Mercy Otis Warren Quotes
There is no security in the profered system, either for the rights of conscience or the liberty of the Press.
Originally it was published in Boston under the name “A Columbian Patriot.” This was written before the Bill of Rights had been added. Criticism like this led to their addition by Congress in order to obtain ratification.
Mercy Otis Warren, 1748-1814, American Revolutionary Political Writer, Criticism of the 1787 Constitution, Observations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions, 1788
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Two decades later Jefferson, after his Presidency, had developed a different attitude towards the press. See {585116}.
Note how the second paragraph nullifies the first of the government declares an emergency. This is a trick that is very common in constitutions.
This quotation was used ten years later by Virginia which, in convention, passed a resolution objecting to the Alien & Sedition Acts. The drafter of the original resolution was James Madison.
The evils of the time were even worse than in modern times. Most newspapers, journals, and periodicals were in 1835 actually owned and operated by political parties or people totally identified with political parties. In modern times, there are publications and blogs which are controlled by political forces, but most are not.
Jefferson and others insisted on a Bill of Rights where rights were explicit and not inferred or dependent on the goodness of the particular government in power.
Jefferson was visited by a famous German scientist who read a newspaper in the President's study which viciously attacked Jefferson. The scientist asked why this was allowed in America:
Mercy Otis Warren was a poet, playwright and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the American Revolution, Warren published poems and plays that attacked royal authority in Massachusetts and urged colonists to resist British infringements on colonial rights and liberties. She was married to James Warren, who was likewise heavily active in the independence movement.
