Without freedom of speech, "dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter."

A wonderful quote from George Washington, pertinent to our times. But first, context.

In the closing days of the Revolutionary War, the soldiers of the Continental Army were restive. They had suffered much, had not been paid, and were concerned that they and the pensions for their service were about to be cast aside by a distant and fractious Congress of the Confederation. The Newburgh Conspiracy was a mysterious and little understood incident that appears that it might have been an effort on the part of some factions to launch a military coup d'état. From Wikipedia.

The Newburgh Conspiracy was what appeared to be a planned military coup by the Continental Army in March 1783, when the American Revolutionary War was at its end. The conspiracy may have been instigated by members in the Congress of the Confederation, who circulated an anonymous letter in the army camp at Newburgh, New York on March 10, 1783. Soldiers were unhappy that they had not been paid for some time and unfunded pensions that had been promised. The letter suggested that they should take unspecified action against Congress to resolve the issue. The letter was written by Major John Armstrong, aide to General Horatio Gates, although the authorship of its text and underlying ideas is a subject of historical debate.

Commander-in-Chief George Washington stopped any serious talk of rebellion when he successfully appealed on March 15 in an emotional address to his officers asking them to support the supremacy of Congress. Not long afterward, Congress approved a compromise agreement it had previously rejected: it funded some of the pay arrears, and granted soldiers five years of full pay instead of a lifetime pension of half pay.

The motivations of numerous actors in these events are the subject of debate. Some historians allege that serious consideration was given within the army to some sort of coup d'état, while others dispute the notion. The exact motivations of congressmen involved in communications with army officers implicated in the events are similarly debated.

The event, whatever its intent or nature, was nipped by the arrival of George Washington among a group of disgruntled officers. By accounts, perhaps the strongest argument was a striking moment of theater at beginning of his address. Holding some notes, Washington fumbled for his reading glasses.

Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.

George Washington was held in almost reverence by those who served with and under him. A tower of strength and calm under the most trying and tragic of circumstances, it reads as if many of those most loyal to whom had overlooked the toll on him and that this small incident triggered a recognition that made them far more attentive to his words.

This small part of his brief response has to do with freedom of speech under the most difficult of conditions. Washington is addressing the advice to shut down the conversation among the morose and aggrieved.

If Men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us — the freedom of Speech may be taken away — and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.

What a man of principle. Would that the spirit of freedom and the commitment to the principle of free speech burned as bright today.

The communal sludge who cry racist and denialist to shut down speech, shout down speakers with whom they disagree, claim victimhood while physically attacking those who have different opinions are the Westboro Baptists of the totalitarian left. Wshington's words remind us to not remain silent in the face of such opposition to free speech.