State Papers

“ In view of these deliverances and as bearing upon their relevancy, as well as indicating their purpose, let me again suggest that the issue involved in the discussion as selected by the majority of the Committee on the Judiciary, and distinctly declared in their report, was whether, as a matter of right, or, as the report expresses it, as within “constitutional competence,” either House of Congress should “have access to the official papers and documents in the various public offices of the United States, created by laws enacted by themselves.” ”

“ If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county? Would an exchange of name be an exchange of rights? Upon what principle, upon what rightful principle, may a State, being no more than one fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the nation, and then coerce a proportionably large subdivision of itself in the most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country, with its people, by merely calling it a State? ”

“ Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; ”

“ Who appoints the editors, if not the government?"
"The government does not pay the expense of the papers, nor appoint their editors, nor in any way exert the slightest influence on their policy," replied Dr. ”

“ The act of Congress only compels a party to produce books or papers which contain evidence pertinent to the issue, in cases and under circumstances where he might be compelled to produce the same by the ordinary rules of proceedings in chancery. ”

“ It is something remarkable that no Person ever owned the Paper." (3 Amer. Hist. Review, 324.)
The obligation of secrecy required that these two papers should not be lost—that they should not be left where they might fall into the hands of someone who would publish them, that they should not remain in the possession of a member; and the final determination of the Convention implied that these two papers should be delivered by the Committee of Detail into the hands of the Secretary of the Convention and be by him placed in the custody of Washington. ”

“ For over 150 years—almost from the time that the American form of government was created by the adoption of the Constitution—our Presidents have established, by precedent, that they and members of their Cabinet and other heads of executive departments have an undoubted privilege and discretion to keep confidential, in the public interest, papers and information which require secrecy. American history abounds in countless illustrations of the refusal, on occasion, by the President and heads of departments to furnish papers to Congress, or its committees, for reasons of public policy. ”

“ In a letter written to his brother on the day of his election he announced a policy he intended to adopt, and afterwards carried out, "that is, to make the matter a business engagement between the people of the State and myself, in which the obligation on my side is to perform the duties assigned me with an eye single to the interest of my employers." ”

“ The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people, is to give them full information of their affairs through the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and 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. ”

“ The periodical papers are numerous and abusive to the greatest degree. By what I hear, the lawyers find it some substitution for the decay of business in the courts; for the minority papers regularly undergo the inspection of council learned in the law before they are published, that the authors who stand on the very verge of treason may not, by some inadvertency, make a faux pas that will throw them down the precipice ”

“ This will be worth the million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost us. I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English papers, the government will make it a standing instruction to their ministers at foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of occurrences here, by publishing in their papers the naked truth always, whether favorable or unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we candidly tell them the bad also. ”

“ If the House of Representatives, as the grand inquest of the nation, should at any time have reason to believe that there has been malversation in office by an improper use or application of the public money by a public officer, and should think proper to institute an inquiry into the matter, all the archives and papers of the Executive Departments, public or private, would be subject to the inspection and control of a committee of their body and every facility in the power of the Executive be afforded to enable them to prosecute the investigation. ”

“ The vital fact remains that your newspapers are not free to publish anything they like. Ours are thus free. Every issue of your papers must be submitted to your police, so that your rulers may control what you write and read. Not a paper in America is submitted to any official whatever. ”

“ Indeed, in 1955, in testimony pertaining to this proposed legislation, the Archivist of the United States confirmed:
"The papers of the Presidents have always been considered to be their personal property, both during their incumbency and afterward. ”

“ In the courts of that country from which we derive our great principles of individual liberty and the rules of evidence it is well settled—and the doctrine has been fully recognized in this country—that a minister of the Crown or the head of a department can not be compelled to produce any papers or disclose any transactions relating to the executive functions of the Government which he declares are confidential or such as the public interest requires should not be divulged ”

“ The Departments do not intend that the public or the Senate shall know the contents of even the confessedly official papers in the files regarding the administration [official conduct] of the people to be removed, because, in the great mass of cases, it would doubtless appear that their official behavior had been perfect and therefore their proposed removal must be purely political.—In haste, yours truly. ”

“ Thus, you can see that the Presidents of the United States have withheld information of Executive departments or agencies whenever it was found that the information sought was confidential or that its disclosure would be incompatible with the public interest or jeopardize the safety of the Nation. The courts too have held that the question whether the production of the papers was contrary to the public interest was a matter for the Executive to determine. ”

“ No senator here could have failed to have been acquainted with the fact, that the contents of a most important despatch or document has been discussed, and a most important overture canvassed in the different newspapers, in private and political circles, by individuals; every body, in fact, knows what has taken place, except the congress of the United States. The papers friendly to the administration—indeed, the whole circle of the American press—are in possession of the contents of a paper which this body has not been yet allowed to see ”

