Cato's Letters No. 15
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1720.

Of Freedom of Speech: 
That the same is inseparable from Publick Liberty.

        SIR,


	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, as far as by it he does not hurt and controul the
Right of another; and this is the only C heck which it ought to suffer,
the only Bounds which it ought to know. 

	This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Government, that the
Security of Property; and the Freedom of Speech, always go together; and
in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he
can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the
Liberty of the Nation, must begin by subduing the Freedom of Speech; a
Thing terrible to publick Traitors. 

	This Secret was so well known to the Court of King Charles I. that
his wicked Ministry procured a Proclamation to forbid the People to talk
of Parliaments, which those Traitors had laid aside.' To assert the
undoubted Right of the Subject, and defend his Majesty's Legal
Prerogative, was called Disaffection, and punished as Sedition. Nay,
People were forbid to talk of Religion in their Families: For the Priests
had combined with the Ministers to cook up Tyranny and suppress Truth and
the Law. While the la te King James, when Duke of York, went avowedly to
Mass; Men were fined, imprisoned, and undone, for saying that he was a
Papist: And, that King Charles II. might live more securely a Papist,
there was an Act of Parliament made, declaring it Treason to sa y that he
was one. 

	That Men ought to speak well of their Governors, is true, while
their Governors deserve to be well spoken of; but to do publick Mischief,
without hearing of it, is only the Prerogative and Felicity of Tyranny: A
free People will be shewing that they are so, by their Freedom of Speech. 

	The Administration of Government is nothing else, but the
Attendance of the Trustees of the People upon the Interest and Affairs of
the People. And as it is the Part and Business of the People, for whose
Sake alone all publick Matters are, or ought to be , transacted, to see
whether they be well or ill transacted; so it is the Interest, and ought
to be the Ambition, of all honest Magistrates, to have their Deeds openly
examined, and publickly scanned: Only the wicked Governors of Men dread
what is said of them; Audivit Tiberius probra queis lacerabitor, atque
perculsus est. The publick Censure was true, else he had not felt it
bitter. 

	Freedom of Speech is ever the Symptom, as well as the Effect, of
good Government. In old Rome, all was left to the Judgment and Pleasure of
the People; who examined the publick Proceedings with such Discretion, and
censured those who administered them wi th such Equity and Mildness, that
in the Space of Three Hundred Years, not Five publick Ministers suffered
unjustly. Indeed, whenever the Commons proceeded to Violence, the Great
Ones had been the Aggressors.... 

	The best Princes have ever encouraged and promoted Freedom of
Speech; they knew that upright Measures would defend themselves, and that
all upright Men would defend them. Tacitus, speaking of the Reign of some
of the Princes abovemention'd, says with Ext asy, Rara temporum
felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, ~ quae sentias dicere liceat: A
blessed Time, when you might think what you would, and speak what you
thought! . . . I doubt not but old Spencer and his Son, who were the chief
Ministers and Betrayers of Edward. II. would have been very glad to have
stopped the Mouths of all the honest Men in England. They dreaded to be
called Traytors, because they were Traytors. And I dare say, Queen
Elizabeth's Walsingham, who deserved no Reproaches, feared none.
Misrepresentation of publick Measures is easily overthrown, by
representing publick Measures truly: When they are honest, they ought to
be publickly known, that they may be publickly commended; but if they be
knavish or pernicious, they ought to be publickly exposed, in order to be
publickly detested. 

	To assert, that King James was a Papist and a Tyrant, was only so
far hurtful to him, as it was true of him; and if the Earl of Stafford had
not deserved to be impeached, he need not have feared a Bill of Attainder. 
If our Directors and their Confederate s be not such Knaves as the World
thinks then, let them prove to all the World, that the World thinks wrong,
and that they are guilty of none of those Villainies which all the World
lays to their Charge. Others too, who would be thought to have no Part of
their Guilt, must, before they are thought innocent, shew that they did
all that was in their Power to prevent that Guilt, and to check their
Proceedings. 

