{The main question, he said, was }” whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth – whether a government, conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world would witness, can be written down-by falsehood and defamation.”
“The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them”
Letter to Judge John Tyler, June 28, 1804
“It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine his own opinion.”
Letter to William Findley March 24, 1801
“What is practicable must often control what is pure theory: and the habits of the governed determine in a great degree what is practicable.”
Letter to Du Pont de Nemours, January 18, 1802
