Public Opinion and the Press Clause

NOTES

• New-York Journal, November 8, 1787.
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• [Philadelphia] Independent Gazetteer, October 29, 1787.
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• [Philadelphia] Freeman's Journal, October 24, 1787.
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• Robert A. Rutland, The Ordeal of the Constitution, The Antifederalists and the Ratification Struggle of 1787–1788 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966); David A. Anderson, “The Origins of the Press Clause,” U.C.L.A. Law Review 30 (February 1983): 466–75.
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• Alexander Hamilton, “The Federalist No. 84,” in Jacob E. Cooke, ed. The Federalist (Middletown, Conn.: Wesley an University Press, 1961), p. 580.
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• James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788, in Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton: Princeton University Pres, 1950), 14: 19, 20.
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• Anderson, “The Origin of the Press Clause,” pp. 475–86.
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• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764–1776 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), pp. 189, 297.
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• Leonard W. Levy, Emergence of a Free Press (New York: Oxford University Press 1985), p. 16.
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• For a discussion of the revolutionary theory of the press, see William A. Hachten, The World News Prism, Changing Media, Clashing Ideologies (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1981), pp. 69–72.
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• Jeffery A. Smith, “Legal Historians and the Press Clause,” Communications and the Law 8 (August 1986): 69–80.
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• Public opinion is, of course, not a monolithic entity. It is rather the diverse reaction to an issue at hand. The term is applied here to varied responses made in particular situations involving the exercise of press freedom.
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• “Report on the Resolutions,” 1799–1800, in Gaillard Hunt, ed., The Writings of James Madison (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1900–1910), 6: 388.
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• Proceeding Against John Bastwick, Henry Burton, and William Prynn, 3 Howell's State Trials 711 (1637).
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• Boston Gazette, or Country Journal, June 2, 1755.
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• Maurice Ahley, The Glorious Revolution of 1688 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1966), pp. 195, 199–202; John Miller, James II, A Study in Kingship (Hove, East Susex, England: Wayland Publisher, 1977), pp. 182–87; Roger Thomas, “The Seven Bishops and their Petition, 8 May 1688,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 12 (April 1961): 56–70.
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• Jeffery A. Smith, “Freedom of Expression and the Marketplace of Ideas Concept from Milton to Jefferson,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 7 (Summer 1981): 48–53.
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• The Trial of the Seven Bishops, 12 Howell's State Trials at 425-28.
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• Journals of the House of Commons, 11: 305–06.
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• Lawrence Hanso, Government and the Press, 1695–1763 (London: Oxford University Press, 1936), pp. 23, 67–68; The Trial of Richard Francklin, 17 Howell's State Trials 625 (1731).
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• Abel Boyer, ed., The Political State of Great-Britain, 60 vols. (London: Printed for T. Cooper, 1710–1740), 42: 88.
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• The Trial of William Owen, 18 Howell's State Trials 1203, at 1228, 1229 (1752).
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• Robert R. Rea, The English Press in Politics, 1760–1774 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pres, 1963), pp. 28–69; George Rude, Wilkes and Liberty, A Social Study of 1763 to 1774 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), pp. 17–36.
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• Rea, The English Press in Politics, pp. 75–77; Rude, Wilkes and Liberty, pp. 33–34.
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• Rea, The English Press in Politics, pp. 77–82; Proceedings in the Case of John Wilkes, 19 Howell's State Trials 1075 (1763–1770).
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• Rea, The English Press in Politics, pp. 82–86; Annual Register 7 (1764): 87, 108; ibid., 8 (1765): 59, 65; London Magazine 34 (February 1765): 108-09; Gentleman's Magazine 35 (February 1765): 96.
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• On the Wilkes phenomenon, see John Brewer, Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
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• Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, April 16, 1768, in Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959—), 15: 98–99; Rea, The English Press in Politics, pp. 153–61.
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• Rude, Wilkes and Liberty, pp. 37–56.
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• The Trial of John Miller, 20 Howell's State Trials 869, at 895 (1770).
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• Peter D.G. Thomas, “The Beginning of Parliamentary Reporting in Newspapers, 1768–1774,” English Historical Review 74 (October 1959): 623-36; Peter D.G. Thomas, “John Wilkes and Freedom of the Press (1771),” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 33 (1960): 86–98.
