#1323 The Only Security of All Is in a Free Press

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

— Thomas Jefferson, 1787

This week we discuss the importance of a free press with President Jefferson.

On November 4, 1823 Thomas Jefferson wrote to Marquis de Lafayette that "the only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the waters pure."

In January of 1816 Jefferson wrote to Colonel Charles Yancey, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe."

Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog. Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about our Cultural Tours & Retreats with Clay S. Jenkinson at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good Day Thomas Jefferson Hour podcast listeners. Welcome to this week's show and thank you for listening.
0:07.0	David, I want to say before we go on that this is a program I'm very proud of.
0:12.0	It's on the First Amendment, it's on Freedom of the
0:14.6	Press. And here's our strategy for 2019. I think we're heading into some very dangerous
0:20.0	waters into what's probably one of the most severe constitutional crises in American history
0:26.5	and people are going to want to try to contextualize questions about impeachment,
0:30.9	the emoluments clause, due process, the Fourth Amendment, and so on and
0:36.9	so forth.
0:38.3	And the Jefferson Hour is not just about Ben Franklin and Kites and Jefferson and Wine, and Jefferson and his daughters. It's about the foundational
0:45.1	principles of this society. And so I think we have a duty not to opinionate unnecessarily
0:51.0	about the current situation, but to try to provide a foundation of
0:54.8	understanding of what Jefferson and the founding fathers envisioned and
0:59.4	what their fears were about moments precisely like this one.
1:04.6	Ben Franklin and Kites, that's a new one.
1:07.2	Well, you know, people do love that sort of thing,
1:09.9	and I do too.
1:11.0	Well, I love Kites too.
1:11.8	How many bricks in Monticello, you know, how many buttons in the Lewis and
1:15.3	Kark expedition. We've got a couple pitches to do here and before that I want to say
1:19.0	that we're recording this on it's the 7th of January correct that is correct and we're kind of
1:24.8	pre-recording this one because you're off to locks a lodge for the winter retreats
1:29.7	and this may be a pretty big day because we're going to hear a presidential address.
	...

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