The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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guilty Great can be punished.” 153 Freedom of the press is seen here as not simply an
individual libertarian right but rather as one with a larger benefit to all people. Far
from remaining in a role deferential to the elites, the newspapers were now seen as
one of the few venues through which the elites could be brought to justice.
Political dissent—both within the pages of the public prints and in the
public spaces, spurred on by printed writings—had increased in the late colonial
period in Virginia. As the culture shifted from one of deference to political leaders
to one of discussion, disagreement, and dissent, the prints as a source of
information and expression became highly valued. Government censorship and
control of the press were no longer tolerated. The example of press restrictions
during the prior decades in Virginia, combined with the persecution of Wilkes in
England and McDougall in New York, and the general fear of a powerful and
potentially corrupt government helped to make a free press important. Writers now
referred to a free press as a potential balance against government power. The
“Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec” stated that one of the important aspects of
a free press was how “oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated, into more
honourable and just modes of conducting affairs.” 154 When the rights of the people
were threatened, a free press was essential. One newspaper contributor suggested,
“There is no Liberty in this Country which is held more dear than that of the
PRESS, nor indeed with so much Reason; for if that is destroyed, what we have else
to boast of, is gone in an Instant.” 155 Press freedom was now viewed as a guarantee
of other human rights.
153 Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon, Dec. 23, 1723), 1, referring to the motto and editorial
selection of their competitor, Mrs. Clementina Rind.
1.
154 “Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec,” Oct. 26, 1744, 1:106-13.
155 Anonymous, London, April 19, 1765, Maryland Gazette (Green & Rind, July 11, 1765),