The Mob and Freedom of The Press

The country was deeply divided about the prudence of declaring war on Britain in 1812.  Alexander Contee Hanson published some articles in his newspaper, The Federal Republican, that were severely critical of President Madison and sharply questioned the wisdom of declaring war on the world’s most powerful nation.

One such article was published on June 20th, 1812, and really irritated some of the citizens of Baltimore.

What follows below is a snippet of a report by Baltimore’s City Council about the mob’s reaction to the printing the article above.