The Trouble About Fighting for Human Freedom Is That You Have To Spend Much of Your Life Defending Sons-of-Bitches

H.L. Mencken? Gerald W. Johnson? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Oppressive laws are sometimes promulgated to target unsavory individuals. The opposition to these laws requires defending these individuals. The famous Baltimore journalist and commentator H. L. Mencken apparently said something like the following:

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels.

Did Mencken really say this? Would you please help me to find the correct phrasing together with a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: H. L. Mencken died in January 1956, and shortly afterward his colleague Gerald W. Johnson published an essay about his life in “The Saturday Review”. Both Mencken and Johnson worked at “The Baltimore Sun” and “The Evening Sun” newspapers of Maryland for many years. Johnson presented remarks he had heard directly from Mencken. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1956 February 11, The Saturday Review, Henry L. Mencken [1880-1956] by Gerald W. Johnson, Start Page 12, Quote Page 13, Column 2, Saturday Review Associates, New York. (Unz)

“The trouble about fighting for human freedom,” he remarked once, “is that you have to spend much of your life defending sons-of-bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

In this version of the quotation, the term “sons-of-bitches” occurred instead of “scoundrels”. The bowdlerized variant with “scoundrels” began circulating by 2003.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1974 a reprint of the article by Gerald W. Johnson appeared in “The Golden Age: The Saturday Review 50th Anniversary Reader”. Thus, the quotation achieved further distribution.^[2]1974, The Golden Age: The Saturday Review 50th Anniversary Reader, Edited by Richard L. Tobin, Part 3: Portraits, Article: Henry L. Mencken, Author: Gerald W. Johnson, Date: February 11, 1956, Start … Continue reading

In 1975 “The Daily Herald” of Biloxi, Mississippi printed a letter to the editor from John F. Jackson containing a slightly altered version of the quotation. The phrase “spend much” was changed to “spend so much”:^[3] 1975 April 18, The Daily Herald, Section: Letters to the Editor, Letter title: Human Freedom, Letter from: John F. Jackson of Biloxi, Quote Page A4, Column 2, Biloxi, Mississippi. (Newspapers_com)

“The trouble about fighting for human freedom,” remarked H. L. Mencken “is that you have to spend so much of your life defending sons-of-bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

In 1978 “The Washington Post” published a letter to the editor from Robert A. Seraphin containing a condensed and rephrased version of the quotation:^[4]1978 February 24, The Washington Post, Section: Letters To the Editor, Letter title: Defending Dingbats, Letter from: Robert A. Seraphin of Annandale, Quote Page A20, Column 3, Washington, D.C. … Continue reading

Perhaps he can take solace and instruction from the words of a fellow newspaperman and social commentator. H. L. Mencken wrote:

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that you spend much of your time defending sons of bitches, for oppressive laws are always aimed at them, initially.”

In 2003 the “Edmonton Journal” of Alberta, Canada published a piece by Lord Babiak who presented a version using the word “scoundrels”:^[5] 2003 July 5, Edmonton Journal, Bylaws and billboards will not teach our scoundrels by Lord Babiak, Quote Page 5, Column 4, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Newspapers_com)

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom,” wrote American journalist and philosopher H.L. Mencken, “is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

In conclusion, there is substantive evidence supporting the ascription of this quotation to H. L. Mencken. Gerald W. Johnson knew Mencken well, and he ascribed the words to Mencken in a 1956 article in “The Saturday Review”. On the other hand, this quotation is 46 words long, and human memory is imperfect; hence, the full statement is probably inexact.

(Great thanks to Carl, Fake History Hunter, and Jason Pappas who participated in a twitter thread about this quotation. The thread inspired QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)