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inspire:
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt wormen. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
Those who won our independence..valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty...that without free speech and assembly discussion would be futile; that with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundmental principle of the American government.
But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones...Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.
--Dissent, Olmstead v. US. 1928
The makers of our Constitution sought to protect Americans...They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.
The function of the press if very high. It is almost holy. To misstate or suppress the news is a breach of trust.
While there are many contributing causes of unrest...there is one which is fundamental. That is the necessary conflict - the contrast between our political liberty andour industrial absolutism. --Testimony, U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations 1915
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