Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-03-21
JAMES KEMP,
THO'S KEEL,
II. NILES,
=. ALLEN,
D. RAYMOND.
FROM THE FRANKFORT COMBINATION.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

FROM THE FRANKFORT COMBINATION.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
The last day Of the session of the L.
8lslature, gentleman presented me-
mortal to the speaker Of the House of
the Representatives, complaining of ain
infringement Of the Liberty of the Press.
The memorial was subjected to the pc
rusal of Col. MATTHEW LYON, with
whose opinion on the subject we have
been favored. 1t was as follows:
" Fiead-By perusing your Mcmori-
al am led to imagine that you enter
tain strange notions with regard to the
Liberty CT THE Press. The liberty of
the press we contend for, and that which
has been commended for by the Patriots
and Republicans in all ages since the in
yention of the art of Printing, is, a free
dom from governmental restraint. We
insist that every person shall have g right,
through the labor OF the printer, to put
his ideas and his thoughts on paper, as
we'll as TO put them on canvas by the aid,
the art, and the labor Of the painter; but
this is TO be done by agreement with the
painter and the printer. The printer
labors Tor support and the betterment of
his fortune, as well as the painter.
When an apothecary sets up a shop,
and furnishes it with medicine, it is for
his own establishment and it is his duty
to manage and control it so as to please
his customers. 1t is just SO with a prin-
ter when he sets up press.
Should quack apply to an apothcca-
ry to place on his shelves some of his
nostrums; and the apothecary should,
on examination, believe those nostrums
to be pernicious, and imagine that the
vending and promulgating them at and
from bis shop, would be detrimental to
his customers, or that it would even be
disgusting to them, and cause them to
shun his shop; however unfounded this
apprehension might be, every one will
allow that the apothecary has right to
tell the quack, (nay,we will say the doctor,
and that he is good doctor) that he
must pack up his nostrums, and take
them away from his shop. This case
applies to that ofthe printer. The repu-
tatlon OF newspaper, and consequently
the profit and living Of the printer, de-
ponds on filing his columns in such a
manner as will best please his custom
crs, and as all the risk in this respect
lies upon him, he must be the Judge in
this case; he is in the score of discretion
answerable for every thing that appears
in his paper. 1.-THE apothecary admins
tiers poison to his customers, he is
amenable to the laws it is so with the
prlnter--in fact, the press and types are
as much the printers own, as the black
smiths anvil, his vice, or his bellows,
and he is no more bound to use them
against his will or his Judgment, or his
interest, than the smith is his tools. A
printer is sometimes obliged to CORES
pondents for their aid in filing his
columns. When their productions APP
pear to him to suit the taste of his Gus
toners, he is thankful; when he thinks
they will not, there is neither law nor
reason to force him to accept this aid.
Printers, like other men, are subject to
have opinions oftheir own. When they
promulgate them, decency and candor
requires them sometimes to give publ
city to sentiments and opinions contrary
TO their own; they are to Judge how far
to go this course from the knowledge of
the wishes of their customers. If the
printer errs, he endangers his standing
with them. A printer needs patronage
as well as other tradesmen, and, like
other tradesmen, he has a right to be
thankful to his patrons he has the same
right as any other tradesman to look to
his interest, and exercise the tools of his
trade for his emolument; all the differ
ence is, he is more delicately situated
than any other tradesmen from the huc-
tuation of public opinion.--Iti is true that
some presses have been open to receive
all kinds of filth, contradictory nonsense,
and blackguardism, like common sew
err. Such was Cobbett's paper in 1898.
Such newspapers may for while tickle
and please the malicious, the envious,
the base, and the trifing part fthe COM
munity, but they are evanescsnt and of
short duration.