THE DEMOCRATIC JUDGE: OR THE EQUAL LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, AS EXHIBITED, EXPLAINED, AND EXPOSED, IN THE PROSECUTION OF WILLIAM COBBETT, FOR A PRETENDED LIBEL AGAINST THE KING OF SPAIN AND HIS EMBASSADOR, BEFORE THOMAS M'KEAN, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. BY PETER PORCUPINE.
Philadelphia: Published by William Cobbett, Opposite Christ-Church, March, 1798. 102, [2 blanks] pp. Inner margin reinforced. Title leaf lightly dusted, else a clean text. Except as noted, Very Good.
Cobbett asserts that "the American press is become the most tame, the most humbled, the most abject upon the face of the earth." He promises that "my just resentment, though slow in its operation, shall not be less sure in its effects." Cobbett prints the proceedings of his trial for libel, noting the hundreds of threats "to assassinate or poison me, or fire my house." The pamphlet attacks Chief Justice McKean, a powerful Democrat; Cobbett calls him a 'wife-beater,' 'drunkard,' 'judicial murderer.'
Gaines identifies this issue as the variant with "common" spelled correctly on line 9 of page 54.
Gaines, Cobbett 37b. Evans 33523. Sabin 13880. Item #39989
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