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A Speech Defending Freedom of the Press Source
Database: Gale Student
Resource Center Gold (Students may request the password for home
access from the AT Media Center.)
Mr. Chairman--it is not true, as has been charged upon me, that I hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments of this community, in reference to the question which is now agitating it. I respect and appreciate the feelings and opinions of my fellow-citizens, and it is one of the most painful and unpleasant duties of my life, that I am called upon to act in opposition to them. If you suppose, sir, that I have published sentiments contrary to those generally held in this community, because I delighted in differing from them, or in occasioning a disturbance, you have entirely misapprehended me. But, sir, while I value the good opinion of my fellow-citizens, as highly as any one, I may be permitted to say, that I am governed by higher considerations than either the favour or the fear of man. I am impelled to the course I have taken, because I fear God. As I shall answer it to my God in the great day, I dare not abandon my sentiments, or cease in all proper ways to propagate them. I, Mr. Chairman, have not desired, or asked any compromise. I have asked for nothing but to be protected in my rights as a citizen--rights which God has given me, and which are guaranteed to me by the constitution of my country.Have I, sir, been guilty of any infraction of the laws? Whose good name have I injured? When and where have I published any thing injurious to the reputation of Alton? Have I not, on the other hand, laboured, in common, with the rest of my fellow-citizens, to promote the reputation and interests of this city? What, sir, I ask, has been my offence? Put your finger upon it--define it--and I stand ready to answer for it. If I have committed any crime, you can easily convict me. You have public sentiment in your favour. You have your juries, and you have your attorney [looking at the Attorney-General] and I have no doubt you can convict me. But if I have been guilty of no violation of law, why am I hunted up and down continually like a partridge upon the mountains? Why am I threatened with the tar-barrel? Why am I waylaid every day, and from night to night, and my life in jeopardy every hour? You have, sir, made up, as the lawyers say, a false issue;
there are not two parties between whom there can be a
compromise. I plant myself, sir, down on my unquestionable
rights, and the question to be decided is, whether I shall be
protected in the exercise, and enjoyment of those rights--that
is the question, sir--whether my property shall be protected,
whether I shall be suffered to go home to my family at night
without being assailed, and threatened with tar and feathers,
and assassination; whether my afflicted wife, whose life has
been in jeopardy, from continued alarm and excitement, shall
night after night be driven from a sick bed into the garret to
save her life from the brickbats and violence of the mobs; that
sir, is the question. [Here, much affected and overcome by his
feelings, he burst into tears. Many, not excepting even his
enemies, wept--several sobbed aloud, and the sympathies of the
whole meeting were deeply excited. He continued.] Forgive me,
sir, that I have thus betrayed my weakness. It was the allusion
to my family that overcame my feelings. Not, sir, I assure you,
from any fears on my part. I have no personal fears. Not that I
feel able to contest the matter with the whole community, I know
perfectly well I am not. I know, sir, that you can tar and
feather me, hang me up, or put me into the Mississippi, without
the least difficulty. But what then? Where shall I go? I have
been made to feel that if I am not safe at Alton, I shall not be
safe any where. I recently visited St. Charles to bring home my
family, and was torn from their frantic embrace by a mob. I have
been beset night and day at Alton. And now if I leave here and
go elsewhere, violence may overtake me in my retreat, and I have
no more claim upon the protection of any other community than I
have upon this; and I have concluded, after consultation with my
friends, and earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at
Alton, and here to insist on protection in the exercise of my
rights. If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I must
look to God; and if I die, I have determined to make my grave in
Alton. Related Items
Abolitionists begin mail campaign (Overview) The Debate over Slavery (Key Topic) Elijah P. Lovejoy murdered (Overview) History of the Rise and Progress of the Alton Riots (Document) The Mob Attacking the Warehouse of Godfrey Gilman (Picture) Northwest Ordinance drafted (Overview) Slavery
in the United States (Key Topic)
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