The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-29 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN PRESS.

Every American citizen is in duty bound to vote,
and to vote understandingly, on every issue which is
presented for the popular suffrage. It is no excuse
for any that he does not understand the merits of
public questions. The land abounds in newspapers,
representing every shade of thought and of opinions.
There are, at all times of public excitement, speeches
and discussions to which men may listen, or they
may adopt the quieter mode of reading the reports
of these things at their leisure. Everything worth
while, and much that is not, is duly reporte ; and
the cheapness, fullness, and ability of the American
press challenge comparison with that of any coun-
try. "'l'ime's noblest triumph," in the completion
of the magnetic telegraph between the Old World
and the New, opens our daily field of review to in-
clude the whole civilised world. He who is unin-
formed now of what is passing in the world must be
very indolent or very stupid. The knowledge of
everything that happens in national matters, every-
where, goes into the information which is necessary
to make an American citizen competent as an elec-
tor. And competence to perform his duty, and con-
science to do it, are the essentials to the proper im-
provement of the principles which a bountiful Pro-
vidence has conferred upon us. We hear much
said of " reconstruction," and of the preserva-
tion of our liberties, and the defence of the Con-
stitution and the law. No man who neglects
the obvious requirements and prerequisites to
intelligent citizenship can understandingly fulfil his
mission in this great and free Republic. Error and
ignorance caused the late rebellion, and protracted
the struggle. Against error and ignorance every
person, not only actual voters, should array them-
selves. And the only guard is to keep posted up
in all that is occurring, and especially upon the
character and the claims of those who present them-
selves before the people for their support. Not
only the personal character of the men should be
canvassed, but the nature of the schools of opinion
that they represent. The public journals must be
read, but,not these ephemeral productions. They,
like public men, are fair subjects for criticism, and
their utterances must be weighed and carefully ex-
amined. For this it is necessary that their readers
should be familiar with history, and especially with
the history of their own country, Spread-eagle
epitomes and school compendiums, from which all
opinion has been carefully eliminated, will not an-
swer. We must go into detail; and from partisan
writers who have given us full and particular nar-
ratives we must draw our own conclusions. A jury
listens to the elaborate pleas on both sides. There
has been a vast deal too much non-committal writ-
ing in our country. He who looks for a full under-
standing of any subject in a writer whose study it
is to offend nobody, rather than to teach anybody,
will look in vain. We repeat, then, it is a sacred
duty for Americans, and especially for young Ameri-
cans, to be diligent students of the national history,
and to trace the influence of past occurrences upon
contemporary events. Materials are abundant, and
to a systematic and intelligent man time is not
wanting. Thus only can we have a nation of men
of manly, intellectual stature. Thus only can the
great duty which God has placed upon us be ful-
filled.—Philadelphia Inquirer.

A most conspicuous and melancholy example of
the abuse of language has been afforded during the
late Presidential pilgrimage, in which the intelligence
and moral sense of the North has been shocked by
the frequent use of language which, if used in the
literal sense or general significance, would imply a
condition of things in the country more alarming
and revolting than prevailed during the worst days
of anarchy in France. If the President of the
United States, who should never utter a word with-
out deliberately weighing its significance, really be-
lieves that all the men who differ with him on a
question of great difficulty and delicacy, who com-
prise more than two-thirds of Congress, who em-
brace the Governors of nine-tenths of all the loyal
States, and three-fourths of the aggregate members
of all the Legislatures of those States—if he really
believes what he says, that they are " traitors,"
" trying to destroy the Union," then that conviction
should be communicated to the country and the
world with a solemnity becoming the momentous-
ness of the announcement, and not shouted forth
with passionate gesticulation in the face of a
surging crowd, in answer to the insults of a drunken
boor ! In such case he should remain at his post at
the Capital, and thence proclaim the terrible fact in
such language as Washington would have used, in
sad and earnest appeal, to the patriotism and intelli-
gence of the country. But the President does not
mean what he says. He is using forms of expres-
sion unhappily too common among writers and
speakers, in the South, who mistake extravagance
and hyperbole for force, and who have lost all just
ca' chption of the power and purport of words. That
there is a large body of men differing from the Pre-
sidentin his policy, who are vehement in their de-
nunciation of it, and of him as, in their belief, a
deserter from principles and measures in which they
had supposed him attached, in common with them-
selves,. there can be no doubt. But their dissent
does not justify the heavy charge of treason from
Presidential lips any more than their vituperation
deserves notice from the Chief Executive of the
nation. We profoundly regret the recent Presi-
dential trip. Mr. Johnson, as well as the American
people, must bitterly blame those who planned and
advised it. The dignity of the Presidential office
has been lowered, and the weakest side of Mr.
Johnson's salient character unnecessarily exposed.
The men who dragged him away from his post of
duty knew better than any other equal number of
men what were the faults and perils of the illustrious
Tennesseean. They knew how the opposition, the
taunts and sneers of the slave aristocracy of his
region, had greatly unsettled the equilibrum of a
mind which, under other circumstances, might have
been eminently judicial, and had given to natural