nce, who affect to censure this provision for the
education of our youth as a needless expence, and an imposition upon
the rich in favour of the poor;--and as an institution productive of
idleness and vain speculation among the people, whose time and
attention, it is said, ought to be devoted to labour, and not to public
affairs, or to examination into the conduct of their superiors. And
certain officers of the crown, and certain other missionaries of
ignorance, foppery, servility, and slavery, have been most inclined to
countenance and encrease the same party.--Be it remembered, however,
that liberty must at all hazards be supported. _We have a right to it,
derived from our_ MAKER! But if we had not, our fathers have earned and
bought it for us at the expence of their ease, their estates, their
pleasure, and their blood.--And Liberty cannot be preserved without a
general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of
their nature, to knowledge, as their great CREATOR, who does nothing in
vain, has given them understandings and a desire to know; but besides
this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible,
divine right, to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean
of the characters and conduct of their rulers. _Rulers are no more than
attornies, agents, and trustees for the people_: and if the cause, the
interest, and trust are insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away,
the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves
have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attornies, and
trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge, among the
lowest rank, is of more importance to the public, than all the property
of all the rich men in the country. It is even of more consequence to
the rich themselves, and to their posterity.--The only question is,
whether it is a public emolument? and if it is, the rich ought
undoubtedly to contribute in the same proportion as to all other public
burdens, i. e. in proportion to their wealth, which is secured by public
expences.--But none of the means of information are more sacred, or have
been cherished with more tenderness and care by the settlers of America,
than the press. Care has been taken that the art of printing should be
encouraged, and that it should be easy and cheap, and safe for any
person to communicate his thoughts to the Public.--And you, Messieurs
Printers, whatever the tyrants of the