The north Iowa times. [volume] (M'Gregor [i.e. McGregor], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-12-26
ERRORS OF TIE PRESS.

canvass, it is not an uncommon thing for party
While the election is pending and votes can be
changed by encouraging reports of prospects, il is
two common a practice, to indulge in the most ri
iiculous prophecy, and appeals are made to pre-
tended facts as basis for the predictions, when
the facts are call in your eye' Bad as this prac-
tice il, and much as it has affected the general repu
tation of the press it is usually paroned in circles
where the statements are known to be false, on the
ground that "all is fair in wars
We do not quite subscribe TO this sentiment, but |
while insisting that Editor should regard the
reputation of his paper as carefully as he would
his own character, and that the one should be as
well established and reliable as the other we do
not understand his duty publisher, requires an
indiscriminate insertion of whatever may be ad-
vanced as truth by an opponent That mode Of
getting up character for fairness is one that we
have no great traste for, and SO long as our judg
ment remains, we propose to investigate reports
with what skill we can, before we publish them, let
them come from what quarter they may. In par
ty warfare an exchange may make statement
that is not as clear as you would wish it. but if its
publication will be advantageous in the fight. you
do not require so great testimony to convince you
of its truth, as you would if the statement were
having an injurious effect upon those principles
which you esteem essential to the well being Of
society and the permancncc of your govern
ment. .. ....
We know, that weighing evidence by your in
terest, is subject to the criticism of the moralist
but we are dealing with human nature as it is, and
the recognition of mans weakness in this respect
is so universal, that no Court will permit citizen,
however iweproachable his character, to occupy
| the Jury box on case where his interests or his
feelings are involved. That admirable expression
of the great Delineator "The Wish is father to
the Thought is as true of the human nature of
to-day, as it was in the time ofShakspeare. A man
nciines to the belief of that which he wishes were
true, and it takes less testimony to satisfy him OF
the correctness of favorable news than it does to
convince him Of that which produces unpleasant
ness. This arises from the hopeful nature of man,
and it can not be got out Of him, until death Or
despair (Which is but Hcing DEATH takes possess,
ion of him. Hence, when an Editor sees the tri-
uInph of his party an event which is morally GER
tain to come round or when his vision is closed to
the more glaring faults of political friend, and
excessively awake to the trihing errors of an OPP.
ponent he is not always chargeable with falsehood
or vindictiyeness: he only follows the rule that
runs through all social, moral and religious life.
To some extent then, sail is fair in war;" Bu
when the battle has transpired and the victory i:
lost and won, there can be no motive for longer
indulgence in that amiable and natural weakness:
which extreme desire for success and earnest con
viction of being right in principle, may have promp
ted. To state things as facts when the absolute
reality may have been so enveloped in smoke &.
to be difficult of discovery and where guess il
your favor may have been quite as likely to prove
} true, and much more agreeable, than guess OF
the other side, is parlonable ;but when the smoke
clears up, and all these matters of dispute become
demonstrabe truths-when the facts for which al
have been seeking, stand out plain and palpable
supported by the incontestable testimony of Arith
J, metical exactness the man who would mis- state o.
\
ses to be merely bad guesscr, Or an enthusiastic
partizan. He would entitled to the appellatioI
of knace, if his dishonesty were not so Transparent
and easily exploded by the commonest observer
The only name left for him is Ninny!
Il We have been led to these remarks from hav
ing observed in several of our Exchanges state
ments now known by the writers to be false, O
their skill in figures must be lamenably trihing.-
One paper says: "Wc are defeated through tn
intervention of Electors, but the People witt
: US" Another very eomplacently informs its rea
} ders that ''Col. Fremont has Eighty Thousan
majority of the popular vote - Another say
'sMr. Buchanan is in minority in every Northern
State" These are only few of the errors e
that are observable, but they enough to estab
lish character. We do not insist that Democrats
Editors are exempt from the charge of misrepre
sentaton. We believe that men are much alih
! under the same circumstances, but we have neye
yet discovered in Democratic paper such groS
perverson of known facts as is containedi in ethe
, of the extracts referred to- Sensible men, to So
nothing of honorable ones, will not exhibit sue
VI do w iSis'e VII
public with faacies and falsehoods so easily ref
ted as to render him who afterwards relates theI
I candidate for Pity or Contempt Democracy
not perfect, BUTTERFLIES too firmly upon the gener.
q good sense of the people to indulge in such III
t mathematical errors as, that $50 GOO Gin roun
] numbcrs) will balance 1,150, 900 aad have 5000
to spare When Democracy leaves the plattorl
: of Reliance upon popular Judgment erected by
4 Jefferson, Henry, and Madison, so far as to as
its credence to Grithmetical mpossijIHies we sha
e Immediately ask for ticket OF leave. We kno
that the opposition regarded the people as incap
u BILE of forming State Government to suit then
selves, but we were not prepared to see them su
e pected of being unacquainted with the Rules
: Simple Addition and Subtraction!
81 g.
Romantic
Boston, the City of Notions, has recently bee
n the scene of the following play:
8 A Merchant of Baltimore on his way to the 70
ssc,v ar Ic, Surf