[292] Schofield, Freedom of the Press in the United States, pp. 78, 79 and 110.
[293] The freedom of the press had, of course, figured in the discussion of the so-called Sedition Act passed by Congress on July 14, 1798. It was a factor also in the consideration by the Senate (December, 1901) of legislation “to prevent the teaching and promulgation of anarchical doctrines in the United States.” See my paper, “Federal Interference with the Freedom of the Press,” 23 Yale Law Journal, 559 and authorities there cited.
[294] Niles’ Register, vol. xlviii, p. 402.
[295] Ibid., p. 403.
[296] See Hurd, Law of Freedom and Bondage, vol. ii, 9, 10, 86, 97, 99, 147, 161, 170, 173. The Virginia law specifically included postmasters within its provisions. One indictment under the Alabama law was based upon the following objectionable language: “God commands, and all nature cries out, that man should not be held as property. The system of making men property has plunged 2,250,000 of our fellow countrymen into the deepest physical and moral degradation, and they are every moment sinking deeper.” Niles’ Register, vol. xlix, p. 358.
[297] Niles’ Register, vol. xlviii, p. 447.
[298] Niles’ Register, vol. xlviii, p. 448.
[299] The legal aspects of this solution of the problem will be treated in the chapter following.
[300] Statesman’s Manual, vol. ii, p. 911.
[301] 12 Debates of Congress, 26, 33.