Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like?
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, and Johann Peter Eckermann. Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret. Translated by John Oxenford, Smith, Elder & Co., 1850, p. 45.
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.
Virginia had adopted this right almost 20 years before it was added in the Bill of Rights to our Federal Constitution. Mason had drafted it.
Arguing agaist libel and sedition prosecutions:
Twenty year prison sentences were imposed for publishing left wing Bolshevik literature. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court:
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 principle was incorporated into American law by the Supreme Court 1964 decision in Sullivan v. New York Times, where this argument drove the opinion.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist. His works include: four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is considered to be the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.
