Journo Verse

Freedom of the press has been a tenet of our democracy since its inception. No less a founding father than Benjamin Franklin emphasized its importance in verse. But nothing lasts forever.

It seems fit to launch our new poetry column with his “On the Freedom of the Press” as our country celebrates its 250th anniversary and the current administration is doing its best to erase the parts of our constitution that they don’t like.

The poem is less a lyrical meditation than a compact political argument in verse. Written in the 18th century, the poem reflects Franklin’s deep commitment to Enlightenment principles of reason, liberty, and skepticism of unchecked power, which are in short supply today.

He frames the press as the guardian of truth and the enemy of tyranny. The “Press,” in Franklin’s telling, gives birth to the arts, drives away superstition, and forces “lawless Pow’r” to yield to reason. It is not merely a tool of communication; it is a civilizing force.

It’s not a stretch to think Franklin would be appalled by how journalism has been characterized by those in power as an “enemy of the people.” The press is the Fourth Estate and serves as vital a part in our democracy as any branch of government.

Restraining the press, Franklin argues, is an act of intellectual treason. Those who would “use the Gag’s Restraint” do so because they fear exposure. Suppressing speech is the first move of those who intend wrongdoing.

Written decades before the First Amendment was ratified, the poem reads like an early draft of its spirit: a belief that a free press is not a luxury of democracy but its necessary defense.

“On the Freedom of the Press” by Benjamin Franklin (1706 –1790)

While free from Force the Press remains,

Virtue and Freedom chear our Plains,

And Learning Largesses bestows,

And keeps unlicens’d open House.

We to the Nation’s publick Mart

Our Works of Wit, and Schemes of Art,

And philosophic Goods, this Way,

Like Water carriage, cheap convey.

This Tree which Knowledge so affords,

Inquisitors with flaming Swords

From Lay-Approach with Zeal defend,

Lest their own Paradise should end.

The Press from her fecundous Womb

Brought forth the Arts of Greece and Rome;

Her Offspring, skill’d in Logic War,

Truth’s Banner wav’d in open Air;

The Monster Superstition fled,

And hid in Shades her Gorgon Head;

And lawless Pow’r, the long kept Field,

By Reason quell’d, was forc’d to yield.

This Nurse of Arts, and Freedom’s Fence,

To chain, is Treason against Sense:

And Liberty, thy thousand Tongues

None silence who design no Wrongs;

For those that use the Gag’s Restraint,

First rob, before they stop Complaint.