The Virginia Argus answers the Mazzei charge, 16 September 1800

The Richmond Virginia Argus of 16 September 1800, a Republican paper printed by Samuel Pleasants, Jr., reprinted the "Letter to Mazzei" from the Baltimore American with a framing note and "strictures" in Jefferson's defense, blaming "aristocratical" papers and "the enemies of liberty" for the charge.

The page

This is the front page of a Republican newspaper in Richmond, printed on Tuesdays and Fridays by Samuel Pleasants, Jr. Under a masthead motto about a free press, it runs the "Letter to Mazzei" taken from the Baltimore American, introduced by a note and followed by "strictures" addressed to the people of the United States. The archive transcribes the masthead, the note, and the first two of its three numbered points, and stops there.

A FREE PRESS MAINTAINS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE.

[...]

LETTER TO MAZZEI.

The following letter, in the opinion of some, is an objection to the election of Mr. Jefferson as President. It has been handed about, from one aristocratical paper to another, throughout the United States. The enemies of liberty have charged the writing of this letter directly to Mr. Jefferson, who has never condescended either to acknowledge or deny it.---They have expected to establish it by three points.

1. That Mr. J. being the Vice-President of the United States had endeavored to disgrace his country, by declaring that an English party did exist in it.

2. That Mr. Jefferson was a violent enemy to our federal constitution, having declared, as alledged in this letter, that it had the form of the British government.

How it argues

The page does two things at once. It reprints the letter itself, which is a fair move: readers can judge the text for themselves. Its note also tells them in advance who is pushing the charge, "aristocratical" papers and "the enemies of liberty," so that the motive of the accuser stands in for an answer to the accusation. The archive tags the page for name-calling and card stacking. In its summary, the strictures that follow pile up the court-style ceremonies of the Washington and Adams years and quotations from Adams as proof of an "English monarchical party," with no room for the other reading.

The note also turns Jefferson's silence into dignity: he "never condescended either to acknowledge or deny it." A month earlier the Federalist side had treated the same silence as guilt.

Both papers, side by side

The Federalist half of this exchange is on this site: the Gazette of the United States of 14 August 1800, with "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, signed "Decius." Read together, the two pages are a fair picture of the 1800 press. Each side named the other's motives before it answered the other's facts. Neither page settles whether the letter shows what its enemies said it shows.

What matters for a free country is that both were printed, sold, and answered in public. The case study on the 1800 election covers what happened when the government stepped into that argument, and the campaign print hub follows party print through the next century.