of its bitterness. Shortly after taking office he had begun to feel, apparently, that a free press had its disadvantages; he referred to the newspapers as "a bear-garden scene into which I have made it a point to enter on no provocation."[1]
On the other hand, shortly after his inauguration he set forth in a letter to Elbridge Gerry his attitude toward the press, as he consistently lived it out.
"The right of opinion," he said, "shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in opinion; those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope, nor shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of opinion in politics as well as religion that makes us take great interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish aliment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support from a numerous priesthood, were it not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries and require a priesthood to explain them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this. They have no priests, therefore, no schisms. They judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality. So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough. In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election they
- ↑ Jefferson's Works, x, 173.
