Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-06-22
License OF the Press.

Chief Justice Pierpoint, in his charge tc
the jury in the libel case Of L. f. Knapp Of
Middlebury against Fuller & Smith, pro
prietors of the Addison County Journal
sharply draws the dividing line between the
liberty and the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the press
and of the individual. Falsehoods, or scan
dalous charges, the truth Of which cannot be
made TO appear, are serious enough when
spoken by word of mouth, the judge truly
says, but they are still more serious when
put in type and scattered broadcast over the
land, and the author of them should be
held responsible for the consequences of his
wrong. The fact that newspaper people do
such things every day aggravates rather
than extenuates the offense. The judge
further says The liberty of the press is
not RIGHTEOUSNESS any more than the liberty
Of the individual; it is the right which the
press has under the law. Under the law the
liberty of the press does not give the press
right to publish falsehood about any one.
1t does not give the press the right to make
false accusations in their papers any more
than individuals have a right in private life
to make false accusations against their
neighbors. And it is no justification to say
that newspapers unfortunately are in the
habit Of doing it. The press to certain
extent may be said to be licentious. You
see a great deal in the newspapers that
you would not want to give your wife or
daughter to read. When they are libelous
and false, the parties who publish such
things are responsible TO the parties whom
they charge. 1t has been said that the pub
lie press is the great instructor of the people,
the source from which the people to great
extent obtain their education, the source
from which they obtain largely the informa-
ton which they possess in regard to public
affairs. And that is undoubtedly true.
Newspapers are an indispensable necessity
to the community. But that does not give
them the right to publish that which is i'm
proper to publish. 1t does not give them
the right to publish that which is false and
scandalous and libelous. Indeed, it is one
of the strongest reasons in the world why
everything Of that kind should be excluded
from them. If the people are to be educated
by the press, the education they receive
should be pure; not such an education as
they get from the scandalous articles we
often see in print. The public press can not |
shield themselves on any such ground as
that from the responsibility which is incur |
red by the publication of that which is false |
and libelous."
We believe that the press of Vermont by
a large majority, is found on the right side
Of Judge Pierpoint's line of demarcation be-
tween liberty and RIGHTEOUSNESS, between a
pure and an indecent press. When news
paper is made the vehicle of gratifying the
petty and purely personal enmities or re-
venges Of any individual or company of indi-
viduals, however those ends may be cloaked
with the thin disguise of false regard for
truth and the public veal whenever, in the
statement of alleged facts, it purposely or
wilfully distorts or suppresses the truth to
crafty personal pique,-it crosses the line
and enters the domain of indecent journal
ism as decsively as when it fabricates false
hoods from "whole cloth and prints them
A newspaper may publish many things of
this character that are thoroughly infamous
N conception and design, and by hair
splitting distinctions evade a technical
charge of libel, and it may also, by judi
'ious choice of victims, choice savoring
trongly of cowardice, publish the grossest
If petty libels with impunity for many peo-
Die are so constituted, or situated, that they
hun the notoriety gained by libel suit or
lct upon the well-known advice given by
Don Quixote to his squire on a certain ocoa-
ion, and so from motives of personal COM
ort refrain from stirring" the editor up.