observance of the laws, and obedience to legal authority, in which civil liberty consists. The result will be order, union, peace, and happiness among ourselves, and the transmission of our constitution, government, and rights, pure and entire, to our posterity.
May
the God of Heaven enable us all to discharge our official, relative, and social duties, with diligence, fidelity, and honest zeal!