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Criticism in a free man's country is made on certain assumptions, one of which is the assumption that the government belongs to the people and is at all times subject to the peoples correction and criticism - correction and criticism such as a man gives, and should give, those who represent him and undertake to act on his behalf. Criticism of the government made upon that basis is proper criticism, no matter how abusive.But abuse of a representative government made, not upon that assumption, but upon the assumption that the government is one thing and the people another that the President is one thing and the people who elected the President another - that the Congress is one thing and the people who elected the Congress another - that the executive departments are one thing and the people whom the departments serve another - abuse of a representative government made with the implication that the government is something outside the people, or opposed to the people, something the people should fear and hate - abuse of that kind is not criticism and no amount of editorial self-justification can make it sound as though it were.
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