Public Liberty Quotes
Later published under the pseudonym Silence Dogood in the New England Courant, July 9, 1722. Cato originated the quotation in Ancient Rome. A millennium later, Ben Franklin picked it up and made it and made it very popular. Note that it was very common in early America for publishers and writers to copy materials from others and publish them under their own name. America was a major intellectual property pirate in its early years copying and printing much and rarely giving credit and never paying an author's royalty--not unlike some of the Asian nations today.
What is very interesting about this quotation is that if it were uttered today, the speaker would be considered some kind of a right or left wing radical extremist.
This quotation is inscribed in the Madison Memorial Hall of the Library of Congress.
The American Press was actually split and there were Tory and revolutionary editors. However, like almost all politicians of all times in time of crisis, he saw the press as inaccurate and corrupt and an unfortunate “appendage of public liberty.”
