Fourth of July, 2013
Benjamin Franklin, infamous traitor to the Kingdom of Great Britain for exposing the government’s wrongdoings (and declaring independence, too), says:
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.” – Benjamin Franklin, “On Freedom of Speech and the Press”, Pennsylvania Gazette, 17 November 1737.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin, 1775, as in Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin (1818)