The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-05
Jefferson's Contribution to the Free Press
Continued from Page Three.)

the press, and the ike, oecoHu, lhose
who by the natural process OF inef-
tia. opnose all innovations under the
guise OF conservatism. Jefferson was
Inherently an innovater. No tradi-
ton. on custom, no practice, no belief,
that did not appeal to his judgment
and reason had any SacredneSS to him.
OF all his great measures, when he
first unfolded them, 1T was as true as
of the one of which he wrote in a
letter from France, The leap | then
proposed was too long, as yet, for the
mass of our citizens" But he lived
to see the country approve them all
before he died. A man who shows
contempt for outworn creeds and be-
liefs, is as sure to cut across the grain
of the large and 'reactionary class who
cling tenaciously to them as he is to
arouse the hostility of those enjoyerS
of special privilege who see their per-
quisites and bounties taken from them
by a law of equality. To his defiance
of these two classes. and to the mis-
conception of the man by those mis-
led by these, Mr.. Jefferson was in
debted for the storm of abuse that
beat upon his head from the day that
the supporters of primogeniture and
the fox-hunting clergy, were provoked
to resentment by Mr.. Jefferson
broad-minded and liberal measures.
vent to his Indignation when viciously
slandeEed. The surprise is that his
Indignation did not drive him TO the
point of favoring censorship OF the
press or severe punishment OF edl-
tors who wrote false things about
him. Though extremely sensitive to
criticism and sometimes wounded at
the sorest point by the printed hpels
he never faltered in his creed that a
1IXr a
nation To Edward Rutledge in 1896
he wrote, "You have seen my name
lately tackled to so much of eulogy
and of abuse that dare say you hard
Iy thought that it meant your old ac-
quaintance of '76. In truth, / did not
know myself under the pens of either
friends or foes. 1t is unfortunate for
our peace that unmerlted abuse
wounds, while unmerited praise has
not the power to heal. These are hard
wages for the services of all the ac-
tive and healthy years of ones life
To Samuel Smith, in 1898, he wrote
"Were l to undertake to answer the
calumnies of the newspapers, it would
be more than all my own time, and
that of twenty aids could effect. For
while L should be answering one,
twenty new ones would be invented y
To John Adams, in 1917, he wrote:
1T is fortunate for those in public
trust that posterity will judge them
by their works and not by the malig-
nant vituperationS and invectives or
the chickering's and Gardeners Of their
age" TO M. Pictet he wrote: The
abuses of the freedom of the press
here have been carried to length
never before known or borne by any
civilized nation. Our news
papers, for the most part, present
only the caricatureS of diSatfected
minds" TO James Monroe, in 1893,
he wrote: ut is really a most afflict-
ing consideration that it is impoSSi-
BILE for man to act in any office for
the public without encountering per-
secution which even his retirement
will not withdraw from him.
The most severe arraignment of the
press into which his resentment to
calumny upon himself and his admin
istration ever led him was toward the
close. of his term. Beset with foreign
and domestic complications, haraSSed
by divisions in his party in Congress.
he was sorely wounded by the Vo-
lent criticisms of the Federalist or
anti-republican press. He felt that
he had spent himself for his country,
without selfish aims, and he craved,
as he was going into retirement, after
half a century devoted to affairs cf
state, the good will and appreciation
of his fellow countrymen. instead or
giving him assurance that his con-
tribution to the life, safety and guild
ance of the young Republic was APP
preciated, large part of the press
was making his slightest act the fresh
occasion for SANDER and detraction.
1t was at that time, in 1907, that he
wrote the following letter from the
national capital to George NorVell In
response to a request as to how to
conduct d newspaper, in Whlcn ne
gave vent to his feeling of resentment:
ITO your request of my opinion Oh
the manner in which newspaper
should be conducted, so as to be most
useful, L should answer, by restrain
ing it to true facts and sound princi-
pies only" Yet / fear such paper
would find few subscribers. 1t is
melancholy truth, that suppression
of the press could not more complete
" deprive the nation of its Dement'S
than is done by it's abandoned prosu-
tuition to falsehood. Nothing can now
be believed which is seen in a news
paper. Truth itself becomes suspl-
cious by being put into that polluted
vehicle The real extent of this state
of misinformation is known only TO
those who are in situations 10 con-
front facts within their knowledge
with the lies of the day. | really look
with commiSeration over the great
body of my fellow citizens, who, read
ing newspapers, live and die IN the
belief, that they have known some
thing of what has been passing IN the
world in their time; whereas the ac-
counts they have read in newspapers
are just as true history of any other
period of the world as of the present,
except that the real names of the day
are affixed to their fables. General
facts may indeed be collected from
them, such as that Europe is now at
war, that Bonaparte has been a sue
cessful warrior, that he has subject
ed a great portion of Europe to his
will etc etc, but no details can be
relied on. / will add, that the man
who never looks into a newspaper is
better informed than he who reads
them; inasmuch as he who knows
nothing is nearer to truth than he
whose mind is filled with falsehoods
and errors. He who reads nothing
will still learn the great facts, and the
details are false.
.'Perhaps an editor might begin a
reformation in some such way as this:
Divide his paper into four chapters,
heading the 1st, Truths; I'd, Proba-
bilities; 3rd, Possibilities; 4th, Lies.
The first chapter would be very short,
as it would contain little more than
60 49,,