To Hall & Sellers (unpublished)

Messrs Hall and Sellers,

March [30] 1788

I lately heard a Remark, that on Examination of the Pennsylvania Gazette for Fifty Years from its Commencement it appear’d that during that long Period scarce one libellous Piece had ever appear’d in it. This generally chaste Conduct of your Paper is much to its Reputation; for it has long been the Opinion of sober judicious People, that nothing is more likely to endanger the Liberty of the Press, than the Abuse of that Liberty by employing it in personal Accusation, Detraction, and Calumny. The Excesses some of our Papers have been guilty of in this particular, have set this State in a bad Light abroad, as appears by the following Letter, which I wish you to publish, not merely to show your own Disapprobation of the Practice, but as a Caution to others of the Profession throughout the United States. For I have seen an European News Paper, in which the Editor, who had been charg’d with frequently calumniating the Americans, justifies himself by saying that he had publish’d nothing disgraceful to us which he had not taken from our own printed Papers. I am, yours &c.

A.B.

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