4
“OBSERVATIONS on the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, humbly offered to the perusal of not only the POLITICAL FATHERS and GUARDIANS of this Commonwealth, but to every sincere FRIEND to RELIGION and LIBERTY, and to the Promoters and Well-wishers of Arts and Sciences throughout the UNITED STATES of AMERICA; which the disinterested Author hopes will be read with the utmost of Attention,” from The American Monitor, or the Republican Magazine, vol. 1, no. 1 (October 1785), pp. 3–7.
“REPUBLICUS”
The American Monitor of Boston survived only long enough to produce one number. Its publisher was Ezekiel Russell (1744–96). Russell had earlier been the publisher of The Censor, a Boston newspaper which made frequent use of Hume’s writings in the 1770s, quoting for instance from Hume’s essays “That Politics may be Reduced to a Science,” and “Of Some Remarkable Customs.” The essay reprinted below is based on Hume’s essay “Of the Liberty of the Press.” “Republicus” borrowed paragraph after paragraph from Hume, often altering only what was necessary given the American context. “Of the Liberty of the Press” had been reprinted in colonial newspapers, like the South-Carolina Gazette and the Virginia Gazette, where it had been used to help buttress the Revolutionary cause. As the essay reprinted below attests, the popularity and relevance of Hume’s essay did not end with Independence. On The American Monitor, or, Republican Magazine see Jean Hoornstra and Trudy Heath, eds., American Periodicals, 1741–1900 (Ann Arbor, 1979) [hereafter API], p. 22; BAP, p. 10; Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741–1850 (Cambridge, 1938), pp. 29n, 788. On Ezekiel Russell see Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America (1810, reprinted New York, 1970), pp. 153–4, 284–5.
___________________________________
For the REPUBLICAN MAGAZINE.
Mr. RUSSELL,
If you think the following OBSERVATIONS on the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS will afford either Instruction or Amusement to your Readers, or serve to remove the present unconstitutional Shackles that most useful VEHICLE labours under, your publishing them will much oblige one of your Friends and Customers, at least.
REPUBLICUS.
OBSERVATIONS on the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, humbly offered to the perusal of not only the POLITICAL FATHERS and GUARDIANS of this Commonwealth, but to every sincere FRIEND to RELIGION and LIBERTY, and to the Promoters and Well-wishers of Arts and Sciences throughout the UNITED STATES of AMERICA; which the disinterested Author hopes will be read with the utmost Attention,
IT is sufficiently know, that arbitrary power would steal in upon us, were we not extremely watchful to prevent its progress, and were there not an easy method of conveying the alarm from one end of these Free, Sovereign, Independent and United States of AMERICA to the other. The spirit of the Publick must be frequently roused and kept up; and the dread of rousing this spirit must be employed to prevent that ambition. Nothing is so effectual to this purpose as the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, by which all the learning, wit and genius of the Nation may be employed on the side of LIBERTY, and every one be animated to its defence. As long, therefore, as the Republican Part of either our Continental or separate Governments can maintain itself against the arbitrary strides that has already been unsuccessfully made, or that may in future be attempted by those Sycophant Tools of a Despotick and Tyrannical System of Government, the Monarchical Part, our infant rising States ought, in a most peculiar manner to keep a watchful eye over the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, as of the most infinite importance to its preservation.
And we AMERICANS in a peculiar manner ought to set the highest value upon this inestimable Blessing the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, not only for the sake of that most useful of all mechanical Vehicles having already been a mean, even in the worst and most perilous times, (when happily for the Cause of Truth and Virtue in the World, it has been intrusted, by Providence, in the hands and under the direction of resolute, daring, enterprising and staunch Friends of Religion and Liberty) to expand far and wide, the sacred Volume of TRUTH, even to the remotest corners of the earth, and where black Priestcraft with all its attendant and still more horrid spectres of Infernality and Destruction Bigotry, Enthusiasm and Persecution had much too long prevailed, and taken such deep root as almost to overshadow and spread a universal gloom over the once fair, delectable and fertile Field of Religious and Civil Freedom.
But, to wave the subject of Religion for a moment, and think, O Columbians! Think, my Fellow-Countrymen, what would have been the consequence, in the glorious and so much boasted-of LIBERTY OF THE PRESS could once have been suppressed in AMERICA, a few years ago by the Tyrannical and Arbitrary Tools of Power, who were using their utmost efforts, both in England and America, to carry their wicked designs into execution, not only with respect to this, but in many other most essential and important Points, that must of course have very materially endangered the LIVES, RELIGION, LIBERTY and PROPERTY of almost every Subject throughout this wide-extended Continent of AMERICA.
