New Hampshire, 1784: “The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state; and it ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved.”
Pinckney’s Plan of 1787: “The Legislature of the United States shall pass no law touching or abridging the liberty of the press.”
Delaware, 1792: “The press shall be free to every citizen who undertakes to examine the official conduct of men acting in a public capacity, and any citizen may print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. In prosecutions for publications investigating the proceedings of officers, or where the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libels, the jury may determine the facts and the law, as in other cases.”
After the Federal Convention came together in 1787 it was proposed to insert in the Constitution, “the liberty of the press shall be inviolably preserved.” This was defeated by six states against five.[4] But when the different States afterwards sent to the first Congress the proposals from which the first ten Amendments were selected we find in nearly all some reference to the liberty of the press. The article on the subject from Massachusetts was selected and now appears as a part of the First Amendment to the Constitution, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”[5] And since that time nearly every Constitution drawn up by the different States has contained an admission of the principle so long contended for by supporters of the rights of the press, that, as David Hume says, “its liberties, and the liberties of the people must stand or fall together.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Andrews, Alexander—History of British Journalism; 2 vols. London, 1859.
Anson, Sir Wm. R.—Law and Custom of the Constitution; 2 vols. Oxford, 1886.
Barry, John Stetson—The History of Massachusetts; 3 vols. Boston, 1855.
Booth, Mary L.—The History of the City of New York. New York, 1880.
Bradford, Wm.—New England’s Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsylvania. New York, 1693.