divorce
advertisement, and such matters. Some newspapers have objected to it,
but the right of freedom of the press does not include the right to
the use of the mails, and the papers containing the objectionable
advertisements may constitutionally be seized or denied delivery,
just as convict-made goods may be denied circulation in interstate
commerce, by act of Congress, not, of course, of the States. Mr.
Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, has complained that the
injunction of their so-called "unfair list" is an interference with
the freedom of the press, and I presume would claim that an injunction
against urging, or combining to urge, by oral argument, the members of
the various unions throughout the country to boycott a certain person,
would be an interference with the right of freedom of speech, and that
therefore if the courts did not so decide, the laws should be changed
by statute. This, also, would seem open to the objection of class
legislation if extended only to speech or publication in industrial
disputes. It should be noted, however, that the broad principle of
freedom of speech by all persons and at all places is first adopted
in the American constitutions, freedom of speech in England in its
historical principles extending only to freedom of speech in the House
of Parliament, and the right of assembly and petition at a public
meeting; freedom of the press, however, is the same constitutional
principle in both countries, but only extends to the right to publish
without previously obtaining the consent of any censor or other
authority, and the person publishing still remains responsible for
all damages caused by such act. It is this part of the law which Mr.
Gompers would alter, or rather make absolute; so that any notice or
threat could be printed and circulated even when a component act of a
conspiracy.

By a recent act of Congress the right of freedom of speech does not
extend to anarchistic utterances, or speeches or writings aimed
against order, the established government, and inciting to
assassination or crime. Such laws are barely constitutional as applied
to United States citizens. The unpopularity of the alien and sedition
laws under the administration of John Adams will be remembered. Since
their repeal, no attempt at a law of government libel has been made;
very recently, however, where certain gentlemen, mostly holding
important government offices, were charged with having made mon