I say my Fellow-Countrymen, had such an almost irreparable Misfortune took place in AMERICA only within the short space of twenty years; and at a Time I say, when the fate of our rising Empire hung by little more than a twine-thread! — Let each of us, my Brethren and Fellow-Citizens, call to mind the many animating and patriotick Addresses so recently and seasonably reverberated from that highly useful Machine the PRINTING PRESS, throughout the then despairing Continent of AMERICA, when clouds and thick darkness had almost overshadowed this LAND OF FREEDOM — this chosen ASYLUM for the OPPRESSED of all Nations of the World to flee to, where every man may, without molestation, sit peaceably under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree.
When we reflect on these things, my Fellow-Countrymen, it must, I think, create a blush in the face of even the fiercest and most violent Advocate for laying duties and restrictions of any kind on the PRESS, if they are not callous to every feeling for the RELIGIOUS and CIVIL RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of MANKIND. — And I have not the least doubt but our WORTHY POLITICAL GUARDIANS, the Honourable GENERAL ASSEMBLY at their next Sessions will think fit, in their great wisdom, further to revise and amend the Act relating to News-Papers, which so evidently affects the Interest of the PRINTER in the end; for if an Advertisement, that was sent to the Press for insertion from a Merchant or Trader, prior to said Act, cost but thirty shillings for inserting it three weeks, and should the same Merchant, &c. refuse to pay the additional tax of near three dollars a column in the Paper; in this and every other instance of the kind, the Printer would of course be the sufferer, by losing a very lucrative branch of his business in the News-Paper Way; to the enjoyment of which emoluments, may perhaps, in a great measure, I humbly presume, be attributed the present cheapness of News-Papers. ——But, should that Honourable, Respectable and Worthy BODY think different from me in respect to this matter I shall be sorry.
It has been found, as the experience of Mankind increases, that the PEOPLE are no such dangerous MONSTER as they have, in Arbitrary and Tyrannical Governments been represented, and that it is in every respect better to guide them, like rational Beings, than to lead or drive them like brute beasts. Before the United Provinces set the example, TOLERATION was deemed incompatible with good Government; and it was thought impossible that a number of religious Sects should live in harmony and peace, and have all of them an equal affection in their Common Cause, CIVIL LIBERTY; and though this LIBERTY has, in several instances, occasioned some small ferment among us, yet it has never produced any pernicious effects; and it is to be hoped, that Mankind in general, being more accustomed to the discussion of publick affairs, will improve in the judgment of them, and be with greater difficulty seduced by every idle rumour and popular clamour.
It is a very comfortable reflection to all the sincere Lovers of the LIBERTY of the Subject, and to every Well-Wisher to the COMMON RIGHTS of Mankind, that, (thanks to HEAVEN and the UNREMITTED VIGILANCE of our EVER-WATCHFUL POLITICAL FATHERS and GUARDIANS, the HONOURABLE AMERICAN CONGRESS) this peculiar PRIVILEGE of AMERICANS is of that kind, that it cannot easily be wrestled from us, without our own consent, but must last as long as our Government remains, in any degree, FREE and INDEPENDENT: Which was once the case in Britain, before the PRINTERS and People in that inslaved and infatuated Country tamely and basely suffered themselves to be shackled by the Tyrannical and Arbitrary TOOLS of the Iron Hand of POWER.
It is seldom that LIBERTY of any kind is lost all at once. — Slavery has so frightful an aspect to Men accustomed to FREEDOM, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received. But if the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS ever be lost, it must be lost at once. The general laws against Sedition and Libelling, are at present as strong as they can possibly be made. Nothing can impose a farther restraint, but either clapping an Imprimature upon the PRESS, or giving the Court very large discretionary POWERS to punish whatever displeases them. But these concessions would be so barefaced violation of to [sic] LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, that they will be the last efforts of a DESPOTICK GOVERNMENT. We may conclude, that the CIVIL and RELIGIOUS FREEDOM of AMERICA is gone when these attempts shall succeed.
