.

At the same time another right is claimed, which is of necessity
involved in the preceding,--the right to oppose, by all lawful means,
the opinions and the practices of others, when they are deemed
pernicious either to individuals or to the community. _Facts_,
_arguments_ and _persuasions_ are, by all, conceded to be lawful means
to employ in propagating our own views, and in opposing the opinions and
practices of others.

These fundamental principles of liberty have in all past ages been
restrained by coercive influences, either of civil or of ecclesiastical
power. But in this nation, all such coercive influences, both of church
and state, have ceased. Every man may think what he pleases about
government, or religion, or any thing else; he may propagate his
opinions, he may controvert opposite opinions, and no magistrate or
ecclesiastic can in any legal way restrain or punish.

But the form of our government is such, that every measure that bears
upon the public or private interest of every citizen, is decided by
_public sentiment_. All laws and regulations in civil, or religious, or
social concerns, are decided by the _majority of votes_. And the present
is a time when every doctrine, every principle, and every practice which
influences the happiness of man, either in this, or in a future life, is
under discussion. The whole nation is thrown into parties about almost
every possible question, and every man is stimulated in his efforts to
promote his own plans by the conviction that success depends entirely
upon bringing his fellow citizens to think as he does. Hence every man
is fierce in maintaining his own right of free discussion, his own right
to propagate his opinions, and his own right to oppose, by all lawful
means, the opinions that conflict with his own.

But the difficulty is, that a right which all men claim for themselves,
with the most sensitive and pertinacious inflexibility, they have not
yet learned to accord to their fellow men, in cases where their own
interests are involved. Every man is saying, "Let me have full liberty
to propagate my opinions, and to oppose all that I deem wrong and
injurious, but let no man take this liberty with my opinions and
practices. Every man may believe what he pleases, and propagate what he
pleases, provided he takes care not to attack any thing which belongs to
me."

And how do men exert themselves to restrain this corresponding right of
their fellow men? Not b