The Arkansas advocate., 1830-06-30

fCeS IS dhO Hluot pS uCptifdSf1l Oii lifC party by which.it is extensively patron lzcd and supported; it must speak their sentiments ;s ad & see;;.tts, tt!h i | 1t sinks into worse than insignifcance. i doubt its great mistake to presume that the press governs the people. Itis the people that govern the press; and experience every day teaches us, that no newspaper whatsoever can long head against the public sentiment. Two thirds at least, ofthe newspapers of the
 United States, were opposed to the election ofGen. Jackson. Yet the peo- pie elected him.
 An independent Press, that is to say,
 a press independent of certain political
 obligations which it cannot depart from
 without losingits influence and its pat ironage, could not, and doubt if it
 ought Cit git to exist iii ss free country. i i lthe organ, and exceptin very extreme
 cases, ought to be the creature of the public opinion, when that opinion is free.
 A President of the United States,
 chosen by the free voice of the people
 of the United States, is little else than the executive of the will of that people.
 The people elect the conductors of
 newspapers to office in .hew gift, and the
 President lent Of the United United States occa=
 sionally appoints them to office in his
 gift. And for what2 For having ex-
 pressed and. enforced the will of the people, in advocating the election of
 their favorite candidate. It is not so
 much to gratify himself, as to gratify the
 people that he appoints them.
 Suppose member of the Senate of the United States should exert all his talents and influence, which are cer- tainly equal to those of an editor of a newspaper, in forwarding the election
 of a President, and afterwards in car irving through his favorite measures-is.
 there any peculiar enormity in his being
 appointed member of the Cabinet, or
 6 8 Minister Pienipotentiary? iiope not flor if there were, the history of our
 government would be history of enor- l mites.
 l Or suppose Q lawyer, or a physician,
 or man of any other profession in life,
 should make himself useful and coli Ispicuous in forwarding the views of a
 party or the election of a President, by
 active exertions to influence the peo-
 pie, such as making speeches, and writ
 ing for the Newspapers, and arguing with his slloa-citizens-is that any reason why he should be selected from the rest of mahking, for exclusion from office? If so, then our government has been acting uBreasonably ever since it drew its first breath of life. The. na- lure and essence of free government makes it indispensable to it's very exis- tence toconcilate those whe have great influence over the people. In des- lpotlc state, the friends of the people are lpersecuted and prescribed; but it is be- coming and proper in free State, to distinguish and reward them.
 Butit may be said, and is always said, by the opposite party, that these active politicians, instead of being the friends of the people, actually deceive and mis- lead them. Such is ever the language of disappointment. Our good people are not, however, so easily misled or de- ceived. They reason, and they listen to reason. These querul6us complaints, or disappointed and bafied politicians, strike at the root of all free govern ments; for 1t is easy to perceive. that if the people are really so eternally de- ceived and misled, it follows, of course, that they must be totally incapable of IselEgovernment.
 But it may be, and l have heard it argued, as an objection to the appoint. ment of editors of newspapers to office, that it enables the Executive to buy up. as the phrase is, ali the public vehicles Iof the United States. The apprehcn- sion is peculiarly complimentary to the independence of the Press-the palla- dium of our liberties. Either the con. ductors of the Press, on which il is said our liberties depend in so great a de- gree, are more prone to corruption than other men, or 1t follows, that every other class of the community will be equally corrupted, by some remote possible chance ot some one among them, one out of thousand, for instance, obtain ing an office, in the event of an uncer- tain contingency, such as the election of some particular candidate. Such the ar' would certainly bear ii,ard-pceul- iarly hard, on the Senate of the United States, which has hitherto furnished