Libel in Mississippi, 1798-1832
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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2010 Libel in Mississippi, 1798-1832 Muriel Ann Everton University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, Legal Commons, Legal Studies Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Everton, Muriel Ann, "Libel in Mississippi, 1798-1832" (2010). Dissertations. 949. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/949 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi LIBEL IN MISSISSIPPI, 1798-1832 by Muriel Ann Everton Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ABSTRACT LIBEL IN MISSISSIPPI, 1798-1832 by Muriel Ann Everton May 2010 The Mississippi Territory officially became part of the United States in 1798. The territory was to be governed under the rules of the Northwest Ordinance, but those who went to govern the area found a culture that required the use of common law to settle the disputes arising from prior governments under other nations. With no precedents on which to rely, disputes led, at first, to dueling and then to libel cases. Both common law and common sense prevailed while many of the disagreements were aired publicly in newspapers. Mississippi’s first printer, Andrew Marschalk, using his First Amendment rights, wrote about the public conduct of officials. The officials took him to court on libel charges, where some issues and court decisions were ahead of decisions reached in libel law in the courts of the United States. Areas of concern were the liability of printers, the right of discussion of politics and official conduct, and the right of printers to be free from prosecution by courts and grand juries who were influenced by public officials. ii COPYRIGHT BY MURIEL ANN EVERTON 2010 DEDICATION The dissertation is dedicated to Dr. Arthur J. Kaul whose love for learning and passion for teaching was so unselfishly passed on to his students, and to Billie and Jim Everton whose love and support always will be with me. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer would like to thank Dr. Gene Wiggins for not only directing the dissertation, but also for his guidance, support, and persistence throughout the duration of this project. I also would like to thank committee members Dr. Keith V. Erickson, Dr. Christopher P. Campbell, Dr. Kim M. LeDuff, and Dr. Fei Xue for sharing their professional expertise as well as their advice and support. Special thanks to those who gave generously of their time and historical knowledge in Natchez including Ronald and Mimi Miller of the Natchez Historic Foundation, Carolyn Cole who was an energetic local history guide and researcher, and Betty Stewart who shared valuable historical information from her personal Marschalk family files. I also appreciate the research assistance of Harold Gibson from Gulfport, Mississippi, and the editorial expertise of Diana Peckham from Morton, Illinois. I am grateful to other members of the university community especially Dr. Susan Siltanen, Sue Fayard, and Amy Byxbe who gently but firmly pushed me over the finish line. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. ...................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..................................................................................................iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 1 Rationale Purpose Statement Definitions and Context Organization of the Study II. THE BEGINNING OF NATIONAL AND TERRITORIAL LIBEL, 1735-1801......................................................................................18 National Figures and Precedents The Mississippi Territory, 1798-1801 Summary III. POLITICS AND LIBEL..............................................................................44 The Claiborne Years, 1801-1803 Territorial and Legal Expansion, 1804-1807 Libel Amid the Political Factions, 1808-1811 Summary IV. POLITICS, LIBEL, AND WAR...............................................................130 Castigator v. George Poindexter Other Cases Marschalk v. Poindexter: Round Two Summary V. EARLY STATEHOOD, 1817-1832...........................................................212 1817-1824 1825-1832 v VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.......................................................245 REFERENCES................................................................................................................255 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Early in the history of Mississippi, people and events combined to make the Mississippi Territory a virtual battleground for speech and press freedoms. The history of libel in the Mississippi Territory began with some heroes of the American Revolution. Both appointed judges and future editors who came or were sent to the territory included politicians and soldiers who fought for the freedom of the colonies. Their families were involved in the earliest developments for free speech and free press in the colonies. For example, Mississippi’s first printer, Andrew Marschalk, was descended both from a member of the Mayflower voyage and also from a member of the jury who decided the John Peter Zenger free press case in eighteenth century New York. George Poindexter, the man who sued printer Marschalk for libel, wrote the first laws for Mississippi, and was also known for his defense of Aaron Burr in both the Mississippi Territory and in the United States Senate. David Ker, a territorial judge who sued another judge Edward Turner for libel, came from a family well known in Scotland for its pursuit of religious freedom before settling in the United States. Judge Ker was known for his firm belief in education for all and founded the University of North Carolina prior to his move to the Mississippi Territory. Once in Mississippi, he founded the first school for girls in 1802. The other judge mentioned, Edward Turner, created the first Mississippi Digest of laws with then printer to the territory, Peter Isler. 2 Peter Bryan Bruin, also involved with the libel suit against Judge Turner, had been taken prisoner in the Revolutionary War assault on Quebec and, after his release, settled in Natchez. He was one of the first three territorial judges who helped write laws and set up the court system. Walter Leake, territorial judge and later governor, was said to be a “deserter” during the Revolutionary War. His father, a colonial officer, left Walter at home because the boy was too young to join the Continental Army. According to the story told by Gen. Lafayette, Walter “deserted” home to join the army. As a judge, Leake presided over the libel trial of printer Marschalk. Col. Thomas Rodney, member of the Continental Congress and later territorial judge, wrote descriptive diaries of the Revolutionary War and of the southwest frontier. After Rodney’s death, some of his diaries were submitted to Congress which had them published. The diaries described firsthand some of the events of the Revolutionary War such as George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. Rodney’s brother Caesar signed the Declaration of Independence. Caesar Augustus, Rodney’s son, was the attorney general in Thomas Jefferson’s cabinet and was a manager of the impeachment proceedings against both John Pickering and Judge Samuel Chase. Chase ruled on some of the early libel trials in the United States. Together these men had a big impact on the development of the Mississippi Territory and wrote the laws favoring speech and press freedoms. While their backgrounds are known in American history, their contributions to free speech and a free press through libel suits and through the court system in the Mississippi Territory are not 3 as well documented. They and other future leaders brought with them the seeds for speech and press freedoms and Mississippi became an early testing ground for First Amendment rights. This study concerned specific cases from the Mississippi Territory and then the cases from early statehood in both Mississippi and Alabama since Alabama was created from the Mississippi Territory and used many of the same laws. Relevant cases from the neighboring state of Louisiana were included to trace the course of libel in the area during the 1798-1832 time period. The study examined the development of speech and press freedoms through the study of libel before the development of modern technology when communications and the delivery of news were changed forever. Legal historians, such as Lawrence Friedman (1985) in his book History of American Law, have pointed out that legal history is an often overlooked area of study. This study sought to fill a small part of the gap in the legal history of America with respect to libel and slander by examining the unusual circumstances and personalities that formed the basis for cases which, in turn, led to the development of First Amendment