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• Pauline Maier, “John Wilkes and American Disillusionment with Britain,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 20 (July 1963); 373–95; Richard J. Hooker, “The American Revolution Seen Through a Wine Glass,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 11 (January 1954): 52–57.
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• [George Keith], New England's Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsilvania ([New York, 1693], pp. 32–38.
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• Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America, ed. Marcus A. McCorison (New York: Weathervne Books, 1970), pp. 354–55.
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• [Thomas Maule], New-England Persecutors Mould With their own Weapons ([New York, 1697]), pp. 52–62; Lawrence W. Murphy, “Thomas Maule: The Neglected Quaker,” Journalism Quarterly 29 (Spring 1952): 171-74; Clyde A. Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts (New York: Longman, Green, & Co., 1906), pp. 70–73.
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• Leo P. Bradley, Jr., “The Press and the Declension of Boston Orthodoxy, 1674–1724” (M.A. thesis, University of Washington, 1977), pp. 97–117.
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• Boston News-Letter, March 6, 1721.
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• Boston Gazette, March 6, 1721; [Daniel Defoe], News From the Moon. A Review of the State of the British Nation ([Boston: James Franklin, 1721]).
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• General Court Records, Massachusetts Archives, Boston, Mass., 11, p. 113.
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• Council Records, Massachusetts Archives, 7, p. 252.
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• Boston News-Letter, April 3, 1721.
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• Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts, pp. 93–96; Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts-Bay, ed. Lawrence Shaw Mayo, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936), 2: 174–208.
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• Boston Gazette, January 29, 1722.
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• New-England Courant, December 4, 1721. On the Courant, see Arthur B. Tourtellot, Benjamin Franklin, The Shaping of Genius, The Boston Years (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1977), pp. 197–436.
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• General Court Records, 11, pp. 319–20, 370.
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• New-England Courant, September 17, 1722. For examples of the Courant's controversial articles and discussions of press freedom, see the issues of August 7, 14, 21, 28, September 4, 11, October 16, November 20, December 4, 1721; January 22, February 5, 12, April 16, 30, May 14, 28, June 11, July 9, 1722. On the sporadic and largely ineffectual use of legislative privilege against the colonial press, see Jeffery A. Smith, “A Reappraisal of Legislative Privilege and American Colonial Journalism,” Journalism Quarterly 61 (Spring 1984): 97-103, 141.
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• General Court Records, 11, pp. 491–93; Council Records, 7, pp. 452–53; Suffolk County Court Files, Boston, Mass., 146, No. 16480; Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, Boston, Mass., 1721–1725, p. 119.
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• New-England Courant, January 14, 21, 28, February 4, May 6, 13, 1721.
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• Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts, pp. 102–03.
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• New-England Courant, February 11, 1723.
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• American Weekly Mercury, February 26, 1723.
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• New-England Courant, December 18, 25, 1721; January 22, 1722.
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• New-York Weekly Journal, November 12, 1733.
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• James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New York Weekly Journal, ed. Stanley N. Katz, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972); Livingston Rutherford, John Peter Zenger, His Press, His Trial (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1904); Cathy Covert, “‘Passion is Ye Prevailing Motive’: The Feud Behind the Zenger Case,” Journalism Quarterly 50 (Summer 1973): 3-10; Journals of the Votes and Proceedings of the General Assembly of New York, 2 vols. (New York: Printed by Hugh Gaine, 1766), 1: 671–72.
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• The remark by Morris is quoted in William Dunlap, History of the New Netherlands, Province of New York, and State of New York, to the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 2 vols. (New York: Printed tor the author by Carter & Thorp, 1839–1840), 1: 302.
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• On the apparent lack of seditious libel trials in colonial courts after 1735, see Harold L. Nelson, “Seditious Libel in Colonial America,” The American Journal of Legal History 3 (April 1959): 170.
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• South-Carolina Gazette, January 5, 19, February 9, March 30, 1747.
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• R. Nicholas Olsberg, ed., The Journal of the Commons House of Assembly, 23 April 1750–31 August 1751 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1974), pp. 7–12; Jeffery A. Smith, “Impartiality and Revolutionary Ideology: Editorial Policies of the South-Carolina Gazette, 1732–1775,” Journal of Southern History 49 (November 1983): 519–21.
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• New-York Post-Boy, November 8, 1756.
