“Is it tolerable that besides being robbed and rifled, an author should be forced to appear in any form – in any vulgar dress – in any atrocious company – that he should have no choice of his audience – no controul [sic?]over his distorted text – and that he should be compelled to jostle out of the course, the best men in this country who only ask to live, by writing?”
The not entirely surprising answer: American Publishers. Read more about the debate at the Literary and Debating Society at the Mechanics’ Institute of Montreal (now known as the Atwater Library and Computer Centre).