Freedom of Speech

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The 1952 primary election was held on Town Meeting Day. For years the two events took place simultaneously. (Today, the two decision-making processes are scheduled separately; the national primary calendar is creeping backward, extending the formal time limits for the presidential election to nearly a year.) During World War II readers of the other mass-market weekly magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, had seen an indelible image of the New England town meeting. Inspired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wartime speech, ‘Why We Fight,’ Norman Rockwell drew four illustrations. FDR’s catalogue of four freedoms that Americans would defend with their lives resonated with Rockwell. Rockwell’s series was used on posters to promote the sale of war bonds. The first image, ‘Freedom of Speech,’ was potent; taken from the real-life experience of the painter. Rockwell remembered watching an individual stand at a Vermont town meeting to offer an unpopular proposal that was not well-received. Whether citizens in other parts of the United States recognized the scene of the town meeting is uncertain, but for New Englanders it was a familiar sight. Among other things, they immediately recognized the annual report held by several townspeople in Rockwell’s illustration. That document was a common element of the meeting and was distributed at the event. These thin booklets were a typical format for the financial report. The pamphlet was almost as common in that period of the century as was the “blue back” speller authored by Noah Webster the century before. But even without an understanding of the special coding associated with the town report, any American citizen would have recognized the act of standing as one of several formal moments denoting public speech.