When the right and duty to criticize government and its officials is under attack in the United States, the democracy is threatened. The idea of holding those in power accountable, and its origin, assume particular importance. While this “central meaning” of the First Amendment culminated with Justice William Brennan's New York Times Co. v. Sullivan opinion in 1964, the process of discovering that meaning actually began more than a century and a half before. Near the end of the eighteenth century, a political battle ensued over the meaning of the First Amendment. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were signed into law by a chief executive who sought to control political criticism of him and the government over which he presided. This article focuses on the role of Thomas Jefferson in the resistance to these laws. This battle, according to Justice Brennan, “[F]irst crystalized a national awareness of the central meaning of the First Amendment.” This article posits that this conflict resulted in birth of the modern First Amendment – the discovery of its central meaning – and is premised on the notion that revisiting the events described herein is especially relevant within a period in which officials in high office threaten speech and press rights.

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权利与义务：杰斐逊，煽动和第一修正案核心含义的产生

当批评政府及其官员的权利和义务在美国受到攻击时，民主受到威胁。使当权者负责任的思想及其起源特别重要。尽管《第一修正案》的“中心含义”在1964年由威廉·布伦南法官（William Brennan）诉《纽约时报》诉沙利文（Sullivan）意见终结，但发现该含义的过程实际上始于一个半世纪之前。在18世纪末，围绕《第一修正案》的含义进行了一场政治斗争。一位行政长官签署了1798年《外国人和煽动叛乱法》，将其签署为法律，他试图控制对他和他所主持的政府的政治批评。本文重点介绍托马斯·杰斐逊在抵制这些法律方面的作用。这场战斗 根据布伦南大法官的说法，“ [弗斯特]在全国范围内意识到了《第一修正案》的核心含义。” 本文认为，这种冲突导致了现代《第一修正案》的诞生（即其核心含义的发现），其前提是，在公职官员威胁言论和新闻出版的时期内，重新审视本文所述的事件尤为重要。权利。