Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-10-07

whip shall score yaur back :-insteao oi
ducking you in The next river, OF rolling
YOU m the gutter, the mob, with congenIa'
glee. shall participate in your enjoyment
of liberty, and applaud and chuckle: IN
defled by shoe-dirt, your skirts shall go
unkicked, your ribs unhorsewhipped; ana
TO atone for your past expressions tins
your projecting code shall be dignhed with
the name of the freedom Of the press, and
the power to destroy your neighbours fame
be enrolled among the rights Of man and
your Infamous privileges he guaranteed IN
common with the trial by jury, the habeas
corpus and those other chrarteed rights
which we and our ancestors have hitherto
hailed as the Michael's swords, the great
guardian instruments of our Liberties =
Could those glorious patriots by any posi-
bilily have meant any thing like this =
Certainly not they were benevolent,
wise, sagacious-but their sagaciy could
not penetrate into such an abyss OF human
turpi,ude, because such had never before
been experienced. In providing for the
freedom and independence of ther country
they thought, and it was natural they should
so think, that they were making the best
possible provision for the preservation OF its
morals and the improvement of its manners.
I. tl,an (.r,In Inx
should it, that the independence of the
country, and its consequent wealth, would
throw great part of the authority of the
press out Of the possession OF scholars and
gentlemen into the management oil vulgar
illetera-testhat the business of public in
struction would devove upon persons them
selves wanting instruction--or that assas.
sins were to become the dominant masters
of the press, the conservators of the public
morals, or the guardians Of the public
veal"
If the latitude for which shall ever join
the writer oflhat article, in manfully stick
ling, were confined 10 questions merely po-
litical, 10 animadvert upon il would be
wicked heresy. That latitude is as much
public property, as the constituion-as the
laws ofthe republican as its unsold lands,
or the money in lis treasury. The public,
and only the whole public have right to it;
but neither the public nor the press, nor of
course any usurpers of their name or pow
ers, have right to grant privilege ofcom.
hitting waste Upon private character, or of
damaging individual feeling, where no ne
cessary connexion subsiSts between them
ami the public prosperity. How the pal
pable imposture that right over private
character is included in the liberty of the
press, could have maintained its ground e.
ven for year, can only be accounted for,
in the impudent cunning and villany OF
some, and in the matchless dulness and cul-
libiity OF others. They not only are sepa-
rable in idea, but in fact are perfectly IT.
recorciable with each other. The doni-
Mon of the press over private character is
Incompatible with free government; but
unfortunately, exclusive Of those who wish
TO indulge a native malignity by tyranni-
zing and playing the despot over the fee
linss, opinions, and conduct Of Others, there
are many who have no other conception of
liberty than RIGHTEOUSNESS, and sincerely
regard the prohibition of theft, robbery,
murder, and, in short. any qualification of
that golf the rviR," as an unwarrantable
Infringement upon natural rights.
The long apathy Of the people under this
public scourge, has raised an obstruction 10
its removal that will not easily be surmount-
ed. What is to become of those who, ha-
wing long ba,tened upon the abuse of the
press-who being rendered by nature and
defective education, incapable of living
on the fair and honest employment of it
who, If you forbid them TO SANDER must be
silent, and if there be no mischief afool
must disappear like swallows in winter
Stop SANDER and bill.ngsgate, and they
starve. This state of things reminds me OF
a fragment once read from manuscript
translation of German drama. The scene
was laid in forest in Bohemia-the time,
some weeks after the conclusion of gene
raj peace-the dramats persona, crowd
of old beldanes accompanied by few ILL.,
looking men, who on the rising Of the cur
tain, were seated in circle on the ground
as if much wearied, and were sharing a.
nrong them some scanty fragments of food.
Their conversation, as is usual in the dra-