Indictment of Libel
ca. 4/15/1800
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Documents describe the charges against Thomas Cooper and detail the allegedly libelous statements made in his "false, scandalous and malicious writing..." against President Adams.
Transcript
In the Circuit Court of the United States of America in and for the Pennsylvania District of theMiddle Circuit.
The Grand Inquest of the United States of America in and for the Pennsylvania District
upon their respective oaths and affirmations do present that Thomas Cooper late of the District of
Pennsylvania attorney at Law being a person of a wicked and turbulent disposition denying and
intending to defame the President of the United States and to bring him into contempt and
disrepute and to excite against him the hate of the good people of the United States on the second
day of November in the year of our Lord on thousand seven hundred and ninety nine in the
District aforesaid and within the Jurisdiction of this Court wickedly and maliciously did write
print utter and publish a false scandalous and malicious writing against the said President of the
United States of the tenor and affect following that is to say - Nor do I, (himself the said
Thomas Cooper meaning) see any impropriety in making this request of Mr Adams (meaning
John Adams Esquire President of the United States) at that time he (the said President of the
United States meaning) had just entered into office he (meaning the said President
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of the United States) was hardly in the Infancy of political mistake even those who doubted his
capacity (meaning the capacity of the said President of the United States) thought well of his
(meaning the said President of the United States) intentions. And also the false scandalous and
malicious words of the tenor and effect following that is to say. Nor were we (meaning the
people of the United States) yet saddled with the expense of a permanent navy of threatened
under his (meaning the said President of the United States) auspices with the existence of a
standing army. Our credit (meaning the credit of the United States) was not yet reduced so low
as to borrow money at 2 per cent in time of peace while the unnecessary violence of official
expressions might justly have provoked a war –
And also the false scandalous and malicious words of the tenor and effect following that is to say
Mr Adams (meaning the said President of the United States) had not yet projected his (the said
President of the United States meaning) his embassies to Prussia Russia and the Sublime Porte
nor had he (the said President of the United States meaning) yet interfered as President of the
United
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States to influence the decisions of a Court of Justice – a stretch of authority which the monarch
of Great Britain would have shrunk from an interference without precedent against Law and
against mercy. This melancholy case Jonathan Robbins’ native citizen of America forcibly
inpressed by the British and delivered up with the advice of Mr Adams (meaning the said
President of the United States) to the mock trial of a British Court Martial had not yet astonished
the republican Citizens of this free country (meaning the United States of America) a case too
little known but of which the People (meaning the people of the said United States) ought to be
fully apprized before the election and they shall be to the great scandal of the President of the
United States to the civil example of others in the case offending against the form of the act of
the Congress of the United States in such case made and provided and against the peace and
dignity of the said United States –
WRawle attorney of the
United States for the Pennsylvania District
Witness
John Buyers Esqdger Sim
D.Caldwell
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No. 21
Circ.Ct. April 1800
The United States
vs [squiggly line]
Thomas Cooper
Libel
A True Bill
Jo. Cowperthewaite
JM
1800 April 15
The Deft.Thomas Cooper
Plead not guilty. And
of this [illegible]. The Atty of
the United States doth
the like & therefore be
Guilty –
29 April 1800
This primary source comes from the Records of District Courts of the United States.
National Archives Identifier: 278969
Full Citation: Indictment of Libel; ca. 4/15/1800; Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/indictment-of-libel, July 7, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
