Feb 27 2008
Ben Franklin on Freedom of the Press - and the Cudgel
“My proposal then is, to leave the liberty of the Press untouched, to be exercised in its fullest extent, force and vigour, but to permit the liberty of the cudgel to go with it pari passu. Thus my fellow-citizens, if an impudent writer attacks your reputation, dearer to you perhaps than your life, and puts his name to the charge, you may go to him as openly and break his head.”
Benjamin Franklin, from The Federal Gazette, September 12, 1789
(HT: Nihilist in Golf Pants)
