_The Federal Gazette_, April 8, 1788
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE:
_On the Abuse of the Press_
MESSRS. HALL AND SELLERS,
I lately heard a remark, that on examination of _The
Pennsylvania Gazette_ for fifty years, from its commencement, it
appeared, that, during that long period, scarce one libellous piece
had ever appeared in it. This generally chaste conduct of your paper
is much to its reputation; for it has long been the opinion of sober,
judicious people, that nothing is morelikely to endanger the liberty
of the press, than the abuse of that liberty, by employing it in
personal accusation, detraction, and calumny. The excesses some of
our papers have been guilty of in this particular, have set this
State in a bad light abroad, as appears by the following letter,
which I wish you to publish, not merely to show your own
disapprobation of the practice, but as a caution to others of the
profession throughout the United States. For I have seen a European
newspaper, in which the editor, who had been charged with frequently
calumniating the Americans, justifies himself by saying, "that he had
published nothing disgraceful to us, which he had not taken from our
own printed papers.
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