Hypocrites and Heroes - New English Review

By Daniel Mallock (December 2019)

Readers of Newspapers in Naples, Orest Kiprensky, 1831

It is clear to most everyone that hypocrisy is now pandemic in this country, but it is not endemic. Hypocrisy and moral/ethical collapse are not built-in to the foundations of the republic though, to some, it might seem so. Regardless of the general understanding of this truth or, more importantly, the lack of it, every generation gets its share.

With the ongoing diminishment of religion-based morals, ethics, and standards, and the general decline in critical thinking skills, the younger members of our society in particular are hard-pressed to know who and what to believe, and find it challenging to make a determination as to what is right, and what is wrong. The bitterness and hatred exhibited by so many of the revolutionary left is illustrative of an emotional approach to politics and life and not one of rational and critical thought.

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There is perhaps some irony in the fact that while John Adams was the first president to attempt to stifle insults by the press and failed (the Sedition Acts), Jefferson was the first president to hold the press accountable for outright lies, that is, “fake news.” Every American moment of extremism and revolutionism has its own fake news. Journalism as a profession failed consistently throughout our history—our current frustrations with a failed press is nothing new at all. But for people unfamiliar with the details of the past it can be seen as a shocking and disturbing trend without context.

Jefferson suggested a good start would be to prosecute the Federalist editor of The Wasp, Harry Croswell, for libeling Jefferson and others. The result was People v Croswell.

Jefferson understood that the purpose of the press-as-watchdog of the republic was incumbent on the perception, both perceived and hopefully merited, that journalism is a profession of integrity and credibility. Once the credibility of the press is destroyed, generally by their own collapse of integrity and false and biased reporting, the important societal functions of the 4th estate are no longer possible.

Having been the victim of savage attacks in the Federalist press throughout the election cycle of 1800 and into his presidency, Jefferson decided to set an example. This goal of eradicating partisanship and lies in the press is an admirable though perhaps impossible goal—the failure of the press is an endless unresolved challenge. It is unresolvable because the profession itself will not mandate standards and enforce them overrun as it is by partisanship and, in our era, hatred and revolutionism. While there are exceptions to this unpleasant truth, the mainstream press is in a depraved, partisan, hyperbolic state entirely destructive of its purpose.

Alexander Hamilton famously defended the accused Federalist editor (pro bono, too), arguing for several hours to the court that statements by a journalist, though clearly biased and opinionated, could not be criminal if truthful/factual. According to accounts of Hamilton’s eloquent performance in the courtroom there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. That the accused was neither convicted nor acquitted is a matter for legal historians to parse, but the mission of the trial—to “teach the press a lesson”—failed.

That the hypocrisy and failure of the press should be aggressively challenged by Thomas Jefferson—who correctly recognized loss of credibility and integrity in that profession as a direct threat to the republic—should not be so surprising even considering what you will read below. Calling out others for their ethical and moral failings is not as difficult as correcting our own.

All of this leftist, partisan-driven fake news hypocrisy now so commonly endured by the people—not only the consequence of the failure of American journalism and American education—has consequences. The consequences of hypocrisy whether intended or accidental can have far-reaching repercussions.

In a challenging letter of July 31, 1814, Edward Coles, secretary to then president James Madison, tentatively wrote to his friend, former president Thomas Jefferson opening, “I never took up my pen with more hesitation or felt more embarrassment than I now do in addressing you on the subject of this letter.” Though hesitant, Coles quickly got to the point: “My object is to entreat and beseech you to exert your knowledge and influence, in devising, and getting into operation, some plan for the gradual emancipation of Slavery.”

Jefferson had been critical of slavery in his one book Notes on the State of Virginia, referring to it as “this great political and moral evil” and had attempted to include anti-slavery language in the Declaration of Independence, which had been struck from his drafts. In describing slavery, Jefferson had also written in Notes that “the man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances.” Jefferson fully understood that the existence of slavery could bring national conflict and even disunion. In a letter to John Holmes of April 22, 1820, Jefferson referred to the controversy around the admission of Missouri (a slave state) to the Union (1821) as a “fire bell in the night.”

Edward Coles was not unreasonable in believing that his call for support and cooperation in ending slavery from one self-declared abolitionist slaveholder to another would be favorably received. To emphasize his seriousness Coles promised Jefferson that he would leave the state of Virginia taking his slaves with him, then emancipate all of them in some northern area.

Coles’s letter was a loaded call for action, a specific, and very personal reminder of Jefferson’s obligations due to his public attacks on slavery.

“This difficult task could be less exceptionably, and more successfully performed by the revered Fathers of all our political and social blessings, than by any succeeding statesmen . . . And it is a duty, as I conceive, that devolves particularly on you . . .” (emphasis mine)

One can speculate as to the cause of Jefferson’s lack of action in the face of a direct example of moral and ethical courage to fight against a system that Jefferson himself, though a participant and beneficiary of it, had declared “a moral evil.”

Consider what the near future from 1814 would have looked like if Jefferson had worked with Coles to end slavery—even if they had been unsuccessful. Consider the extraordinary shockwaves that would have spread from Monticello if Jefferson had done as Coles did. Consider the awesome moral power of one person and the consequence of doing, or not doing, what ought to be done at the key moment!

Partisans of Jefferson I hope are not offended and understand that this is not a gratuitous or personally motivated slam on Jefferson—despite his troubling contradictions I love Jefferson and how could I not? Recollecting, analyzing, and discussing the decisions made by people big and small is a way in which we can learn from those decisions. This sort of critical review (in context) of historical persons is fundamental in studying history, if not the very core of it. This illustration of Jefferson and Coles illustrates the point as clear as a fire bell in the night.

We Americans are fully aware of the frauds, biases, and lies of the media so much so that nobody now believes anything journalists say or publish.

This miserable time of crisis and leftist revolutionism in our American national political and cultural journey is overpopulated with hypocrites. Every generation has such people, ours is particularly negatively blessed.

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Daniel Mallock is a historian of the Founding generation and of the Civil War and is the author of The New York Times Bestseller, Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and a World of Revolution.

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