Along with “Miss Todd, M.D., or A Disease of the Heart” and a description of the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska stating that “these emigrants are all either slave owners or the friends of the Institution of Slavery,” the July 19, 1854, Peterborough Transcript included a “new doctrine.”
It reads as follows: “It is becoming fashionable with some of our modern patriots, to denounce every expression of opinion that does not happen to tally with their notion, as treason. Out upon such Dogberrys. There is no treason in free speech in this country. A man has a right to express his opinion on all public measues (sic), and none but a craving poltroon will ever yield that right.”