Bemis’ Libel Case

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Born not far from Worcester on July 1, 1783, James Draper Bemis was an apprentice printer in Boston and journeyman printer in Albany before he established bookstores throughout several counties in western New York. In 1811, one of Bemis’ papers, the Ontario Repository, brought Bemis not only editorial fame but also a libel suit. Micah Brooks sued Bemis for libel in 1811. According to the July 10, 1811 issue of the Geneva Gazette, which holds one of the few newspaper accounts of the libel suit:

From the Ontario Repository.

The cause of Micah Brooks against the editor of this paper, for a supposed libel, was tried at the Circuit Court held here last week, before the Hon. Mr. Justice Yates.

On account of a mere mistake in the date, committed in drafting the notice of justification, Mr. Brooks succeeded in shutting out all inquiry into the truth or falsehood of the charge which was the foundation of his suit. The cause having taken this unexpected turn, (for who could expect that a plaintiff in an action of slander would shrink from a full investigation,) it was of course for the jury to find for the plaintiff. This they did, by giving a verdict in his favor of 100 dollars.

As an application will be made at the next term of the supreme court for another hearing, further remarks on this extraordinary trial will be suspended, until the result of that application shall be known.

We may never know what caused the libel suit or what debates surrounded it—no further accounts of the case exist in Bemis’ Ontario Repository. When the second case was brought to court, Brooks won yet again, with the Geneva Gazette on July 24, 1812, reporting:

From the Ontario Repository.
Libel!— In the case of Micah Brooks against this paper, tried last week before Judge Spencer, the jury brought in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff of 250 dollars!!!! Our counsel are of opinion that the verdict was founded upon evidence not pertinent to the issue, and that his Honor, in his charge to the jury, unbrook the law—Application for a new trial, will therefore be made to the supreme court—In the meantime it would perhaps be improper to say more.

Brooks won the libel case in 1812 and would go on to serve as Democratic-Republican Representative in the Fourteenth Congress. There is no further evidence of Bemis’ libelous accounts of Brooks’ life or works.