provided a link to www.JeffersonLeadership.com is included.
Category Archives: Newspapers
Thomas Jefferson on keeping private things private
I presume our correspondence has been observed at the post offices, and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe that a printer has had the effrontery ["shameless boldness: insolence," Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate] to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people think they have the right to everything however secret or sacred.
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Aug. 10-11, 1815
The Adams-Jefferson Letters, edited by Cappon, P. 453
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
The famed correspondence between these two former Presidents resumed on January 1, 1812. By the time this letter was written, almost 60 letters had passed through the post offices in Quincy, MA, and Charlottesville, VA. (A rough estimate is that Adams wrote three or four letters to every one of Jefferson’s.)
With over 40 letters arriving from Adams, an enterprising Charlottesville printer had asked Jefferson about printing their correspondence. Jefferson is understandably offended by the effrontery of the printer, who hoped to turn a profit by making their private conversations public. (Adams had previously reported that a Boston printer had published private letters between Jefferson and Joseph Priestly.)
Other topics covered in this letter were Camus, Napoleon and the lack of a good history of the American revolution.
Thomas Jefferson on attacks in the newspapers
Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies [false charges] of the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time, and that of twenty aid[e]s could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to the justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me by what they see of my conduct on the stage where they have placed me, and what they knew of me before …
Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798, 1073
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
George Washington had advised Jefferson not to respond to public attacks in the press, whether political or personal. Jefferson took his advice. Here, he explains why, that it was both too time-consuming and pointless. Rebuttal was a no-win proposition.
The press in Jefferson’s time made no pretense of objectivity. There was no “reporting” of news. “Newspapers” were mouthpieces for partisan causes.
Jefferson believed his track record in office and before were all the defense he needed.
By 1798, Jefferson was the “anti-federalist” Vice-President under Federalist President John Adams. As such, he was becoming the spokesman for republican interests and the lightning rod for Federalist attacks.
