Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the
time exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies
uttered from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote
to Mr. Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating
that I had laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the
thousand calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my
own conduct, and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that
I had found no reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I
was unwilling it should be broke through by others as to any matter
concerning me; and I therefore requested him to desire the district
attorney to dismiss the prosecution. Some time after this, 1 heard of
subpoenas being served on General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as
witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first time, conjectured
the subject of the libel. I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to
require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The answer of Mr.
Huntington, the district attorney, was, that these subpoenas had been
issued by the defendant without his knowledge, that it had been his
intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first meeting of the
court, and to accompany it with an avowal of his opinion, that they
could not be maintained, because the federal court had no jurisdiction
over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till then know that
there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now know what
were their subjects. But all went off together; and I afterwards saw, in
the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the clergyman, disavowing
any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never
uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either showed me, or said
there were affidavits of at least half a dozen respectable men who were
present at the sermon, and swore no such expressions were uttered, and
as many equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the clergyman
expressed his gratification at the dismission of the prosecution. I
write all this from memory, and after too long an interval of time to be
certain of the exactness of all the details; but I am sure there is no
variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small lapses of
memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that the
prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground
on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and
others; to wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null,
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