The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1855-06-06
MISCELLANEOUS.
FrorL the Home Journal.
White House Honor due the Press.

II President Pierce and his lady were
to invite the "leading Editors" to the White
House, anil, in presence of the Cabinet
and Foreign Ministers, kneel and tie a gar
ter upon their several legs, it wouI be n
corresponding act-as to personages time,
~ Proprlcty and rcasons-to the ccrcmo
ny recently performed ON Louis Napo,
Icons left leg, by Queen Victoria and
Prince Albcri.*
The comforting Of the Order Of the Gar
ter, Is, in other words, tue recognition o;t
ne~ and increasing consequence. Tmr
lREss, just now being recognised us the
Power to be done honor to, rs England is
doing honor to France, might properly re.
ceive is decoration on the left legs of scv
eral of our brother Editors.
We have been struck with three sim
ultaneous and very far,apart recognitions
of the growing ascendancy Of the Press
one from the Gulf of Mexico, one from AL.
bany, and the third from the British
House Of Parliament. One Of the fine
generalizing articles Of the Southern Times
(the paper just started by some able wri.
tiers, in AIabama,) thus opens a leader,
with the heading, "WnEnE is OUR nEsr
MIND =
1t is cert tlinly not in politics There
can be but one opinion on this point. Par
ties, whatever be their names, principles
and objects, have'so far perfected their
machinery AS to dispense with the service
Of their ablest men. Talent is not so ne
~ H..
cause shrewdness has taken the place of
craftsmanship, and management has sup
planted genius. There is yet another
reason. IVdilability has become a DO
tent watchword. The test of availability
is in what mans relations to the public
are-not what lie is in mini, character
and fitness for office. Availability is
transfer Of the maxim a thing is portA
,0hat IL giH bring" into political ethics.
II Is grand financicr, competent to do mn
Overwhelming business on small capital.
II values man precisely as we value a
horse-for the load he can draw after him.
But there are other reasons for tho de-
cline Of Statesmanship. The American
People are beginning to cherish an idea,
that there is a self-working power in their
institutions, and that government will take
care Of itself. Then, too, newspapers are
discharging some Of the former Offices OF
statesmen. EDrToRs are the GREAT con-
DRESS OF oURLASD, and the advisory out
side cabinet Of Presidents"
And thus discourses, TO the same mus
ic, the able editor Of tie Albany Argus:
In the United States there is not a
more faithful guardian of public interests
than the public journals; and much RS is
the freedom Of the press abused in our
country by libellous and unprincipled
sheets, yet it were better that such an Q
vii should be tolerated than that the free
dom OF the press should be destroJ Jed-foE
though there are many libellous and un-
principled journals extant, yet their iniiu.
enco IS small. In England The aeps:a.
pers wieid'a powerfal influence, but IL is a
secondary one. Parliament---not public
journals--governs public sentiment.
Fifteen or twenty years ago, Congress
ruled public opinion. With such men az
Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Wright, and a