This week I stumbled across the name Demosthenes. The claim was made that he was one of the greatest orators that ever lived. I decided to see if I could find some of his speeches and came across a collection of some of his speeches. I was successful and checked a book out that covered some of the speeches that he gave between 354-330 BC.
In the introduction Demosthenes is credited as being an inspiration for orators like Cicero and the authors of the Federalist Papers. And I had never heard of him before.
As with many orators his speeches revolved around the political issues of his day. Many of them centered around the dangers posed by Phillip of Macedon. A couple of the themes that stood out to me were his focus on the importance of liberty and his disdain for oligarchy.
Overall it was a semi interesting collection of speeches that provided a glimpse into the past. Perhaps they would have been more impactful if I was more versed on Athenian history or heard them delivered.
On July 9, 1722 the New England Courant published a letter from Silence Dogood. The letter stated in part:
“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 or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.
“This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, 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.”
Silence Dogood was the pen name Benjamin Franklin used for a series of letters that he wrote. Franklin outlines the importance of freedom of speech above. If freedom of speech is curtailed it is only a matter of time before every other right will be taken as well. In the letter Franklin continued by saying:
“The best ...