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• Pennsylvania Journal, February 23, 1758; American Magazine 1 (January, February, April 1758): 199-200, 210–27, 308; Edward Shippen Jr., to Edward Shippen, January 28, 1758, Balch Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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• Pennsylvania Gazette, December 1, 1757; Examination of David Hall, January 18, 1758, Penn Manuscripts, Wyoming Controversy, Smith and Moore vs. Assembly, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 5: 223–25.
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• Gertrude MacKinney and Charles F. Hoban, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, 8th ser., 8 vols. (Harrisbury: State Printers, 1931–1935), 6: 4707. On the case, see Ralph L. Ketcham, “Benjamin Franklin and William Smith: New Light on an Old Philadelphia Quarrel,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 88 (April 1964): 142-63; Peter C. Hoffer, “Law and Liberty: In the Matter of Provost William Smith of Philadelphia, 1758,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 38 (October 1981): 681–701.
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• Daniel Fowle, A Total Eclipse of Liberty (Boston: 1755); Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, 1754–1755 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1956), pp. 63–64, 67, 72.
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• Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts, pp. 115–19, 171–73; General Court Records, 25, pp. 268–91; 26, p. 340. For background, see Paul S. Boyer, “Borrowed Rhetoric: The Massachusetts Excise Controversy of 1754,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 21 (July 1964): 328–51.
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• Boston Gazette, February 29, March 7, 1768; Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, (1767–1768 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1975), pp. 206, 210–11.
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• Josiah Quincy Jr., Reports of Cases Argued and Abjudged in the Superior Court of Judicature of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Between 1761 and 1772 (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1865), pp. 262–78.
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• Boston Gazette, March 14, 21, 1768.
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• Massachusetts Spy, November 14, 1771.
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• Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, pp. 140–42, 147–48.
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• New York Journal, February 15, March 22, 29, 1770.
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• Ibid., March 22, 29, April 5, 12, 1770; New-York Post Boy, January 29, February 19, March 19, 26, April 2, 9, 1770; William Smith, Historical Memoirs, From 16 March 1763 to 9 July 1776, ed. William H.W. Sabine (New York: 1956), pp. 71–76, 81.
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• Thomas Jones, History of New York During the Revolutionary War, ed. Edward F. De Lancey, 2 vols. (New York: New York Historical Society, 1879), 1: 24–33; Roger J. Champagne, Alexander McDougall and the American Revolution in New York (Schnectady, N.Y.: Union College Press, 1975), pp. 24–43.
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• South-Carolina Gazette, September 2, 6, 13, 15, 1773; Smith, “Impartiality and Revolutionary Ideology,” pp. 524–25.
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• Claude H. Van Tyne, The Loyalists in the American Revolution (New York: Macmillan Co., 1902), pp. 66, 198–201, 327–29.
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• Ibid., pp. 168–73.
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• Independent Gazetteer, October 15, 19, November 9, December 7,14, 21, 28, 31, 1782; January 4, 11, 18, 1783; Pennsylvania Gazette, January 8, 15, 22, 1783; Dwight L. Teeter, “The Printer and the Chief Justice: Seditious Libel in 1782–83,” Journalism Quarterly 45 (Summer 1968): 235-42, 260; G.S. Rowe, Thomas McKean, The Shaping of an American Republicanism (Boulder, Col.: Associated University Press, 1978), pp. 182–88.
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• John P. Kaminski, “Newspaper Suppression during the Debate Over the Ratification of the Constitution, 1787–1788,” paper presented at the Midwest Mass Communication History Conference, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 23, 1982.
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• New York Journal, and Weekly Register, August 7, 1788.
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• J.A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall, eds., The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, A Genetic Text (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981), pp. 94–95; “To the Editors of the Pennsylvania Gazette,” 1788, in Albert H. Smyth, ed., The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 10 vols. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1905–1907), 9: 639.
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• Federal Gazette, September 12, 1789.
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• See, e.g., Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, July 31, 1788, in ibid., 13: 442; “Draft of a Charter of Rights,” 1789, in ibid., 15: 168; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, August 28, 1789, in ibid., p. 367.
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• Thomas Jefferson to Noah Webster, Jr., December 4, 1790, in ibid., 18:132.
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• For a review of recent scholarship on republican theory, see Linda K. Kerber, “The Republican Ideology of the Revolutionary Generation,” American Quarterly 37 (Fall 1985): 474–95.
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• “Amendments to the Constitution,” June 8, 1789, in The Writings of James Madison, 5: 380, 381, 382, 385.
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• [Philadelphia] National Gazette, December 19, 1791.
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