New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-05-18
IInyLs AND LIBRL-LAws.


the Fusitva Slave Law wherein he bore down rather
sharplv On Mr. George T. Curtis, an eminent Boston
LAWYER and leading champion Of said law-Ee believe,
the T. 6 Commissioner by whom il had been so strin
GENTLY enforced in Boston. The speech was widely
circulated and read without ecitIng any notice or at
least any action from Mr.. Curtis. AfterEard Mr. b.
r Mussey Boston bookseller, published an edition OF
Mr. M2nn Speeches, this one among the rest and now
Mr. Curtis commences action OF libel against-not
Mr. Mann, who Of any one) had wrong d him, but
Mr.. Mussey who, very likely. was ignorant that Mr.
Curtis was even mentioned in the volume Of Mann's
Speeches on which his name appeared as publisher
That case is still to be tried, with John p Hale and
Richard H. Dana Jr counsel for the defendant and
very probably Rufus Choate appearing for the plantih
We shall have eye the trial when 1t transpires,
and publish at least the verdict which we hope viii be in
accordance with justice
We have had considerable experience in libel suits,
and the more we see Of them the convinced
that they crafty great deal malice than they
punish A case may occur wherein an honest man may
be so injured and aggrieved BY defamatory publication
that be shall feel bound by regard for his and his
family's good name and standing to commence
ton for bel but in every such case bold it clear
that such man will be bring his suit against the
actual offender, if he can be dent6ed-the man who
meant to wrong hm-and no. against third party
though that party may also be kgally responsible and
pecuniary the more wealthy If he chooses for his tar
get some other than the actual conscious, intentional
lbeer be virtually confesses that his aim is something
else than downright justice
To illustrate more fully: The Tribune has now been
published something over twelve years during which it
has aimed TO be as outspOken and fearless Truth and
Duty demanded. II has lashed rascaty, stripped n.y.
pocrisy exposed baseness and reprehended vice with
timd or quavering voice Probably week has passed
in which hungry, INSCRIPTIONS, sharpnOsed lawyer
might OF have smet out the raw material for half a
dozen promising besuts in our Editorials alone. YET
Of the fifty or sixty besuts meantime brought agains.
US, we cannot recollect more than three that were
based on our own structures while nearly all have been
founded petty Police Report expression Of
correspondent which did prior to its publ
cation and in most the writers we're as ignorant
ofaDy intention of libel And though. in the
haste wherewh daily paper is necessarily made up,
we have often spoken precpitately and doubtless some
times uDustly, there has yet been verdict rem
dered against for any thing we have said in these
columns OF elsewhere. And the only considerable sum
ever screwed out Of us by libelsuit obtained in
case where the Persons aggrieyed after claiming and
using our columns repeatedly for the publication OF
their replies to their assailant made formal demand
for his name and then refused to receive IT, even
with guarantee Of the owners abundant response
blity, the pretense that it might not be that oil
sufficiently respectable personage-no one being qualified
for a ibeer, in their view, who did not move in the
very highest walks of society
Our present Legislature has done an act Of justice
for which it has hearty thanks in enscting that
newspapers shall be protected in publishing fair reports
of any public Judicial proceeding There ought not TO
have been any necessity for such act and would not if
common law and common sense had had fair play; but
of our City Judges lately fit TO decide that
journal publishing the naked fact that John Smith had
been arrested a charge Of arson burglary, must
stand ready TO prove not the fact which asserted, but
the actual guilt Of said Smith, which il imagined
nor ntimated Could any one but lawyer suppose
such decision possible in this age of cheap newspa
persl Has not every citizen legal right to know
what is taking place in our open Courts of Justice
And if he has positive right to attend the Court and
see who are arragned there and what charges why
has he not equal right to his time by paying
the journal he takes report the fac in brief and lay
them before himl Yet this is just what New-York
Judge about the middle of the Nineteenth Century de-
cides that subscribers may not employ us to do
that We can only do at the peril of being required to
prove every man guilty who Is accused or TO smart Tor
stating the naked fact that he has been arrested
charge of crime.
Judges a class, to have instructive desire
cripple and feter the Press They do adequately
realize that it is different instrument that ours
another age, and this different country from those
which furnish their precedens and them ounts
of wisdom. Popular enlightenment is not here regarded
as the bane Of Government and Order but the basis
and support of both. a. LET THERE BE LIGHT - the
Oldest recorded mandate reverberates through the
heavens oyerarcbing the homes Of Freedom to this hour
And when Judges shall have explained and frittered
away the enactment in favor of the Press have
only to appeal to the Legislature for another, which
instructed shall be by the latest Judicial subtle
ties, will be explicit and mandatory than the
last.
For want Of time the bill which tiuwphsay passed tie A.
smby has been acted by the Senate bat its passage
morally certain.