评论
打印
When we reach the newspaper press, the opportunity for debate is so considerable that discontent cannot grow to the point where under normal conditions there is any disposition to regulate the press. But when newspapers abuse their power by injuring people who have no means of replying, a disposition to regulate the press appears. When we arrive at Congress we find that, because the membership of the House is so large, full debate is impracticable. So there are restrictive rules. On the other hand, in the Senate, where the conditions of full debate exist, there is almost absolute freedom of speech.
谈到报界，辩论的机会很多，所以不满情绪不可能发展到正常情况下报刊也要接受管制的地步。但是当报纸滥用权力，伤害没有回答手段的人时，制约报界的想法就出现了。来到国会，我们发现众议院议员众多，充分辩论行不通。于是便有一些限制规定。然而，在参议院，有条件充分辩论，所以言论几乎绝对自由。
This shows us that the preservation and development of freedom of opinion are not only a matter of adhering to abstract legal rights, but also, and very urgently, a matter of organizing and arranging sufficient debate. Once we have a firm hold on the central principle, there are many practical conclusions to be drawn. We then realize that the defense of freedom of opinion consists primarily in perfecting the opportunity for an adequate give-and-take of opinion; it consists also in regulating the freedom of those revolutionists who cannot or will not permit or maintain debate when it does not suit their purposes.
这就向我们表明，维护和发展舆论自由不仅仅是坚持抽象的法定权利的问题，而且还是一个组织安排充分的辩论的紧要问题。一旦我们紧紧抓住了中心原则，便可得出许多实用的结论。然后我们会意识到，捍卫舆论自由主要在于为不同观点的充分交流提供良好的机会，其次也在于对那些革命者的自由加以制约，因为在辩论不适合其目的时，他们不会，也不愿允许或者维持辩论。
We must insist that free oratory is only the beginning of free speech; it is not the end, but a means to an end. The end is to find the truth. The practical justification of civil liberty is not that self-expression is one of the rights of man. It is that the examination of opinion is one of the necessities of man. For experience tells us that it is only when freedom of opinion becomes the compulsion to debate that the seed which our fathers planted has produced its fruit. When that is understood, freedom will be cherished not because it is a vent for our opinions but because it is the surest method of correcting them.
我们必须坚持，自由演讲仅仅是实行言论自由的开始；它不是目的，而是达到目的的手段。其目的是找到真理。公民自由最好的理由不在于表达自己乃是每个人的一个权利，而在于对每个意见的检验乃是每个人的需要。因为经验告诉我们，只有当言论自由能迫使我们进行辩论的时候，我们的开国元勋们播下的种子才算结出果实。当人们明白了这个道理时，他们珍惜自由才不会仅仅是因为它为我们的意见提供了一个自由表达的窗口，而是因为它是纠正错误意见的最为可靠的方法。
