The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-03-26
Gov. HiiI's Address.

been obligingy furnished to us for publication;
Dating back almost TO my earliest recoections of pc.
Gca men and the history of the times, the remembrance
turns TO Thomas Richie The oldest political editor in
the country, believe, of those who have steadily
published newspaper OF the democratic side, his
has been and unvarying. Few political writers in
the country have written much and it rarely falls TO
the lot of any man 10 pursue the tenor OF his
long with little TO challenge animadversion, What
principles, what conduct OF approved by the
Richmond Enquirer that were not always approved by
the Richmond Enquirer How proud is Virginia TO pre-
,e. as hs the s s % Of e S
night that have led youthful America IN the way she
should CO.
his seat noted the fact that the mother of States IN her
bill of rights adopted in May, 776, before the signing OF
the American declaration OF independence placed IN The
front rank Of that instrument clause emphaiiea guard
ing the freedom OF the press and that SO unaierng had
sac remained on this point, that IN revising her nsn,
lions fifty years afterwards she adopted the same bill OF
rights without the change OF letter That clause
oil the Virginia bill of rights is in the words follow
ing: 'That the freedom of the press IS the bulwark
Of liberty and can sr 0 sa Dd y ~ a 9s k g1r
OF the pressa the States recognise the principle But
Virginia after the truly the habit OF her great
apostle of liberty shows that 1T Is THE CHARACTER OF
DEspoTIsm ONLY THAT SHALL RESTRAIN THE LIBERTY OF
And what shall we say of that act OF body
which assumes the three powers of government without
the delegated right alone TO exercise single powero
define crime to pass law for its punishment, to
denim pG,te trial and without evidence, and to
punish for imputed crime; and all this power exercised
in a single act Did The misguided Bourbons, the "des
potic government OF France who produced the revolu
non of 1880 by muzzng and restricting the press as
Their first arbitrary act-dd the miserable Charles OF
times at least five hundred yearsdd that demened dy-
nasty assume powers beyond the assumption of the
twenty senators who, as stigma OF disgrace, as
arrestng reputation unsulled by single dishonorabe
in the lapse of half century, expelled the venerable
Richie from the vestbue of the Senate chamber The
Old Dominion has always had her politicians of the
school of Sir William Berkeley, the representative OF the
British in that State for thirty EIGHT years;
this dgntary, in 1911, siXtyfo years after the settle
OF that Commonwealth. in answer to inquiries of the
lords of the committee for the colonies, said
thank God, we have not free schools nor printing and
mo t h s, u e and hv and scots mo te
world and printing has divulged he and IBELs AGAINST
GOVERNMENT. God keep us from both"
Well might the tyranny OF British royal governor,
which shut out every ray OF intellectual light from the
early settlers OF Virginia, prompt the patriots OF l776 to
early declaration in favor of free press Well might
the example of such tyranny shut out after 1871, for
another hundred years. every press that had liberty
press independent opinion, teach Thomas Jefferson to
study the true definition of Magma Charta the great doc
OF Liberty declared in the mother country in resist
to her tynt monarchs of the Stuart succession
The nroads upon liberty here, provoked the Declaration
of Independence emanating from the mind OF that great
manthat great before his time that declaration
immortalized every subscribed to it, how much
more has it immortalized him who penned it,
The minds OF Jefferson, Pendleton, and Wythe-the
giant minds who seeming tyranny every breeze were
prompt to furnish fundamental remedy for each lurking
ev-were in that act of Virginia which established and
who had been placed in the government censor OF
the press had been obliged to leave the State These
three great employed to do work for which the
OF eminence of this daysuch men as in the
Senate of the United States muzze the press-woud en-
ploy hired clerks to do Yes, Thomas Jefferson Edmund
Pendleton, and George Wythe. while the former was
Governor OF Virginia and the two latter engaged in other
public employments, were employed as committee to
frame laws for the State One hundred and seventy six
bills principally drawn by the hand OF Mr. Jefferson him
self were at that time submitted for the adoption of the
legislature Among these bills was that adopted law
''fobidding the future importation OF slaves Yes, Viz
GINA herself, that early day, of her free will and
accord without the interference of mawkish northern
abotonss forever put end to that foreign traffic in
slaves which had been forced on her by the mother coun
try and carried mainly for the advantage of New
England traders in human lesh] OF these bills also,
the laws converting estates tail into fees simplean
nnhing the rights OF prmogeniture schools
for general education the right of expatria
ton, and confirming the rights of religious opinion.
And who, during the last. forty-fve years has
been the representative, the faithful echo of the
great apostle of the democracy in Virginia? Nay,
what editor in the Union has been as long and as
uniformly faithful to the democracy of Thomas Jeffer
owe to their champion Just such hostility as has been
shown the Senate of the United States and which of
the senators who have struck at him. high they may
be talents and elevated they may have heen before
the people, claim to be the superiors of Thomas
Ritchiethe who has fought the battles of democ
racy for fifty years. the scholar and the gentleman who
never believe, under all the exctements of party feel
ing, was even prosecuted for libel convicted and
punished for libel without the trial by ury, without the
privilege Oh fneelnS
ed and punished by who act at the same time
cusers judges, and executoners, in their The
stretch of power to compass the object OF such
geance would not be exceeded in kind, by fine, mprson-
ment, debt
The object avowed by some, and conceded by all,
not simply TO punish Thomas Ritchie-t was intended to
reach the President of the United Saiest in
tempt for the who had been placed in the highest Of
ice in the world by free people. If its object
deter the press from speaking freely OF the acts OF the
Senate what else could ii be Was Mr. Richie in the
altitude OF and dependant of the Senate to de-
the chlding OF party opposed TO the peoples
President Was he inferior TO the best man among
them, that he must be treated slave by his MASTER
This expulsion and disgrace is not the first that has
individuals, whose appear on the record now The
world does not know what know, who have been
member of that body. The world can know what
hbels upon character what false accusations and mpua
lions have been cast upon in that body under the
Injunction OF secrecy In my case the liberty OF the
Senate of the United States Eighteen years ago, with
out solicitation on my part, Andrew Jackson gave my
the Senate of the United States candidate for
Second Comptroller of the Treasury Department From
December to April that nomination lay that body If
seek for for rejection The reason was hunt
ed up, and found at length. There was the general OBJ
lection presented, that editor OF newspaper should
not have office but there another special objection
that pamphlet hbellous upon the character of female
had issued from press which belonged 10 me: Copies
OF this pamphlet were procured from my political enemies
New Hampshire, and laid upon the tables OF the
tors as evidence of my moral oblquity; and TO give
greater GIT to this urpltude reverend representative IN
the other House of Congress- there read extracts letting
fall, for effect the book, if the touch poll
luton TO his ermne of sanctity. This pamphlet was no
work OF my production. 1t only payment in kind of
one citizen of Massachusetts to another citizen of Massa