1st. This Law is needed for the personal safety of Reformers. We are
living in a Progressive Age. Everything is in a state of transmutation,
and, as our laws now are, the Reformer, the Pioneer, the Originator of any
new idea is liable to be treated as a Monomaniac, with _imprisonment_.
2d. It is a _Crime_ against human progress to allow Reformers to be
treated as Monomaniacs; for, who will dare to be true to the inspirations
of the divinity within them, if the Pioneers of truth are thus liable to
lose their personal liberty for life by so doing?
3d. It is _Treason_ against the principles of our Government to treat
opinions as Insanity, and to imprison for it, as our present laws allow.
4th. There always are those in every age who are opposed to every thing
_new_, and if allowed, will persecute Reformers with the stigma of
Insanity. This has been the fate of all Reformers, from the days of
Christ--the Great Reformer--until the present age.
5th. Our Government, of all others, ought especially to guard, by
legislation, the vital principle on which it is based, namely:
_individuality_, which guarantees an individual right of opinion to all
persons.
Therefore, gentlemen, _protect your thinkers!_ by a law, against the
charge of Monomania, and posterity shall bless our government, as a model
government, and Massachusetts as the Pioneer State, in thus protecting
individuality as the vital principle on which the highest development of
humanity rests.