Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-03-19
THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

Our readers will remember the issue made
some time since between Dr.. Gibbes editor Of the
South CmolInian, and +. J. Arthur, Mayor Of Co.
lumbia, rs to the right of attending and report
ing the proceedings of the public meetings of the
City Council. Dr.. Gibbes was elected by the or
sauA and Battery Vi ct arms," in order to try the
issue. The case was tried last week before Judge
Withers, and averdct was given against the May.
or and likewise against the officer who executed
his orders We give short extract from the
charge of His Honor to the jury, in which the
Freedom of the Press is pointedly and ably vim
dicated:-
''It is matter of common right in every corpo-
rator to attend public meeting of the local leg
islature of the city of Columbia" cit is
matter Of common right, in every species of our
elective representative governments, that the vo-
ter shall be allowed, upon condition of good be-
havior in his demeanor, to hear the public de-
bates and witness the public proceedings Of his
representatives engaged in public trusts.
'To exclude reporter and to exclude o corpo-
rator is not one and the same thing. To eject
corporator from public meeting merely because
it is suspected, or avowed by him, that he means
to publish report of its proceedings, is not law
f&l Yet if such corporator has shown by previ-
US conduct that he caumliates, asperses, or mis-
represents the Council, and mislesds the people,
their constituency, it would present question Of
some difficulty to say whether he might not, or
ought not, to be excluded. 1t is not this case,
upon the evidence, and need not be decided. Any
corporator who attends may give unfair or false
al 70 of nd
between him and the owner of paper is only
that the latter may give his account wider scope
and more permanent from. But if under guise
of the Liberty of the Press, a common calumniator
seeks in character of corporator to malign mali
ciously and to misrepresent fraudulently the acts
and debates of public body of any sort, it would
be difficult for him, if that fact were made to ap-
pear, to show right to damages, if he be foiled
in such q purpose. To assume beforehand that
this will be done, however, would amount to o
censorship over speech or the press.
"Without some legal and satisfactory reason
adduced to the contrary, DR.. Gibbes had o right
to publish true account Of the public proceed
ings."
This decision is highly gratifying to us on two
accounts. 1t will have tendency to restrain the
encroachments on the Liberty of the Press, which
have for sometime been gaining ground in this
''land of the free" Private individuals, to graft
fly personal pique and obtain momentary re-
venge seek to trammel the rights of the press and
place the incubus of on oppressive precedent upon
the shoulders of posterity. Every such attempt
should be viglantly resisted; for, the surest pre-
lude to abject slavery and national degradation, is
alegalized infringement on the freedom of opinion
and censorious espionage over the right of pub
lication.
In the second place, it is highly gratifying, that
DR.. Gibbes has come off conqueror; inasmuch as
he nobly bore the brunt Of a contest in which the
press at large is incidentally though vitality con-
cerned. His bold and manly bearing, resulting in
such signal vindication of right, cannot be too
highly commended.