The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

242
new burgess was not mentioned, the transgressor was clearly recognizable. The
accused and the entire lower assembly were not pleased with such wanton freedom
of the press, and charged Parks with seditious libel:
But Parks begged that the records of the court might be produced,
which would prove the truth of the libel. This was allowed, and the
records were examined, though contrary to the doctrine of some
men, who would impose on the community as law, that a libel is not
less a libel for being true, and that its being true is an aggravation of
the offence; and, such men observe, no one must speak ill of rulers,
or those who are intrusted with power or authority … 49
The record showed the newspaper story to be correct. Some years earlier in a
different county, the man accusing Parks of libel had stolen sheep. The charges
against the printer were dropped, and the disgraced burgess retired from public life.
As Levy noted, the house accorded Parks the right to use truth as a defense,
advancing the Zengerian concept in contrast to the common law principle. 50 This
important step increased the ability of the press to criticize members of the
government when truth could be successfully used as protection from prosecution.
The scales of justice once again tipped in favor of press freedom and away
from seditious libel in a 1766 Virginia court. A lawsuit charged printers William
Rind, Alexander Purdie, John Dixon and newspaper contributor Colonel Robert
Bolling with libel. These charges stemmed from stories published in both gazettes
questioning the decision of higher court judges to release a murder suspect. 51 The
49 Thomas, History of Printing in America, 552-554. The exact date and the newspaper from
which this is taken were not noted by Thomas, and the source is apparently not extant. See also
Ingelhart, Press and Speech Freedoms, 22. Research in the Journals of the House of Burgesses could not
confirm this incident.
50 Levy, Emergence of a Free Press, 60-61.
51 See Rind’s Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg: William Rind, Aug. 8, 1766), 2, Virginia
Gazette (Williamsburg: Purdie & Dixon, July 18, 1766), Ibid., (Purdie & Dixon, June 20, 1766),
2, Lemay, “Robert Bolling and the Bailment of Colonel Chiswell,” 99-142, and earlier here,
chapter 7.