Here is the tone which the initial number of the paper holds to the public: "As to the political course of the _Free Press_, it shall be, in the widest sense of the term, _independent_.

The publisher does not mean by this, to rank amongst those who are of everybody's and of nobody's opinion; ...

nor one of whom the old French proverb says: _Il ne soit sur quel pied danser_.

[He knows not on which leg to dance.] Its principles shall be open, magnanimous and free.

It shall be subservient to no party or body of men; and neither the craven fear of loss, nor the threats of the disappointed, nor the influence of power, shall ever awe one single opinion into silence.