Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [242]
Roosevelt wanted revenge for years of abuse from the World, and he was willing to use the federal government’s prosecutorial powers in his personal vendetta. But to do so would require invoking a rule of law that had its roots in the notorious fifteenth-century English Star Chamber. Even though American common law was based in great part on that of England, the use of criminal proceedings for libel had long fallen into disfavor except in cases that involved a breach of peace. Not since the discredited Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 had a president so brazenly sought to stifle criticism of the government. If Roosevelt had his way, Pulitzer would spend his final years behind bars.
Stimson found the envelope from the White House on his desk the next day. A highly competent attorney, though one with political ambitions, he knew that the president was overreaching his powers. “Without having yet had the time to look it up in connection with this case I am of the very strong impression that there is no Federal law punishing criminal libel,” he told Roosevelt, in a letter marked “Personal.” In an earlier case involving attacks against a federal judge, Stimson explained, the only remedy that could be found was in state courts. “But as I said before, I will have the matter thoroughly investigated and will report to you.”
Impatient, Roosevelt looked for other ways to bring the might of the federal government down on Pulitzer. In hopes of getting a congressional committee to pursue the matter, the president contacted a Republican senator, Philander Chase Knox, who had served as his attorney general when the United States fostered a revolution in Panama so as to gain control of the Canal Zone. “Oh Mr. President,” Knox had said at the time, “do not let so great an achievement suffer from any taint of legality.”
“It seems to me,” Roosevelt told Knox, “at least well worth considering whether it would not be wise once and for all to nail the infamous and slandering falsehoods of Mr. Pulitzer, published in his paper, the New York World, and of those who have taken their cue from the Pulitzer publications.”
Next, Roosevelt composed a 4,800-word “special message” to the Senate and the House, attached a stack of documents, and sent the packet to Capitol Hill. When members of the Lake to Gulf Waterways Association visited the White House, Roosevelt publicly tipped his hand. “We have cause to be ashamed of a certain set of Americans in connection with the canal, and that is of those Americans who have been guilty of infamous falsehood concerning the acquisition of the property and the construction of the canal itself,” he told the group. “If they can be reached for criminal libel, I shall try to have them reached.”
On December 15, 1908, the secretaries of the Senate and the House began reading the president’s message to their respective chambers. Because accusations of corruption surrounding the canal had once again surfaced, Roosevelt told the lawmakers, he was submitting to them a complete rebuttal. At that, the few senators who were on the floor broke into laughter. The merriment grew when Roosevelt added that no one believed anything published in Pulitzer’s newspaper. The House was more circumspect, especially as one of its members had introduced a motion to investigate the canal matter.
Two minutes into the message, it became clear that Roosevelt had far more in mind than a simple refutation of the accusations. “The real offender is Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, editor and proprietor of the World,” Roosevelt said. These libelous actions, he claimed, were so egregious that Pulitzer should be prosecuted by the government. “It is therefore a high national duty to bring to justice this vilifier of the American people, this man who wantonly and wickedly and without one shadow of justification seeks to blacken the character of reputable private citizens and to convict the Government of his own country in the eyes of the civilized world of wrongdoing of the basest and foulest kind, when he had not one shadow of justification of any