| Citation |
NYGWPB.770.019
12 Mar 1770:21 (1419)
From the London Chronicle of Nov. 18,1769. . . [A story of a
voyage] We were then, says the author, conducted to the
market-place, where we observed a man, tolerably well drest,
confined in a cage, and a prodigious concourse of people
dancing round him, shouting Liberty! Liberty! On asking the
meaning of all this, "That man in the cage, said our
conductor, is the genius of Liberty, our chief idol:
contradiction is our primum mobile, the spring of all our
actions, and therefore we always worship Liberty in a
cage."--"And pray, Sir, I replied, does the genius submit to
this confinement volentarily? No, I was answered, we accused
him of singing a ballad, which we proved he did not sing,and
therefore, according to our first principle of
contradiction, we condemned him to the cage.". . [story
continues through 1/2 of next column, a dialogue about
government and free elections]
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