Benjamin Franklin once said that "freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved." What did Benjamin Franklin mean by this statement?

What I think that Ben Franklin meant that if a government restricts your freedom of speech they restrict 1 of your basic human rights and then they also restrict your freedom of thought which leads to restricting all of you rights

Like for example what Hitler did he took away guns and no one could speak against the government

but whats the question? ?

explanation:

nothing certain is known about what happened, but it seems that the country declined gradually, perhaps due to bad government, or, more likely, due to a series of bad harvests, which resulted in widespread and recurrent famine.