Child, an anti-slavery activist and the husband of Lydia Marie Child, had published an article charging that State Senator John Keyes had corruptly rigged a public printing bid in favor of "that reprobated Jackson Press," a Jacksonian political organ. He was charged with criminal libel. This is the record of the trial, beginning with the indictment, and including the jury empanelment, opening statements, summary of witnesses' testimony, closing statements, charge to the jury, and verdict. The jury found Child guilty despite his counsel's eloquent defense of freedom of the press: public officials may not "entrench themselves behind" coercive legal "barriers when their public administration is called into question. It is not for them to close the door against official investigation, or check the spirit of free inquiry into public abuses, by threatening to bring down the strong arm of the law upon all who" criticize them.

Excerpt from Trial of the Case of the Commonwealth Versus David Lee Child, for Publishing in the Massachusetts Journal: A Libel of the Honorable John Keyes, Before the Supreme Judicial Court, Holden at Cambridge, in the County of Middlesex, October Term, 1828 Such a Court, so administering the law, could not be ex pected to live long. But although the Star Chamber with its summary justice and arbitrary punishments, fell into dis favour and was abolished, still the legal principles which this Court had introduced in relation to libels, had become incorporated into the general system, and established by precedent in the contemporaneous Courtgof common law. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.