JB/037/038/001

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1821 April 29 Constitution
Penal Law Needless Constituted

Under Representative Democracy there is no such thing as
a seditious libel,— under the General Government of the Anglo
American United States there is no such thing as a seditious
libel. Charge the President of Congress, charge the Vice President,
charge the Chief Justice with having taken a bribe —
do this in print, circulate the print all over the United States
no one of them will cause you to be punished as for a seditious
libel, no one of them will have it in his power so
to do: for no such injury offence will any criminal prosecution
lie: no information granted ex officio, without motion: no
information granted a motion: no, nor so much as any indictment.
Action civil i.e. non penal, yes, viz. as for defamation.
Prove thereupon the imputation to be well-grounded,
in a man on whom it has been cast, and he will be punished accordingly:
tho' such is the effect of blind obsequiousness to a
corrupt original, be the evidence ever so complete it will
have to be delivered over again in a needless & worse than
useless prosecution, required by lawyercraft for the purpose.
If you fail in the proof, you may be punished for the
injury by being obliged to pay the obligation of paying money on that account
to the individual injured: and it is right you should be so
if you had not before you a reasonable ground for believing
the imputation charge two; much more if you are conscious of the
falsity of it. In this there would be nothing but what is
right: for tho' he is neither a view-god, nor a Magnate. The
person in question is an individual, and an individual whom
you have injured.

Identifier: | JB/037/038/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 37.
Date_1	1821-04-29	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	037	Main Headings	constitutional code
Folio number	038	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles	needless continued
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c4
Penner	richard doane	Watermarks	c wilmott 1819
Marginals		Paper Producer	andreas louriottis
Corrections	richard doane	Paper Produced in Year	1819
Notes public		ID Number	11253
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