Before the United States was 10 years old, Thomas Jefferson accused the federal government of a “reign of witches.” He warned that the nation might not survive.

The crisis? The Sedition Act of 1798.

That law made it illegal to “print, utter, or publish … any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about Congress or the president, effectively making it illegal to criticize the president or Congress.

In the hyper-partisan 1790s, the Federalist Party controlled Congress and the presidency, and Federalists used the Sedition Act to try to silence political opponents. Opposition newspapers were targeted. An opposition member of Congress from Vermont was actually jailed (later winning reelection from his jail cell — a unique feat).

Jefferson understood that free speech and a free press were essential in a republic. “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” He knew that government could, and would, go wrong on occasion — as it had in adopting the Sedition Act — but a free press was needed to correct such errors. “Our citizens may be deceived for a while, & have been deceived: but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.”

It is, then, of deep concern that the Trump administration has launched repeated attacks on free speech and a free press:

News organizations — from NBC and CBS to the Des Moines Register — have been sued by President Donald Trump or attacked by Trump appointees at the Federal Communications Commission for the outrage of reporting stories that he thought unfair to his campaign.

Journalists who disagree with Trump have been called out by name and attacked in an effort to chill speech and discourage opposition. When Jeffrey Goldberg reported a gross national security violation by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and others, officials from the president down attacked the messenger.

International students in the United States legally have been seized and threatened with deportation for free speech or opposing governmental policies. While officials insist that these students behaved illegally and/or supported terrorists, they have failed to produce evidence and their efforts to deport without due process strongly support the conclusion that they were targeted for political speech. (Freedom of speech is not limited to citizens; the Constitution prohibits government from interfering with that natural right, regardless of speaker.)

Trump has attacked law firms that have the temerity to hire someone who previously investigated the president, or even hire a former political opponent’s spouse — “viewpoint” discrimination that violates freedom of speech. (Sadly, several large firms, apparently forgetting their obligation to uphold the law, have caved to his demands.)

Trump and his minions have gone so far as to limit the Associated Press’ access to the White House in a petulant tantrum because the AP, like the rest of the world, refuses to accept his silly renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

These and other attacks on free speech and a free press are dangerous. They threaten the First Amendment and the democracy it was intended to protect.

Jefferson was right: We cannot have a functioning republic if the people and press do not have freedom to challenge government policy. Fair elections are fundamentally compromised when the free press is attacked.

Attacks on the press have been a staple of dictatorships around the world. A recently released Democracy Report 2025 found “the favorite weapon of autocratizers is media censorship.” The danger is not simply when speech is prevented or speakers are jailed. There is great danger when honest criticism is discouraged. Sadly, as the Democracy Report noted, “the enabling silence among critics fearful of retribution is already prevalent.”

James Madison, “father of the Constitution,” warned that we should not wait until attacks on constitutional rights escalate. “It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens.” Trump’s attacks on free speech have gone well beyond the minor attacks that elicited Madison’s concern.

Beyond the need for fair elections, Jefferson explained that a free press is a “formidable Censor of the public functionaries, by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, (it) produces reform peaceably; which must otherwise be done by revolution.” In other words, if government prevents people from peaceably and effectively redressing abuses of power through free speech and a free press, more extreme responses will, sadly, result.

Republicans might also remember that the 1798 restrictions on free speech/press played an important role in the election of President Jefferson and the effective demise of the Federalist Party.

In 1860, after a mob tried to prevent a meeting of abolitionists, Frederick Douglass explained the essential right of free speech: “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down,”

We must reject efforts to suppress free speech and a vibrant free press. Otherwise, as Douglass understood, liberty becomes meaningless.

Support your media sources and local reporters. Speak out to defend free speech and a free press (even if you disagree with a particular message) and ask your representatives to do so. Educate those who seek to undermine free speech and freedom of the press. Insist that the media address matters with objectivity and forthrightness. Our liberties, and our nation, depend upon it.

John A. Ragosta (BlueSky: @johnaragosta) is the former interim director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has taught history at the University of Virginia and other institutions. His most recent book is “For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle.”