Drawing on a textual analysis of more than 500 general cahiers de doléances,the author examines the much overlooked desire for legal limits that accompanied demands for the freedom of the press on the eve of the French Revolution. Although contemporaries agreed on abolishing pre-publication censorship, they sought to maintain and even reinforce Old-Regime restrictions on “abusive” content, particularly for works considered to undermine “mœurs”,religion, political authority, and individual honor. After assessing the contemporary meanings and political implications of these restrictions, one explains why these limits were not included in the article concerning the freedom of the press in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and suggests the radicalizing impact this would have on early revolutionary politics.