An Indispensable Liberty: The Fight for Free Speech in Nineteenth-Century America

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The American commitment to the freedom of speech has always been more impressive from a distance than at ground level. From far above, the majestic words of the First Amendment, similar language in state constitutions, and Fourth of July speeches in which American elites of all persuasions celebrate free speech as the most fundamental right in a constitutional democracy predominate. At ground level, the norm is more often judicial decisions declaring that certain beliefs lack constitutional protection, legislation denying potential speakers access to resources they need to speak effectively, and severe unofficial harassment directed at unpopular speakers. The eleven essays in Mary M. Cronin's anthology, An Indispensable Liberty, detail how this tension between support for expression rights in theory and hostility to dissidents in practice played out immediately before, during, and immediately after the Civil War. Some of the essays examine the usual suspects—most notably suppression of abolitionist speech before the Civil War, suppression of antiwar speech in the North during the Civil War, and suppression of union speech and speech about sex after the Civil War. Others open new windows on suppressive behavior in the nineteenth century. Erika J. Pribanic-Smith describes the experience of journalists in the Reconstruction South. Janice R. Wood introduces readers to the National Defense Association, a precursor to the Free Speech League and American Civil Liberties Union, whose members fought efforts to regulate speech about birth control and related matters during the 1870s and 1880s. All of the essays range beyond usual reference to judicial opinions and legal arguments. Americans with unorthodox and unpopular views on slavery, sex, unions, and women's rights, the authors point out, were as often silenced by mob violence or unofficial mayhem as by official decree.