The weekly independent. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss) 1848-1853, 1849-12-01
The claims Of Society.

ueHlnatlou OIL FiuldtloiiS Oh Pupiic Pcdcc anu
personal security. In reply to such cen
sures, we stated what we believed to be the
duty of free press : viz. that its allegiance
was due to society and not to Individuals
to good order and not to lawlessness or pas
son--that it should reprobate scenes of VIC
lence, and never stand as neutral between
society and crime.
The late terrible catastrophe at New Or
leans, which suddenly sent nearly two
hundred felow.mortals to their long ac-
count, has called forth from the press gem
orally animalversions, compared with
which the language of the Independent
first referred to was faint indeed. We
would that the counsel who in their zeal
for a client commented so graphically upon
our misdoin gs-who asserted that it was
so unhearl-of thing to speak of matters
of that kind before they were judicially in
vestigatcd, we would that they would
notice that the independent did but what
the press at large-the free press-conceive
to be one of their highest and most impera-
tive duties.
In the annexed extract from the Mem
phis Eagle, there are many thoughts well,
cogently and truthluIly expressed in rela-
ton TO the claims Of Society upon the press,
and ''thc duty of the journalist to act, al
ways with due respect to his own consci-
cntious convictions, as the organ Of public
sentiment, and to assist with the modesty
of suggestive thought, in the formation of
that sentiment"
Perhaps it may be thought that the Ea-
gle speaks too harshly, but when ii is re-
membered that on the western rivers alone,
it has been computed that 400 persons
annually fall victims to steamboat casual
ties, it will be seen that sympathy for own
ers and officers of these boats must be mer-
eed in that of the unnumbered hundreds,
whose hearts are lacerated, and whose fam
lily affairs are hung with mourning for
friends and relatives hurried to untinely
graves. poCIctJ Has SloitilS Pcflot W tlosC
of any individual; it has rights, the viola
ton of which should not be countenanced !:
else, false sympathy for one may oblige us
afterwards to sympathse with hundreds
By the side of society must the press stand;
as chronicler of passing events, to inform
anu 10 Instruct; us oil or9a'' ol Puolic SELL
timent to assist in its formation, and to di-
rect it prudeutly and wisely; and in the
nursu;t Of its h;gb ends and loGv asp;ra-
i.N' ss..a,Ia . d. .,.i.
'iohs' ~ DC aileil"olo " ''o coun''y' u
GoD and truth.
'We know, too that public suspicion rests,
and the hand of the law lies. upon those
on whom these remarks will seem to press
harshlv. But societv is abore the indiuidual.
and in these cataarophes, under ana and oH
circumstances, it suffers more than the res
ponsible survivors, We sympathise wiM So
ctetu chiefv: ce first vi,,dtcate its rights
| Those rights are not always properly res
pected upon our western waters they are
wantonlv triaed with and it is time that
life and property should be indicated in
their rioht to safety, and that undue sym
|
the stern execution of Justice for society.
And in this instance the fearful disaster
of the iIl-starreI Louisiana, society should
stand shoulder to shoulder with the law,
for justce-if the officers of the boat are
guilty, for the full penalty of blood. We
mean what we say. every word of it.
They may be respectable men. men of
means. men with families who will appeal
in their behalf to public sympathy; but if
they are guilty we say-Let them paw the
full penalty of blood: Societu is uboye the
individual, socistu is greater than the fumi-
H. has more at risk. and must be stern in ius-
ticc. Here was boat with old and crazy
machinery: she has exploded. and two
hundred souls have passed from earth
This dav there's lamentation mon MANY n
lin, and darkness has settled upou MANY a
household hearth. Kindly ties of nature
and affection have been rudely snapt asul-
der. leaving manv a heart nl,iyerinr in
fresh arony. In how many sous has this
fearful CASUALLY opened the well of bitter
sorrows and what in time shall for many.
close if nm aoainq To how many has #
brouoht derivation Of nresent comfort and
\ dreorv rrpsnect If future wnnta We cav
then. t6at if the officers Of the Lonsiana
he oniItv If this fearful loss of life IN ,hcir
hen1s soc;etv demands rs a warn;no the
FIJI nenaItv IF the law Thev cannot re.
store the nast--they cannot repair their er-
ror-thev canpnt brinr hack to lifo tho
Evsn ~ we win bells arc sols,nn,v toll;n 81
and drums beating the funeral march to
| the grave Tor two, who but Il lew days since