New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-19

XxlE OkA1Al4 SAS1AJOlZlN L
MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 10. 1853
THE STOLEN MESSAGE.
he New York and Boston papers, except til,
two favored journals in the former place and
the one in the latter, have set up an unanimous
out-cry ct the favoritism, or rather the permit
ted theft, BY which the late Message Of the Pres
idsnt got into the hands Of certain newspapers,
aas 70 give them TIE advantage Of all the rest.
It i clear that they have great reason to COM
plain. In the first place, the Cabinet which
thus lets ont IL own secrets, must be held to
answer fbr whatever disclosures occur. 1t is
per5sstly IN Ihsir power to hinder them: our
ample acquaintance with the proper and estab-
Hshed way Of printing such things in Washing
~ enables us to say how. In the first place,
The Message cannot Be divulged from the Cabi-
Mt ITSELF unless either BY the President, or one
q the seven Ministers, or the Presidents pri-
rate Seorstary. From the latter, it goes in
Ms into The hands Of the ofhcial printer. He
isplscsd under Oath not to divulge or permit to
BE- divulged what he has thus received in conf
dsnce. From him it passes to foreman and q
select set Of competitors, known to be perfectly
sobsr and trustworthy. All these, besides, act
under oath. But, further, the foreman himself
receives every copy Of the Message as fast as it
il printed. He is obliged to account for every
copy 50 Is every one that handles the docu-
ment. In short, it is in the official printer
power and it is his duty, to prevent all dis
closure. Outside Of his Office, there can be
none: for all packages sent to Post Masters for
delivery are under seal, and cannot be opened
except at specified time and before official wit
nesses. Thus any delinquency occurring could
almost infallibly be traced, and punished as
felony and . perjury besides that, If the cul-
prit were printer, he would forever forfeit all
employment. For such is the code Of the print
era. all over the United States.
From our knowledge of such things, we can
assure the public, that on an investigation (which
will now haze to be set on foot) the guilty
parties. in this case, will prove not to be prin-
fers The difficulty Of avoiding detection, the
severity Of the penalties incurred, the good
character which printer must have in order
to be employed on confidential work, and the
consequent inadequacy of such temptation as
could be held out, are all guarantees for the
good-faith Of the workman: who, besides, is, by
his very pursuit ITSELF especially at Washington,
trained to the feeling and the morals of this sort
Of obligation. Nome but the most worthless are
without them; and they could not break such
trusts, because they would not be put upon
them
We vindioate, then, without hesitation, the
printers Of washington-gener very repu-
tabls body of people--from all suspicion in this
disgraceful business. The prescriptions point
elsewhere, and so as will be seen in the letter Of
our Baltimore correspondent do very positive
allegations.
They openly aver Gas will be seen) that it is
through certain Mr.. Symington, the cores
pondent Of the four peculiarly favored journals,
that these have been put in possession of the
SUBSCRIPTIONS Message; and that he obtained it |
through Mr.. Attorney General Gushing, in re-
quittal Of praises bestowed on the aforesaid
Gushing Now. if all this be SO, we can only
say that the consideration thus paid by Mr..
Cushing, was not beyond the enormous effort
which it must have cost any mans conscience,
to praise him, Gushing.
1t is true that Mr.. Symington is the CORES |
pendent of some of these papers: he may be of
Ill. He is certainly not scrupulous one. |
This sort of commerce between heads of De- |
oartments and Washington letter writers has,
or some time, been very regular one the
Secretary putting the epistolist into possession
II important official secrets, which it was
hameful to disclose; and securing, in return,
he laudstions Of the newspaper thus illicitly
helped, to the injury of the public service
No man more capable than Caleb Cushing of |
Illus bribing or being bribed, at the sacrifice Of |
merely honor or duty. We make no vague a. |
everation but are warranted in what we say, |
~ long and exact personal knowledge Of his |
,nprincipled public career
We have shown why this pernicious trick, so
lisgraceful to the Government, is unlikely to |
ave been managed through the agency of any |
'rinter. 1t is, on the other hand, quite likely |
o have been done by some one connected with |
he Cabinet. For, in the first place, they were
'ound t. take care that nothing of this sort
appsned; secondly, they are known to be in
he practice of violating their duties of official
ecrecy, by furnishing information to newspa-
ers. in order to curry favor with them: thirdly,
hey are sworn to none of those oaths imposed
n printers fourthly, they are far from being
elected to handle confidential documents, as
he printers are, because they are honest men
fthly, they can do and have been doing, with
onstant impunity, those very things for which
poor printer, perhaps selling his soul to keep
large family from starving, would be branded
8 fsion and perjurer.
Nov, We say, as il becomes the Press to say,
Equal justice to all, high or low!'' Let the
N be rung through the land A fact most
Ggftious has been committed If left unpun
he'd, it will pass into regular practice, and
abinet Ministers will, from dealing with news
apers, proceed to more profitable transactions,
18th stockholders. No Government can be
filtered to do such things That Of Mr. Pierce
responsible for this business, no matter how il
lme about If it does not Voluntarily set on
'ot rigid investigation, it should be driven to
!, by one unanimous cutlery of all who do not ,
moose to see our Government turned into a fit
oject for universal contempt and derision-a /
tiful pilfering machine, whose highest state
'crets can be bought at wholesale of a Secre-
ary, to be afterwards hawked about the country 4
y retail II
.aJv.NEX.aTTON .M4DE Easy.