The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
CONSTITUTION / UNITED STATES / FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
I have laid before the President your letters of the I 11th and 13th
instant. Your residence in the United States has given you an
opportunity of becoming acquainted with the extreme freedom of the
press in these States. Considering its great importance to the public
liberty, and the difficulty of subjecting it to very precise rules,
the laws have thought it less mischievous to give greater scope to its
freedom, than to the restraint of it. The President has therefore no
authority to prevent publications of the nature of those you complain
of in your favor of the 11th. I can only assure you that the
government of the United States has no part in them, and that all its
expressions of respect towards his Catholic Majesty, public and
private, have been as uniform as their desire to cultivate his
friendship has been sincere.
to Messrs. De Viar and Jaudenes, 14 July 1793
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