The Speeches at Full Length of Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Caines, The Attorney-General, Mr. Harrison, and General Hamilton, in the Great Cause of the People, Against Harry Croswell, on an Indictment of Libel on Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
The Speeches at Full Length of Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Caines, The Attorney-General, Mr. Harrison, and General Hamilton, in the Great Cause of the People, Against Harry Croswell, on an Indictment of Libel on Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
[HAMILTON, Alexander].
$1,750.00
Item Number: 142963
New York: Printed by G. & R. Waite, No. 64 Maiden-Lane, 1804.
First edition of this landmark case in the history of the First Amendment. Octavo, disbound. In very good condition. Rare with only a handful appearing in auction records.
In response to attacks on his administration by Federalist newspapers, Thomas Jefferson sought to prosecution for criminal libel under the Sedition Act. The political journalist Harry Croswell was indicted for his periodical, The Wasp, which had accused Jefferson of hiring pamphleteer James Callender to write articles charging Washington and Adams with various crimes—and referring to them as a "hoary-headed incendiary" and a "traitor, robber, and perjurer," respectively. Croswell was convicted in trial, as the court refused to allow him to prove the truth of what he had printed or intended, ruling that the truth was not a defense. Croswell was defended by a group of eminent lawyers, including William W. Van Ness and Alexander Hamilton, though the latter only argued on his behalf in appeal. In one of Hamilton's greatest speeches, a six-hour appellate argument, he argued that the freedom of the press consists in publishing the truth, regardless of how it reflects on its subjects; further, he argued for a rejection of libel based on English common law principles, which had been the basis for the court's original ruling. Nonetheless, Croswell was convicted, though never sentenced. The following year New York overturned the English libel laws based on Hamilton's argument. While in Albany to argue this case, Hamilton visited a friend's home and made some pointed remarks about his rival Aaron Burr. The remarks made their way back to Burr, the famous duel followed, and within 5 months Hamilton was dead. Ford, Hamiltoniana 90; Sabin 17677.