Since, therefore, the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS is so essential to the support of our new Republican Government, this sufficiently decides the second question, Whether this LIBERTY be advantageous or prejudicial? There being nothing of greater importance in every state for the preservation of a free Government. But I would fain go a step further and assert, that such a LIBERTY is attended with so few inconveniences, that it may very justly be claimed as the common right of Mankind, and, in my opinion, it ought to be indulged them in every Government, except the Ecclesiastical, to which indeed it would prove fatal. We need not dread from this LIBERTY such ill-consequences as followed from the harrangues of the popular Demigogues of Athens and Tribunes of Rome. A man reads a News-Paper alone and coolly. There is none present from whom he can catch the passion by contatagion [sic]. He is not hurried away by the force and energy of action: and should he be wrought up to ever so seditious a humour, there is no violent resolution presented to him, by which he can immediately vent his passion. The LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, therefore, however abused, can scarce ever excite popular Tumults or Rebellion. And as to those murmors or secret discontents it may occasion it is better they should get vent in words, that they may come to the knowledge of the Magistrate before it be too late in order to his providing a remedy against them. Mankind, it is true, have always a greater propension to believe what is said to the disadvantage of their Governours, than the contrary; but this inclination is inseparable from them whether they have LIBERTY or not. A Whisper may fly as quick and be as pernicious as a Pamphlet. Nay it will be more pernicious, where men are not accustomed to think freely, or distinguish between truth and falsehood.
I must acknowledge the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS has been greatly abused by many, and this useful Machine has often been subservient to the worst of purposes, by being made an Engine of ushering much obscenity, nonsense and folly into publick view; — but these abuses, however vile in themselves, derogate from the excellency of PRINTING in general, no more than the spots in the Sun from the glory of his illustrious ORB.
And I cannot help remarking, to the everlasting honour of our POLITICAL FATHERS, the HONOURABLE AMERICAN CONGRESS, by the exemplary and Liberal Encouragement given to RELIGION and LITERATURE, in the Sanction and Countenance lately shewn by that August, Revered and Honourable BODY, (to whom, not only in this, but in many other instances, our highest plaudit and thanks are justly due,) by their promoting a new, elegant and correct American Edition of the Scriptures, and by their kindly recommending to the good People of these States to purchase the same in preference to any imported from Europe. — By such wise, noble and patriotick Resolutions, if happily adopted and steadily pursued in every State throughout this rising AMERICAN EMPIRE, we should, in a very few years, find that even the Britons themselves have adopted a bad policy, notwithstanding the exhausted situation of their finances, in laying TAXES on the PRESS; for, by this means, if we seize the present favourable opportunity put into our hands even by our Enemies on the other side of the Atlantick, for promoting Literature among ourselves, even we in this remote part, and where the useful and polite ART of PRINTING has been carried on but a little more than a century in any degree of perfection, shall stand a great chance of rivalling even those who have practised this curious and eminently useful ART more than three times that period.
Although some among us have said, that so trifling a duty as Six Pence on an Advertisement ought not even to be mentioned, especially when it is laid for the support and maintenance of GOVERNMENT, and at the same time it does not come out of the Printer’s pocket immediately: Then, by a parity of argument, we might, on another occasion have also said, that the trifling sum of Three Pence on a Pound of Tea was not worth contending for, and, therefore, we might as well have tamely submitted and swallowed the Bait that was so artfully laid for us in the ever-memorable year 1773, by our implacable and designing ENEMIES in Britain. — No! be it forever remembered, I say, COLUMBIANS in general, but my Fellow-Citizens of this COMMONWEALTH in particular, it was the RIGHT Britain claimed to TAX America in all cases whatever, we boldly and successfully contended for! It was not the paltry Three Pence laid by them on a Pound of Tea that brought on the late glorious Struggle with that ungrateful Country! For, it is evident, if their RIGHT of levying the TEA TAX had been tamely recognized by the AMERICANS, ten thousand others might have been, with equal justice, imposed on us; — and then we might have bid a final adieu to the so-much-boasted-of birthright Privilege of being the subjects of a Monarch, who, when he took the reins of Government upon him, declared in his first Words from the Throne, that he “gloried in being born a Briton.”