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Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser
Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
Boston publication excerpts a London article from October 12 decrying American liberty's decline under Congress, including a new duty on advertisements as a precursor to taxing and suppressing newspapers. It also references Count de Mirabeau's treatise criticizing arbitrary power, the Order of the Cincinnati, and state laws restraining the press. The excerpts aim to alert the local legislature.
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The two following paragraphs were extracted from a London publication of October 12.
"The boasted liberty of the Americans is daily verging into restraint under the oligarchy of the Congress of those provinces where their power is suffered to extend. By their influence in provincial assemblies, in consequence of some spirited remonstrances which appeared lately in the public prints, a duty has been laid on all advertisements. This is but a preliminary step to taxing the news papers also, and to their final suppression, if it should be judged necessary.— How much has the ferment of independence in a short space subsided! what an evaporation of public spirit a few years has occasioned.
"The Count de Mirabeau, in a Treatise which does great credit to his patriotism, deplores the advances which arbitrary power is making in America.—The order of the Cincinnati he conceives inimical to Republicanism, and the laws of some of the States implicitly restraining the Press, as dangerous to liberty."
The foregoing paragraphs, it is to be hoped, will arrest the attention of our Legislature.
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Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Boston
Event Date
Feb. 6
Key Persons
Event Details
Excerpts from a London publication of October 12 criticize the American Congress for influencing provincial assemblies to impose a duty on advertisements as a step toward taxing and suppressing newspapers, lamenting the subsidence of independence spirit. The excerpts also reference Count de Mirabeau's treatise deploring arbitrary power in America, viewing the Order of the Cincinnati as inimical to Republicanism and state laws restraining the press as dangerous to liberty. The publication hopes these paragraphs will attract the attention of the local Legislature.