The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-10-24
An 1na.p.ndsn, Pres. Great Wan, of the

eminent ability-but they are nearly all |
the organs Of parties, sects Or cliques, /
whose business it is, too often, not to en-
tighten the human mind and iiberalize
the people, but rather to mislead the
Judgment of the community, and obtain
ver,iicts favorable to their clients. This
is well, as far as it goes. All those par
ties and men who come before the people
are entitled to wise and learned counsel,
who may set forth their own claims in
the most favorable light, and expose all
the errors and crimes of their opponents.
But something more than this Is needed
in the organization of the press as great
power in the country, or it will cause
confusion and error in the decisions of the
people to an incalculable extent. It is
high time that from among the long array
of attorneys and advocates, who are toll
ing and pleading before the great tribunal
of public opinion, in behalf of their friends
and clients, we should take out some
whose business it shall be to examine with
just discrimination and impartial criti-
cisn, not only the testimony of the wit
nesses but all the documents arranged and
pleas prepared by the learned counsel of
the contendiDg parties.
Unfortunately, it happens in the great
area of our civil policy, just as it does in
the more circumscribed limits of courts of
law, that devotion to private practice and
to the interest of influential and powerful
parties, generally presents stronger induce
ments to pride, ambition and pecuniary
gain, and is always attended with much
less toll and anxiety, than labor for the
public welfare, which last is often thank
less and pro6tless employment.
Hence it is that we find most, if not all,
the journals of the greatest influence, and
conducted with the most eminent ability,
throughout the country, strictly partizan
in their Misunderstanding forth in the
most glowing terms the Immaculate nature
of the principles they inculcate and the
men whose cause they espouse, and taking
the utmost care that no ray of light or
germ of knowledge, which will reveal
anything favorable to their antagonists,
shall come before the people; or if any,
thing of this kind should occur, in def
ance of their efforts, then they set them
selves eagerly at work to misrepresent
and pervert it all, so that it may not
benefit their opponents or injure their
| friends.
Whether there are really any import
ant questions, upon which men materially
differ, before the people, or not, there will
always be two great parties among us
! the 'outs" and the "inns," and any, even
the slightest difference in regard to meas
ures or men, will readily be magnified
into sufficient Importance to mark the line
of division; and the war will rage just as
fercely for the time being, as if the most
vital issues were embraced in the contro-
versy.
How rare it is for any political journal,
I to allow that there is the least degree OF
propriety, wisdom or honesty, in even a
single one of the measures of its political
opponents-or that any of the men who
advocate those measures are entitled to
respectful consideration-at least so long
as they live-though when death has re-
moved them out of their way, they may
then, perchance, join in their praise, as
lamented statesmen and patriots.
One instance of recent occurrence, in
which the censure applied has been thu:
sweeping and indiScriminate, we will cite
as an illustration of our position. Thi:
is the Fort Smelling land sale. OF all the
great numbers of Republican journal:
published throughout the Union, which
we have seen, only one, our neighbor o.
the Daily advertiser, has had the mag
nanimity to admit the propriety of thu
sale, while every other journal opposed
to the administration has denounced i
unqualifiedly as "swindle" and fraud
This is but one among several instances
which have come under our notice, where
if the administration has not meriteC
praise, it certainly has not deserved the
bitter and indiscriminate denunciatior
bestowed.
We might find instances in which tn,
Democratic journals have treated thei
opponents with equal unfairness, should
I'VE seek for them, but it is the faults O
our friends and those with whom we ar
associated, which we feel more anxious t,
see corrected than those of our opponents
for it is those very faults which most en-
danger valuable and permanent success.
1t Is carelessness or recklessness lik
this, which most Injuries the influence o
the press. How else ara we to accoun
for the fact that great and powerful as i
the influence of the press, in many othe
respects, throughout our country, it ha
for many years been comparatively feebl
in its political power.
1t is an indisputable fact, that in grea
majority of instances, our national an,
, State elections have been carried in oppo
| sition not only to the numerical, but t.
f the intellectual strength, also, of tn
press. 1t has been often thus in the grea
, cities and in the rural districts. Even il
, Massachusetts,, time after time, partie
t without presses enough at their eommant
to print their ballots; with one or tw
/ journals in Boston, and here and there
! few scattered through the State, have gon
into an election, frequently rising within
few thousands of their opponents, an,
: sometimes triumphing over them, thougl
the journals of their antagonists had
circulation ten or twenty fold the largest
, Now where shall we look for the cause
. of the small political influence of tn
Epress of the nation, compared with it
power on all other questions? Is it il
the incompetency of the journals, or il
the ignorance of the people, as some hav,
asserted? In neither, we think. Tn
: journals are confessedly conducted will
ability; and on looking back at the his
tory of the country, We are compelled Il
admit that we have been astonished t.
find how often time has proved that tn,
people judged rightly, and how few hav,
been the mistakes they have made, il
cases of great difficulty, and when tn,
wisest were in doubt Insomuch have W:
been convinced of this truth, that once
when we undertook to collate the history
of the numerous important political con.
troversies which had agitated the United
States. for the express purpose of showing
that the assertion ''the voice of the people
IS the voice of God" was little if any
better than blasphemy,--the result of our
investigations was such that we felt dis