America in 1782.
“Je vais, disais-je, mettre à la voile aujour-d’hui; je m’éloigne avec un regret infini d’un pays où l’on est, sans obstacle et sans inconvénient, ce qu’on devrait être partout, sincère et libre.”—“On y pense, on y dit, on y fait ce qu’on veut. Rien ne vous oblige d’y être ni faux, ni bas, ni flatteur. Personne ne se choque de la singularité de vos manières ni de vos goûts.”—Mémoires ou Souvenirs de Monsieur de Ségur, volume I, page 409.
America in 1835.
“L’Amérique est donc un pays de liberté, où pour ne blesser personne, on ne doit parler librement, ni des gouvernans, ni des gouvernés, ni des eutreprises publiques, ni des entreprises privées; de rien, enfin, de ce qu’on y rencontre si non peut-être du climat et du sol; encore trouve-t-on des Américains prêts à défendre l’un et l’autre, comme s’ils avaient concouru à les former.”—Monsieur de Tocqueville sur la Démocratie aux Etats Unis de l’Amerique, volume II, page 118.
Note 1. A striking instance of the excesses which may be occasioned by the despotism of the majority, occurred at Baltimore in 1812. At that time the war was very popular in Baltimore. A journal, which had taken the other side of the question, excited the indignation of the inhabitants by its opposition. The populace assembled, broke the printing-presses, and attacked the houses of the newspaper editors. The militia was called out, but no one obeyed the call, and the only means of saving the poor wretches, who were threatened by the frenzy of the mob, were to throw them into prison as common malefactors. But even this precaution was ineffectual; the mob collected again during the night, the magistrates again made a vain attempt to call out the militia, the prison was forced, one of the newspaper editors was killed upon the spot, and the others were left for dead when the guilty parties were brought to trial, they were acquitted by the jury.
Note 2. Mr Carey in his introduction says, “Freedom of discussion is highly promotive of the power of protection. The free expressions of opinion in relation to matters of public interest is indispensable to security.”
He denies that we have it in England, and would prove that this exists in America: and how?
1st. By the permission of every man to be of any religion he pleases!!