Sir, when I heard the
gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side by
side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those
pictured lips[33] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant
American, the slanderer of the dead. The gentleman said that he should
sink into insignificance if he dared to gainsay the principles of these
resolutions. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered on soil consecrated
by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should
have yawned and swallowed him up.
The gentleman says Lovejoy was presumptuous and imprudent, he "died as
the fool dieth." And a reverend clergyman of the city tells us that no
citizen has a right to publish opinions disagreeable to the community!
If any mob follows such publication on him rests the guilt. He must wait
forsooth till the people come up to it and agree with him. This libel on
liberty goes on to say that the want of right to speak as we think is an
evil inseparable from republican institutions. If this be so what are
they worth? Welcome the despotism of the Sultan where one knows what he
may publish and what he may not, rather than the tyranny of this
many-headed monster the mob, where we know not what we may do or say
till some fellow-citizen has tried it and paid for the lesson with his
life.
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