Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1855-08-17

WHO is RESPONSIBLE The newspapers of the
country are discussing the question who is response
ole or the late disgracefu riot at Louisville and de-
eide the point according to their partisan sympathes
without much regard to the facts. The responsibility
OF the scandaous outbreak against the laws rests with
the authorities OF Louisville who will find difcnIt 10
clear their skirts OF shameful neglect of duty and TO.
tai unftness for the position they hold If was their
business 10 preserve the public peace and to use eve
ry police and other orce necessary to accomnish this
purpose The imbeclity and unfaithfulness of these
guardians" have brought disgrace upon the city and
dlsrcspect and out rage to the laws
But if the Louisville authorities are RESPONSIBLE for
the dsgTacetul scenes enacted, the newspapers are
not without their share of the blame It was their
partisan violence and vituperaon as has been shown
oy their own admissions, their appeals to angry pas
SONS ana their Misrepresentation which daily in
named the popular mind till il only needed shark
to set the community in a blaze And this brings us
to the consideration whether the leading journals of
this country do not generally grossly violate their
duly IN administering unnecessarily 10 violent excite
mens during period of popular commotion The
duty OF public journal is to state facts as near the
truth as those facts can he reached to discuss the
principles connected with facts calmly temperateIv
and as inteiigently as its conductors are capable of
doing But, instead of that course we find newspa-
pers making themselves partiZans to every public
question that arises, discussing it with onesided zeal
presenting only such facts as favor their own views
OF dsparagng testimony adverse 10 their own reason
ing.
The object seems to be, not 10 establish truth but
to gain partisan victory Hence, we see one set of
newspapers denouncing the highest legal authority
IN the land, because the latter puts a construction
upon the laws consistent with the Interpretation and
decisions OF courts for years, which the halfinfom
ed and heated brain of the editorial urst is not able
TO comprehend or willing 10 acknowledge We see
another set recommending resistance to law, which
the popular majority has enacted, and in consttu-
tonal way and another set encouraging the placing
OF .lmpedments in the way of the execution of le-
gal enactment, which they had not the popular ma
! jority to defeat.
In others see the vulg gar and indecent abuse of
mans religion his birth place, if man, if he
had the choice, would not be born the most favor
ed spot on the GLOBE and if any one had the right
TO dictate to another by what religious forms an in
dlVldual should acknowledge his accountability to
his Creator. In nearly all see bitterness, malice,
| hostility and misrepresentation disposition set
man against man and community against communi,
ty in scarcely any calm, dspasslonate discussion
of principles, looking only to the establishment OF
truth, the good of society, the public peace and the
prosperity of the country Partisan fury is an evil
which the public should guard against. for its results
lead too often to deplorabe mischief. Hence the
newspapers which pander continually to the angry
passions which excite it, and daily denounce their
fellow citizens in language unfit for taverns do
ing infinite mischief to society, and are creating a
state of feeling which must necessarily end in tumut
violence and bIoodshed. -Phildda. Ledger.