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

the cultural, social, and political changes that took place as the colony of Virginia
became a state in the new United States were not all positive. Now that Jarratt
himself was a member of the elite, deference was no longer automatically given: “In
our high republican times, there is more levelling than ought to be.” 13
287
So it is as we use new technologies, communicate in new ways, and spread
new ideas and ways of thinking. We change, lives change, our world changes, and
not always in ways that we wish or appreciate. As we stumble through such
transitions seemingly beyond our control, it behooves us to remember warnings
from 250 years ago, from those who thought the open communication of ideas was
important enough to protect. As Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard wrote,
“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no
such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech: Which is the Right of
every Man.” 14 Liberty of the press, according to Lord Bolingbroke, was “the chief
bulwark and support of Liberty in general,” and “this great bulwark of our
Constitution.” 15 As John Adams warned, “the jaws of power are always opened to
devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of
thinking, speaking, and writing.” 16 It serves us well to remember the importance of
protecting our own freedom by protecting the liberty of the press and all modern
communication media. As an unknown author wrote in Williamsburg, Virginia in
1776: “That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can
never be restrained but by despotic governments.” 17
13 Life of Devereux Jarratt, 14-15.
14 Cato [John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon], “Of Freedom of Speech: That the same is
inseparable from Publick Liberty,” (Letter no. 15), London Journal (Feb. 4, 1720), from Cato’s
Letters, 1:96.
15 [Bolingbroke?] Craftsman, Dec. 9, 1726, June 24, 1727, Sept. 28, and Nov. 2, 1728,
quoted in Black, English Press, 125.
16 Adams, “Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” 3:457.
17 The Virginia Declaration of Rights (Williamsburg: May 27, 1776), section 12.