l principles of
government, but simply to embody certain guaranties and immunities which
we had inherited from our English ancestors, and which had from time
immemorial been subject to certain well-recognized exceptions arising
from the necessities of the case. In incorporating these principles into
the fundamental law there was no intention of disregarding the
exceptions, which continued to be recognized as if they had been
formally expressed.'[69] That this represents the authentic view of the
Bill of Rights and the spirit in which it must be construed has been
recognized again and again in cases that have come here within the last
fifty years."[70]

AMENDMENT XIV AND BLACKSTONE

Nor was the adoption of Amendment XIV thought to alter the above
described situation until a comparatively recent date. Said Justice
Holmes, speaking for the Court in 1907: "We leave undecided the question
whether there is to be found in the Fourteenth Amendment a prohibition
similar to that in the First. But even if we were to assume that freedom
of speech and freedom of the press were protected from abridgment on the
part not only of the United States but also of the States, still we
should be far from the conclusion that the plaintiff in error would have
us reach. In the first place, the main purpose of such constitutional
provisions is 'to prevent all such _previous restraints_ upon
publications as had been practiced by other governments,' and they do
not prevent the subsequent punishment of such as may be deemed contrary
to the public welfare. Commonwealth _v._ Blanding, 3 Pick. 304, 313,
314; Respublica _v._ Oswald, 1 Dallas 319, 325. The preliminary freedom
extends as well to the false as to the true; the subsequent punishment
may extend as well to the true as to the false. This was the law of
criminal libel apart from statute in most cases, if not in all.
Commonwealth _v._ Blanding, _ubi sup._; 4 Bl. Comm. 150."[71] This
appears to be an unqualified endorsement of Blackstone. But, as Justice
Holmes remarks in the same opinion, "There is no constitutional right to
have all general propositions of law once adopted remain unchanged."[72]
As late as 1922 Justice Pitney, speaking for the Court, said: "Neither
the Fourteenth Amendment nor any other provision of the Constitution of
the United States imposes upon the States any restriction about 'freedom
of speech' or the 'liberty of silence' * * *"[73]

THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER RU