	Freedom of Speech is the great Bulwark of Liberty; they prosper
and die together: And it is the Terror of Traytors and Oppressors, and a
Barrier against them. It produces excellent Writers, and encourages men of
fine Genius. Tacitus tells us, that the Ro man Commonwealth bred great and
numerous Authors, who writ with equal Boldness and Eloquence: But when it
was enslaved, those great Wits were no more.--Postquam bellatum a~ (l
Actillm; atque omnenl potestatem ad unum confe1ri ~acis lnterfllit, magna
illa ingenia cessere.~ Tyranny had usurped the Place of Equality, which is
the Soul of Liberty, and destroyed publick Courage. The Minds of Men,
terrified by unjust Power, degenerated into all the Vilenes[s] and methods
of Servitude: Abject Sycophancy and blin d Submission grew the only means
of Preferment, and indeed of Safety; men durst not open their Mouths, but
to flatter.... 

	All Ministers, therefore, who were Oppressors, or intended to be
Oppressors, have been loud in their Complaints against Freedom of Speech,
and the Licence of the Press; and always restrained, or endeavoured to
restrain, both. In consequence of this, they have brow-beaten Writers,
punished them violently, and against Law, and burnt their Works. By all
which they shewed how much Truth alarmed them, and how much they were at
Enmity with Truth. 

	There is a famous Instance of this in Tacitus: He tells us, that
Cremutius Cordus, having in his Annals praised Brutus and Cassius, gave
Offence to Sejanus's First Minister, and to some inferior Sycophants in
the Court of Tiberius; who, conscious of the ir own Characters, took the
Praise bestowed on every worthy Roman, to be so many Reproaches pointed at
themselves: They therefore complain of the Book to the Senate; which,
being now only the Machine of Tyranny, condemned it to be burnt. But this
did not prevent its spreading.--Libros cremandos censuere Patres; sed
manserunt occultati & editi: Being censured, it was the more sought
after. From hence, says Tacitus, we may wonder at the Stupidity of those
Statesmen, who hope to extinguish, by the Terror of their Power, the
Memory of their Actions; for quite otherwise, the Punishment of good
Writers gains Credit to their Writings: Nam contra, punitis ingeniis,
gliscit auctoritas.  Nor did ever any Government, who practiced
impolitick Severity, get any thing by it, but Infamy to themselves, and
Renown to those who suffered under it.  This also is an Observation of
Tacitus: Neque aliud reges, qui ea saevitiae usi sunt, nisi dedecus
sibi, atque gloriam illis peperere. 

	Freedom of Speech, therefore, being of such infinite Importance to
the Preservation of Liberty, every one who loves Liberty ought to
encourage Freedom of Speech. Hence it is that I, living in a Country of
Liberty, and under the best Prince upon Earth, shall take this very
favourable Opportunity of serving Mankind, by warning them of the hideous
Mischiefs that they will suffer, if ever corrupt and wicked Men shall
hereafter get Possession of any State, and the Power of betraying their
Master.... 

	Valerius Maximus tells us, that Lentulus Marcellinus, the Roman
Consul, having complained, in a popular Assembly, of the overgrown Power
of Pompe~; the whole People answered him with a Shout of Approbation: Upon
which the Consul told them, Shout on, Gentlemen, shout on, and use those
bold Signs of Liberty while you may; for I do not know [how] long they
will be allotted you. 

	God be thanked, we Englishmen have neither lost our Liberties, nor
are in Danger of losing them. Let us always cherish this matchless
Blessing, almost peculiar to ourselves; that our Posterity may, many Ages
hence, ascribe their Freedom to our Zeal. The Defense of Liberty is a
noble, a heavenly Office; which can only be performed where Liberty is:
For, as the same Valerius Maximus observes, Quid ergo Libertas sine
Catone? Non magnis quam Cato sine Libertate.