“ Sometimes, indeed, when the government was disposed to gratify the public curiosity respecting an important transaction, a broadside was put forth giving fuller details than could be found in the Gazette: but neither the Gazette nor any supplementary broadside printed by authority ever contained any intelligence which it did not suit the purposes of the Court to publish. The most important parliamentary debates, the most important state trials recorded in our history, were passed over in profound silence. 164 In the capital the coffee houses supplied in some measure the place of a journal. ”

“ It must be taken as settled, that when the United States becomes a party to what is called commercial paper by which is meant that class of paper which is transferable by indorsement or delivery, and between private parties, is exempt in the hands of innocent holders from inquiry into the circumstances under which it was put in circulation-they are bound in any court, to whose jurisdiction they submit, by the same principles that govern individuals in their relations to such paper. ”

“ It is not denied, that they were made according to the provisions of the acts of Congress. They were so made. From the character of those papers, we think they were admissible. They are documents or public writings, not judicial. ”

“ Not even by twisted interpretations can the adjudicated cases be made to support such reasoning. The “newspaper publicity law” which marks the extreme assertion of congressional authority, applies directly to the papers mailed. Only one dictum, of a nisi prius court,449 lays down the test of public policy, and if, under its enumerated powers, Congress may legislate in fulfillment of this vague purpose, there would be a good deal of difficulty, I fancy, in showing that it would be subserved by the enforcement of the proposed regulations. ”

“ If federal factfinding is to be avoided, then, in addition to providing a court judgment on the constitutional question, the State must also ensure that its procedures are adequate for the purpose of finding the facts. ”

“ In making these remarks, your Committee do not forget or underrate the good service done by the newspapers, which have been, or are now, edited and published by our colored brethren. We are deeply alive to the talent, the energy, and perseverance, which these papers manifest on the part of their self sacrificing conductors; and as the proprietors are poor, their papers have been jeoparded or slopped for the want of capital. ”

“ The constitutional guaranty of the right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to their papers thus closed against inspection, wherever they may be. ”

“ Every letter which comes expresses a firm belief that the whole paper system will now vanish into that nothing on which it is bottomed. For even the public faith is nothing as the mass of paper bottomed on it is known to be beyond its possible redemption. I hope this will be a wholesome lesson to our future Legislature. The war between France and England has brought forward the Republicans and Monocrats in every State, so that their relative numbers are perfectably visible. ”

“ The news of the world is collected and distributed by the Associated Press as the co-operative agency of the big papers, and through them it reaches the country papers. Any legislation which cuts the revenue of the big papers will reduce their ability to perform this necessary function. Every editor needs to keep informed of affairs and opinion in the country at large. ”

“ The acts of Congress dealing with the press are not numerous, as each state has for the most part its own legislation on the subject, dealing generally with, among other matters, the registration of newspapers, the monopoly of the state printer, and the right of giving the truth in evidence in defence to proceedings for libel. ”

“ It was clearly competent for congress, to that end, to invest the commission with authority to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of books, papers, tariffs, contracts, agreements, and documents relating to any matter legally committed to that body for investigation. ”

“ Whenever any movement is on foot for the securing of legislation desired by the predatory interests, or when restraining legislation is threatened, news bureaus are established at Washington, and these news bureaus furnish to such papers, as will use them, free reports, daily or weekly as the case may be, from the national capitol—reports which purport to give general news, but which in fact contain arguments in support of the schemes which the bureaus are organized to advance. ”

“ Papers on the Commission files are not a part of the record in a case, unless they are introduced as evidence It is the nature of the inquiry, not the accident whether papers are on file or published, which determines whether facts can be proved by evidence which is typical. ”

“ But inasmuch as the question has been again thrust upon the country by a Presidential aspirant, and the Radical press is filled with these calumnies against our Government, we feel impelled to give at least an outline of our defence. We will only add that we have not made, and do not mean to make, a single statement which we cannot prove before any fair-minded tribunal, from documents in our possession. ”

“ Newspapers were hereafter to play a direct part in government through their influence on those extraconstitutional forces, the political parties. There had been, it is true, a Greeley, a Weed, a Medill and a Forney; now there was not a state—perhaps but few counties—where the political policy was not inspired by some active editor or owner. The political organization without its organ was an anomaly; what became necessary was the paper that would fight the political organ. ”

“ By interpreting to the citizen the policies of his government and vigilantly scrutinizing the official conduct of those who administer the state, an independent press stimulates free discussion and focuses public opinion on issues and officials as a potent check on arbitrary action or abuse. ”