Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-02-20
THE SENATE AND THE GOVERNMENT PAPER

Our readers will learn, from the report o
Proceedings in the Senate, that the Resolutions
proposed in that body few days ago, has pass
ed, for excluding the Editors of the Union
from the privilege of admission on the floor Of The
Senate, on the ground of publication in that paper
of Tuesday night, in which the majority of the Sc
nate were revied and illuminated in terms such al
no candid man of any party can or will stand up
and justify.
The subject having been thus disposed of by the
Senate, we feel free say, indeed we have here
tofore intmated, that, had we been consulted the
subject-which of course we were not, and had nc
sort of claim 10 be-we would have advised against
the Senate's founding any proceeding on the pub
LEGATION in question: not that the proceeding was
proceeding was giving undue consequence to what
was but loose libel, if there such thing.
But, the question having been raised, we do not
see how the Senate could have consistently refused
TO entertain it, TO express their judgment upon it,
What the Senate has done is not according to
the turn which the government paper would now
give to it, an invasion of the liberty of the press.
1t is no such thing. 1t is not even attempt to
restrain its RIGHTEOUSNESS II is nothing but mani
festation of its own selfrespect.
Nor can it be compared, in any essential particu-
lar, with the proceeding TO which it is pretended
10 be analogous) of the Senate in the year 1900
against the Editor of the Philadelphia Aurora. In
that case, the editor was, for denunciation of a
Caucus said to have been held by the majority Of
the Senate thing so common and deemed so in
nocent ow-a-days-arrested by order Of the Senate
and subsequently directed 10 be prosecuted by law
for libel. This proceeding became justly odious at
the tme because all that the editor had done to
state facts as they had been reported to him, with
comments justi6able enough if the facts true,
and because the prosecution to be instituted un
der law which the People had already condemn
ed, though their sentence had not yet taken effect
upon It, At this day, every body knows, there is
no party in our country favorable to any such law
or practice, unless your ..moral treason men,
who would, if they had their own way, inhct pun
ishment, by fine and Imprisonment, in the very
terms of the old Sedition Law, for the publication Of
any thing calculated 10 bring the President or his
measures into disrepute with the People.
By the exclusion from the Hall of the Senate, no
right Of the Editors of the !" Union :" has been
infrnged. Their admission within the Chamber
was not required, or even authorized by any law
or rule, but was mere courtesy, of comparatively
recent date, having formerly had no existence. No
one doubts the right of the Senate to determine
whom it will admit into its privileged seats, and
whom exclude, its right to vary in that respect
not only its practice. but its rules. 1t is well
known, for example, that at different times Ladies
have been admitted, and again excluded when their
presence has been supposed TO interfere with the
convenience of Senators, to embarrass their pro
ceedings, or perhaps to mislead their judgments
Within the last week they have been one day ad
mtted, the next day excluded, 1--WE dare not say
wisely,) and the next day again admitted
The Senate has, by its vote on this occasion, de
clared in effect land nothing more that the courtesy
on its part, which has been repaid with gross ant
groundess aspersion by the Executive organ, shall
be for the present withheld.
In conclusion, it is gratuitous misrepresenta
ton of the course of the Wings to lay this pro
ceedng, whatever be It's merits or demerits at thei
door. 1t was Member of the Democratic part,
who brought the matter before the Senate and VIII
invoked its Intervention in behalf of its violate
privileges. To this invocation it is surely not tn
fault of the Wings if so many of his politics
friends have turned deaf ear.