In what case was being called a Federalist considered libel?
score:3
Finding this case in actual court records will be difficult. All searches I have made, seem to circle back to the original source material which occurs in Early Indiana Trials and Sketches: Reminiscences, By Oliver Hampton Smith Pg 120. Later references all seem to focus back to this article, and none reference the actual trial. This is with good reason.
A particular phrase in the entry by Smith caught my eye early on, but I dismissed it as a different speech pattern, or perhaps some distinction of a legalese jargon:
In early times there was tried in the Franklin Circuit Court an action for libel of some importance to the reading politicians of the country and especially to those who have some recollection of the great political contest between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson for President I call the parties to the suit Joshua Harlan plaintiff and John Allen defendant Judge Sparks was at the time President Judge but was not on the bench until after the verdict was returned The case was tried before the Associates General James Noble was counsel for the plaintiffs and John Test for the defendant
The line which caught my eye was "I call the parties to the suit Joshua Harlan plaintiff and John Allen defendant". The part that threw me was, when I resarched the names of the judges and lawyers listed in the case, they all came back with valid histories from this time frame, and provided the ability to narrow the date to the early 1800s, probably between 1811 and Judge Sparks death in 1815 since when the case occured
Judge Sparks was at the time President Judge but was not on the bench until after the verdict was returned
Last night I sat down and started reading the book, and a pattern became apparent.
- Page 19 The landlord I call Perry Landen.
- Page 25 I call him John Lindsay...a man I call Jim Boice
- Page 48 I call the parties John Jones and James Backhouse
- Page 334 for the sake of a name, I call Dodrige Alley
and more clearly still on page 122:
I sketch another case of high importance in the same court names of parties immaterial A lawyer I call John Mattocks Jr one of the most learned men in early Indiana a graduate of old Yale with Latin Greek Hebrew and divers technical terms at his tongue's end a partial acquaintance with the legal learning of the old English authors at ready command for plaintiff and General Noble for the defendant
(Searching this book for the phrase 'I call' finds 93 entries...)
So, from this I conclude, Smith has done the Dragnet thing,
"Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
So, as I said, it will be difficult to find more information on this case, since the names *'Joshua Harlan, plaintiff, and John Allen, defendant.'*, are probably not the original names of the individuals involved.
(A location at the national archives, Records of District Courts of the United States shows some information concerning holdings of Indiana court records, but it only seem to cover the time from 1819-1974, and these holdings are in Chicago-apparently not digitized- so this probably does not help you either.)
Upvote:3
Justcal has noted that the actual trial (not the memoirs) took place in 1813-15. This is important because Indiana was not a state until 1816. That's why the citation would be hard to find, because it would be "pre-statehood."
In 1813-15, it was the Indiana territory, with a seat of government at the city of Corydon on the Ohio River, the most likely place for such a trial. This was near future "Confederate" territory, where many people were, in fact, pro South. It's mainly in this context that calling someone a "Federalist" was "libel."
By then, "pro Federalists" were limited mainly to New England and New York, with the rest of the country, particularly the "new"states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, the future Indiana), and all of the South being "anti-federalist. A polite synonym might be a "Yankee," although the term had the connotation of "Tory," or traitor. This is because it referred to a British sympathizer during the War of 1812 in a part of the country that was strongly anti-British.
At any rate, this source mentioned the fact that people would just as soon associate with an Indian (Native American) or horse thief as with a Federalist, which was a measure of why calling someone a "Federalist" would be considered "libel."
More post
- 📝 What does the Latin "prorex" mean in reference to Louis II de Bourbon?
- 📝 Fat jokes in ancient Greek comedies
- 📝 Did Napoleon write an elegy to Imam Hussain?
- 📝 Could someone help to identify this Japanese mon found on what appears to be a late Edo Period Jingasa?
- 📝 How much did Pan Am tickets to the moon cost?
- 📝 Were there concrete plans, 40-41, for Japan to attack Singapore/Indonesia, while avoiding a fight with the US?
- 📝 What were the rights of various classes of people in the Roman Republic?
- 📝 Strange jeep-hold cable used during Operation Horev
- 📝 What was the structure of religious beliefs among the Arabic peoples before conversion to Islam?
- 📝 What was the original intent of US presidential power to pardon?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 What was the original cost of a Sharps Rifle?
- 📝 Are currently sold versions of "Mein Kampf" censored?
- 📝 Which have been the most and least successful Olympics in terms of economic impact?
- 📝 What did the Romans call Cardigan the town in West Wales, UK?
- 📝 Was Mohammed known and respected in seventeenth-century Europe?
- 📝 During WW2, did the merchant marine also return to Canada in convoys?
- 📝 What impact did Trotsky's armoured train have on the Russian civil war?
- 📝 Were there U.S. weapon restrictions during 19th century?
- 📝 How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
- 📝 How did the Chinese crossbows that shot bullets work?
- 📝 Purple in Roman History
- 📝 Why did the Ming treasure fleet voyages end?
- 📝 How did off-grid UK homes in the 1800s generate gas?
- 📝 What was the standard spoken language (dialect) in the Three Kingdoms period?
- 📝 How would a 16-17th Century European Rapier have been made?
- 📝 If the heir to a Kingdom is called Crown Prince, what is the heir to a Duchy called?
- 📝 What is the best historical example of conflict between two cultures with differing levels of technology?
- 📝 Has the United States ever been formally condemned by the United Nations?
- 📝 Why did many US military designs start with letter M?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 In what case was being called a Federalist considered libel?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
- 📝 What was the Seven Years War called at first?
- 📝 What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?
- 📝 What was the policy on academic research being published beyond the iron curtain?
- 📝 Approximately what was the short-term economic loss to Britain as a result of the Revolutionary War being lost?
- 📝 Nazi Germany's secret service SD was first called Ic-Dienst, what does "Ic" stand for?
- 📝 What was the first recorded instance of sex or violence being inappropriate for children to see?
- 📝 What was the English Civil War called during the Protectorate?
- 📝 What was the consequence of Gestapo being declared a criminal organization in the Nuremberg trials in 1945?
- 📝 What was the city of El Mirador called in Mayan?
- 📝 What was considered utility clothing before WW2?
- 📝 What was World War 1 called before World War 2?
- 📝 What "other property" was considered for representation at the Constitutional Convention?
- 📝 What place was called [in Latin] Audomaropolitanus?
- 📝 What was considered an epoch by the Phoenicians?
- 📝 What was Texas called after gaining its independence and why was it called that?
- 📝 What constitutes a country's military being called a "Defence Force"?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 Was England called England in the days of King Arthur?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What is the pre-schism Christian church called today?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 What was the religion of the Arabic people before conversion to Islam?
- 📝 What was the purpose of Nazi extermination camps?
