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A Reconsideration
This article examines Thomas Jefferson's views on freedom of the press in connection with the existence of a federal common law of seditious libel, specifically in a Connecticutfederal district court case involving Federalist critics of Jefferson who publicly libeled him. It tests the accuracy of Leonard W. Levy's thesis in Jefferson and Civil Liberties (1963) thatfor most of his lifetime, Jefferson opposed the notion of complete freedom of the press and refused to recognize the right of habeas corpus in criminal matters. The article finds that, despite his book's popularity with scholars hostile to Jefferson, Levy's critique of Jefferson distorted thefacts and omitted evidence. With the minor exception of Jefferson's temporary acquiescence in his political supporters prosecution of his Connecticut libelen, the article concludes, Jefferson's traditional reputation as a defender of totalfreedom of the press and habeas corpus remains intact.
For nearly two centuries, Thomas Jefferson had a reputation as a stalwart defender of freedom of thought and expression, epitomized in the bills for religious freedom and general education he presented to the Virginia legislature during the late 1770s.1 During the 1960s, somewhat out of the blue, this timehonored distinction was challenged by prominent legal historian Leonard W. Levy (1923-2006), who himself held a reputation for liberalism and advocacy of judicial activism to preserve civil liberties. Levy favored expansive interpretations of the powers the Constitution conferred on the national government for the purpose of extending liberty and equality. However, one of his most well-known books, the brief study Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side (Harvard University Press, 1963), bitterly attacked Jefferson, among the leading historical representatives of America's libertarian tradition, as a right-wing demagogue obsessed with using force to crush his political and intellectual enemies._
One of Levy's most alarming charges was in chapter three, in which he declared that Jefferson did not favor freedom of the press. He further charged that in 1806, during his presidency, Jefferson attempted to enact the controversial doctrine of a federal common law of seditious libel (which many Republicans considered unconstitutional) in order to destroy his political enemies among Connecticut's press and clergy. He squelched the proceedings only when he found out that the defense attorneys in the case intended to revive an embarrassing sexual...