Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-03-30
n NASHVILLE:
MONDAY, MARCH 80. 1867.
Freedom of SPeech-Tbe independence
- nf The Press.

Freedom OF FRoFCH-A 80 AaA0N p AHN~~'~
Of the Press.
The free and untrameled right to utter
and print our thoughts and opinions, has
never been regarded in this country, as one
Of the most invaluable rights of the citizen,
as well as one of the most powerful safe
guards of national liberty. Any attempt
to abridge or stihe this right is Justly liable
to censure; it is an attack upon that class
of rights which we hold as nalienable. So
well and thoroughly has this been under
stood and recognized, that the trainers Of
our Federal and State constitutions, placed
it side by side in importance with the rights
Of haJs7s corpus and trial by jury. Like all
our rights Of every description, it is liable
to abuse, but this does not make it any the
less sacred. Among those subjects in re
ference to which this right is especially and
expressly guaranteed, is that of the inves-
tigation Of the conduct Of public officials.
The reasons for this care and jealousy in
the preservation of the freedom of speech
aud of the press, are so patent that it is
scarcely necessary to make it a subject for
dispute or argument. As much as it con-
Germs each person in the community indi-
vidually, it concerns him infinitely more
that it should be preserved, when consider
ed in his relations to society and govern
ment If the time shall ever come in the
history Of this Republic, when the finger of
an official shall be placed upon the mouth
Of the citizen, and free press shall be ST.
fenced at the nod of the potentate, it will
have lost its character as free country and
will take its place among the absolute des-
potisms. Much harm may be done by We
mai and unprincipled press-such is the
case, even, at this moment in some parts
of the country-but it must be met and
counteracted by press equally free, and
devoted to truth and the general interests
of mankind.
These remarks have been elected by a
recent occurrence in our sister city of Mem
phiS. A few days since a communication
appeared in the columns of the Eagle q
Enquirer, Of that city signed, we believe,
A Citizen" The article referred to the
fact of the numerous scenes of blood which
have been enacted in that place, within a
few months past, and to the facility with
which the guilty parties eluded punishment
There were no direct imputations cast upon
any of the judicial fuHctionaries, nor upon
any other persons. 1t simply deprecated
the state of things which unfortunately ex.
isted. For this the judge of the Criminal
Court of Memphis, ordered the grand jury
to return bill of Indictment against the
editors of the Eagle 4. Enquirer, for H5d
If this be the law of the land or the
law of libel, we confess we hBve Who'll
ly mistaken the purport of the phrase.
freedom Of the press" And if it be
true, the conductors of the press here
and elsewhere, had as well prepare to wind
up their affairs, for their occupations gone
1t is to be hoped that the press will never
submit to a deprivation of its dearest rights
that while it maintains its independence,
it viii also sustain its dignity-always ready
to defend the right, and thus attain one OF
the greatest ends of its existence.