I can imagine no greater disservice to the country than to establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people of a free republic like our own their indisputable right to criticize their own public officials. While exercising the great powers of the office I hold, I would regret in a crisis like the one through which we are now passing to lose the benefit of patriotic and intelligent criticism.

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) US President (1913–20), educator, political scientist

Letter to Arthur Brisbane (25 Apr 1917)

Three weeks after the US entered WW I.