FOURTEEN MONTHS
IN
AMERICAN BASTILES.
"It (free speech) is a homebred right — a fireside privilege. It has ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the nation. It is not to be drowned in controversy. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the air and walking on the earth. It is a right to be maintained in peace and in war. It is a right which cannot be invaded without destroying constitutional liberty. Hence this right should be guarded and protected by the freemen of this country with a jealous care, unless they are prepared for chains and anarchy.
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"Say at once that a free Constitution is no longer suitable to us; say at once, in a manly manner, that, upon an ample review of the state of the world, a free Constitution is not fit for you; conduct yourselves at once as the Senators of Denmark: lay down your freedom, and acknowledge and accept of despotism. But do not mock the understandings and feelings of mankind by telling the world that you are free — by telling me that if, for the purpose of expressing my sense of the public administration of this country, of the calamities which this war has occasioned. I state a grievance, or make any declaration of my sentiments in a manner that may be thought seditious, I am to be subjected to penalties hitherto unknown to the law."
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LONDON:
HENRY F. MACKINTOSH, 11, CRANE COURT,
MDCCCLXii.
