The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1849-03-20
SPEECH OF NRES. ALLEN,
In Senate ofMe United States January "a
lS49-On The Post Office Bill.

heh vi WIS country KNOW sOmeinlnS aDOui
the public p,ess; and as we are more ap; TO
remember wrongs than favors, almost all
public men remember that the press has
been the vehicle of malice and of injustice
toward them; and without looking to the
other side of the question, and contempla-
ting the amount Of benefits that they have
derived from the press, they are very apt TO
say in their souls, especially when they read
"a scorching article on themselves, "better
would 1t be if there were no newspapers
lin the country" But, sir, am far from en-
kertaining this opinion. And | say now,
nSpon my responsibility 10 reason and 10
trdtn, Mat SO far from considering the pub
lie press of this country as an evil, do not
believe it would be possible to maintain
public liberty without i'll mean TO main
tain public liberty as we have it secured by
a written constitution, under a representa-
tive system, extending far and wide over
our immense country. In such a state of
things, without this medium of communica-
tion between the people themselves, and be-
tween the people and the government, and
between the people and the funclionaries Of
the government, it wonld be utterly impos-
sible for the people 10 exercise that supervi-
sion and control over public measures and
public men which is necessary for the sup
port Of public freedom.
Sir, II has been the custom Of our youth,
in our schoolhouses. TO hear much about the
liberties of Greece and Rome, and therefore
any reference 10 them becomes in after life
rather stale and commonplace. 1t is not
my habit TO indulge in such reference; but
on this occasion shall, but only for the pur'
pose ofsustaining my position-that without
the public press, and free one, too-pub-
lie liberty could not be established or sus-
tanned over large country by any human
means. In such country, with wide
spread population, it would, in the nature of
things, be utterly impossible iOr ine people
all to convene in mass and exercise directly
The law making power, or 10 act in ills par
ucular otherwise than indirectly through the
representative system. Equally impossible
would it be for them 10 secure their liber-
ties against corruption, perfdy, and ambition,
if when their representatives TO whom they
had delega ed power were assembled at a
distance, there were 10 medium through
which they and the whole of them might
learn what was said and done in their name.
Without such a medium-such one as the
press atfords-men, in order to be free, must
conCentrats upon u single polnt-a point so
small as 10 enable them 10 act directly and
in mass without the Intervention of repre-
sen,alives. They must come within hearing
distance of each other, and Of the public
authority; because without such a medium
they cannot speak to the eye afar off. Hence
those republics of antiquity, whilst they en-
joyed any liberty al ali, were but the govern
ments of cities, where the concentrated
people acted directly and in mass, and, as
such, constituted all absolute democracy
Such thing, therefore, as free and inde-
pendent yeomanry-a free, voting, country
population Of farmers, residing ON their own
lands, far away from cities, and yet cxerci-
sing The political ights Of freemen-did not.
and could not, exist in either Greece or
Italy, To be freemen, it was necessary TO
reside where alone it was possible TO exer-
else the rights of lreemen, and that was
alone in the capital or other cities For
that reason the SOL was cultiva ed by men
whe we're not free, for the benefit Of men
who were, and the latter of whom preferred
a residence in the city, with the rights OF
citizen, to residence upon farm with no
rights at all. Hence il was that that very
description of population-frce and nde-
pendent larmers-upon whose character,
whose habits, stability, integrity, and intelli-
uence, public liberty can most securely re-
pose did not exist in those republics; be-
cause they could not, for the want ofa sutti-
cient medium through which to c)mmunl-
cate with each other, and all With the CEN
,ral power. And hence, also, it was that,
for the want Of this description of popula-
ton, the cities became the sole seat OF pow
er, and their governments nothing but mum
icipal regulations.
This proposition, then, while it proposes
absolutely to diminish TO the extent Of four
hundred thousand dollars this tax, or privi-
lege as it is called, has this further conse-
ouence in tit will tend 10 establish and
build up, by indirect encouragement, local
presses at points where there are no presses
now; and every local press that is cstab-
lshed diminislies the danger that now exists
in France-of putting The whole mass oI
r the public mind under the direction and con-
,rol Of great central press, as in Paris II
locazes power in every locality in the re-
, public. 1t enables the people in every To-
cai,y, even to the remotest parts Of our vii
; derncss territories, TO participate in the ac.
,, ton of the government, as directly ami ef'
: fectually as if they lived in any one of the
great cities OF the republic. + know, as
have before said, that those who have been
wounded by the press very naturally com
; plain those who have been benefited by