Lincoln telegraph. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1836-1846, 1838-07-12
TELEGRAPH.
BY ELISHA CLARKE.
MISCElI A HEOUS.


EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH OF MR.
BOND, OF OHIO.
Upon. Mr. Hopkin's Resolution to divorce the
Government from the prsss.
i now propose, Mr. Speaker, to show
what seductive influences this patronage
over the press carries with it; and, for
this purpose, | must again invoke the aid
of the jackson retormers, using their own
arguments, and the very language in which
they admonished the country of the base
uses which would be made of this power.
4 hope gentlemen will remember the re-
marks made on this subject, and which
have already given to the chairman of the
Committee on Reform. | reserved for the
present branch of the argument peculiar
ly striking and descriptive passage. in the
speech of Mr. Houston, before alluded to.
He undertakes to describe an honest, indie
pendent editor, of good principles, and de-
served influence, and then adds, that such
an editor as this
= May not be disposed to bow or bend
his principles for the sake of supporting
particular Administration or individual 1t
may be necessary to certain plans and in
gagged or Frustrated. In that case very
polite course would be to start a new paper
fome few months before new patronage is to
be conferred; to use every exeltion to obtain
for it sufficient number Of subscribers;
to take measures that, at all hazards, the
paper be sustained then to get for the ed
itor some true and trusty fellow-a fellow
that will go the whole who is troubled
with no principles on an, -ij~~-, .-s "ro
will support a certain interest Through
thick and thin;' who will pursue no course
Of bis own, but will ever be ready to take
his cue from certain quarter. After get
ting him some one or two hundred subscri-
bers, and using eyefy expedient to make
him some character he must then have the
printing of the laws, as a token of the con-
fidence of the Government, and then all
will be ready for action. Sir, | say that
such press is TO be established and paid
for out of the contingent fund; lam not
warranted in such an assertion; but sag
that ne,c beginner must haze patronage,
although at be in diett opposition to the az
terest and pishes of the People,"
~ Thus spake Mr. Houston in 1927. Let
us now pause for moment, Mr. Speaker,
and inquire whether those who know so
we'll the use and abuse of this power, have
not proved themselves slsilful adopts in the
practical application. Let us direct our
attention to the official newspaper, the
Globe, and see il MIR Houston has not
most aptly described "its rise, progress,
and present state"
We'know, sir, that at the commence
inent of Gen Jackson's Administration, the
official newspaper was the United States
Telegraph, published by Duff. Green.
Things went on pretty smoothly for a
while, and until, as was said some Jealous
rivalry sprung UP between the then Vice
President of the United States and the
present President, Mr. Van Buren,, who
was then Secretary Of State. 1t was said
Green was suspected ofcherishing strong
ser Partially for the Vice President than
for the Secretary of State. But do not
profess to be familiar with the causes Of
the family jar. Report said that the Tel
egraph was not discontinued abruptly, as
the official organ, but was gradually sup
planted by the Globe, and its editor,
Francis P. Blair, brought here for that
purpose from Kentucky. Among the
means resorted to for this purpose, as COM
planned Of by the Telegraph, were orders
or requests to various Postmasters through
out the country to furnish lists of its sub
scribers. The Globe was then sent to
them, claiming to have the special conf
dence of the party. In this way it was in
itiated intoaiavora among the subscribers of
the Telegraph, and in due season the latter
paper was wholly abjured. | have no
e II