...Jefferson, the Act prohibited the uttering or publishing of "any false and scandalous and malicious writings against the government of the United States or either house of Congress of the United States or the President of the United States with intent to defame ... or to...

...quoted in his report on the Virginia Resolutions (1799): "If any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written,...writings against the Government of the United States, or the President of the United States, with an intent to defame the said Government or either house...

...punishable by a $5,000 fine and five years in prison, 'if any person shall write, print, utter or publish... any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings...United States, or either house of the Congress... , or the President... , with intent to defame... or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt...

...a $5,000 fine and five years in prison, "if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings...the United States, or either house of the Congress. . ., or the President . . ., with intent to defame ... or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt...

...or measures of the government of the United States"; or counseling or advising such opposition; or writing, printing, uttering, or publishing "any false,...writings against the government of the United States, or the President of the United States with intent to defame ... or to bring them or either of them,...

...is as follows, to wit : " And be it further enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utteror publish, or shall cause or procure to be written,...printed, uttered, or published, or shall knowingly and wilfully assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering, or publishing, any false, scandalous, and malicious...

...such as he suspects of treasonable machinations. The Sedition Act punished with fine and imprisonment "any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States . . . with intent to defame the said government." It was a republican government's version of lese...

...Sedition Act criminalized the publication of "any false, scandalous or malicious writing . . . against the Government of the United States, or either House of the Congress, with intent to defame . . . or to bring them . . . into contempt or disrepute."20 There was considerable...

...by a $5,000 fine and five years in prison, 'if any person shall write, print, utter or publish . . . any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings...the United States, or either house of the Congress .... or the President . . . , with intent to defame ... or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt...

...and at least two Republican newspapers were shut down.152 The law made it a crime to utter or publish "any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the Government of the United States, with intent to defame ... or to bring them into contempt or disrepute."1'3 Not only was a congressman,...