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Servants of the People
Edward Livingstone, US Congressman and later Ambassador to France.
Edward Livingston (1764-1836), by an unknown artist. During the debate in 1798, the charge that the critics of Adams’s Government used violent language particularly annoyed him. Livingston read out, with pardonable satisfaction, a portion of a speech by John Adams himself, in which he had advocated taking up arms against an unsatisfactory US Government. See also A Hot Tip, where under similar provocation English MP John Bright read out a passage from one of Benjamin Disraeli’s novels.
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Edward Livingston (1764-1836), by an unknown artist. During the debate in 1798, the charge that the critics of Adams’s Government used violent language particularly annoyed him. Livingston read out, with pardonable satisfaction, a portion of a speech by John Adams himself, in which he had advocated taking up arms against an unsatisfactory US Government. See also A Hot Tip, where under similar provocation English MP John Bright read out a passage from one of Benjamin Disraeli’s novels.
Then, said Mr Livingston, he will either restrict the members from speaking, or, in some way, prevent the people from knowing what has been said. How is this to be done? By shackling newspapers, and preventing that free communication of sentiment which has heretofore been expressed on public topics.
Mr Livingston avowed with pride the sentiments which he had uttered in the House, and to which gentlemen objected. He could not see how acts made contrary to the Constitution could be binding upon the people; unless gentlemen say Congress may act in contravention to the Constitution.
Mr Otis asked who were to be the judges?
Mr Livingston answered, the people of the United States. We, said he, are their servants; when we exceed our powers, we become their tyrants!*
From ‘Great Debates in American History’ (?1913), edited by Marion Mills Miller (1864-1949).
* After much haggling the Bill crept over the line and became law as the Sedition Act (1798), with a sunset clause automatically repealing it in 1801. It was not renewed, and the Federalist Party that had pushed it through never recovered from the shame of it. The Americans should have learnt from the experience of the Government in England, which had just taken on the Morning Chronicle, and lost: see No Danger in Discussion.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Communication. Must. Not.
2 Give. Like. People.
3 Although. Power. Turn.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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However loud his critics shouted their disapproval, Abraham Lincoln would neither deprive them of free speech nor change his opinions.
Picture: Winslow Homer (1836–1910). Source.
Posted September 21 2022
The tighter the US Government’s stranglehold on dissent grew, the harder Daniel Webster fought for freedom of speech.
Picture: By Henry R. Robinson, via the Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 23 2021
The people who oil the wheels of society are not the people who never give offence, they are the people who never take any.
Picture: By Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 5 2020