——I say, my Fellow-Countrymen, (with the highest deference to my Superiours of the Legislative Body) we ought all to plead against their RIGHT of laying a TAX on the PRESS! And each one of us have an undoubted Privilege to ask our Political Fathers and Guardians, Whether this DUTY on the PRESS is levied on us agreeable to our CONSTITUTION? The trifling sum exacted, no one can value who have one spark of Patriotism or Generosity left: But if our LEGISLATURE have a RIGHT to lay SIX PENSE on every Ten Lines, by the same rule they can as well exact SIX SHILLINGS; and so on to the entire suppression of advertising in the News-Papers; and though trifling as the Tax may appear to be, it operates very much to the detriment of one useful Manufacturing Branch in the Community, not to mention the hurtful tendency it may have to the cause of Literature in this INFANT EMPIRE.——Admitting even the latter sum of SIX SHILLINGS were laid on every ten lines, it would not, (on an accurate calculation, which I may, perhaps, in some future Number of your useful MAGAZINE, think proper to lay before the PUBLICK) bring one Sixth Part the revenue to Government there might be raised, if the Honourable Legislature should think fit, in their great wisdom, entirely to repeal the Act relating to Printers, and, in lieu of which, I would humbly propose, that they lay the trifling sum of One Shilling and Two Pence on each Barrel of Cyder consumed in this Commonwealth, in addition to the small duty of Four Pence already laid on that article, which would not be out of proportion to that on Rum, Wine, Molasses, &c. and may be thought a more equitable and eligible mode of raising a Revenue to Government. — I think the method I have candidly laid before the PUBLICK in general, but the Honourable LEGISLATIVE BODY of this Commonwealth in particular, will answer sundry good purposes; for, should the above plan I have disinteresteadly proposed for the good of the whole, be happily adopted, I presume, (and I am not alone in my opinion) it will have a great tendency to ease the minds of the ever-jealous People, lest an innovation be made in our CONSTITUTION, and consequently the proposed Mode of Taxation would give more satisfaction to the People at large.
Although I must acknowledge the demands on our Government are at present exceeding great and pressing, (as was wisely observed by several learned and worthy Gentlemen of the Honourable Assembly in their last Session, when speaking on ways and means for reducing the Public Debt,) and, notwithstanding we seem almost on the verge of a Public Bankruptcy; yet, at the same time our Worthy and Honourable POLITICAL FATHERS are providing for the exigencies of Government, (I would humbly observe, with the highest respect and submission to that Honourable Body, and I know of a large number of disinterested Fellow-Citizens who are of my opinion) those Honourable Gentlemen, who ought to be the political Guardians of our Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties, should be extremely cautious of making provision for the unavoidable emergencies of the Commonwealth at the expence either of the least infringement of the happy, and, in many respects, equal CON-STITUION we live under, or by abridging any individual Societies in the Community of either their Civil or Religious Liberty, or Personal Property, as every Class of Men among us are, by the mutual Compact made between the RULERS and PEOPLE, sacredly promised EQUAL LIBERTY and PERSONAL SECURITY, while they demean themselves as good Subjects; for should this once become a precedent, farewell to our so-much-boasted-of LIBERTY of the SUBJECT.
But, Mr. Printer, lest any of that Honourable Body should think I am interested in thus writing in defence of the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, you may venture to assure them, that although I am a Trader in the Shop-keeping-Way, yet I never sent an Advertisement to the Press that would cost the small sum of ten shillings, and have not made it a practice to advertise my goods more than once or twice a year; but I know many of my Brother-Shopkeepers who have a desire, for their own as well as the advantage of the Publick, at least in the spring and fall of the year, to acquaint their Customers of having furnished their shops with a variety of articles for sale: And indeed, if some Printers have abused their Customers, by filling more than one half of their Papers with Advertisements, yet, in my opinion, it is the business of them only who pay for those Papers to chastize the Printer for such an imposition, if they should think fit, by withholding their Subscriptions: And I cannot think that Printers are amenable to the Legislative Authority of this Commonwealth for any offence of this nature; therefore, it is humbly presumed, they have no Right to take Cognizance of such matter. — The reason of mentioning this arose from an objection of the kind I have often heard started by sundry Gentlemen belonging to the Honourable General Court.
I shall conclude these OBSERVATIONS, my Fellow-Citizens, with my sincere Wishes, that RELIGION, KNOWLEDGE, PEACE, LIBERTY and PROSPERITY may universally pervade the World of Mankind in general, but that they may, in a peculiar manner, spread their Benign Influence throughout these HAPPY, INDEPENDENT and UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
REPUBLICUS.
From my Grotto, on Mount-}
Lookout, Oct. 10, 1785.}