Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-12-12
CoxESrs on ruE Presidents MESSAGE

our times, is the combined criticisms OF the
press on important public documents, and eS-
pecially, upon such document as the PreSi-
dents Message. 1t is all the more farce be-
cause it has the guise of being anything else
of being lugubrious solemnity. In what we
say, we don't mean to arraign, especially the
motives of our brethren of the quill-to make
thetn either better or worse than the common
run of mankind-but simply use them as ex-
emplars, with whom to point common falling
of US all.
Wehave, then, been amused beyond express
sion with the comments Of the press upon the
late Message, and as We said, ready to aver
that to us they are decidedly the most iaugha-
bly, ridiculous affairs of the season. Our en-
tire exchange list, as yet observed by us, is one
wide field for merrimcnt, and after meTriment,
if not before it, and in place of it, for sober re-
Election. One can quite readily imagine how it
might be that the journals ofthe country should
be divided in their opinions concerning the
public men of the nation-so little do the jour
nails, as a general thing, know Of the men aside
from their speeches in the Senate, the House,
or on the hastings, or their occasional tracts or
letters One can, we say, by Stretch Of his
imagination, see how such controversy might
e1ist-aithough an adept in the ways of the
world would still have an opinion of his own
about these personal attacks or indications
But in the matter Of document like the Mess
age lies stumbling block, which it would be
hard even for the acknowledged acumen of a
Philadelphia lawyer, to remOve-and that is,
how it comes, upon any reasonable or fair prin-
-aAV hava
ty-fye OF may be full hundred opinions about
the moral and mental calibre OF the said docu-
ment All over the country the rules and can
mons ofphilolOgy are essentially the same True,
we have our provincialisms aud our Provincialex-
poundinss and understandings of some particular
words Tor phrases, but these, and especially
among educated men, do not enter into the con-
struction of even good sized paragraph, much
less of a document several columns in length
The fault is not incur mother tongue, else, from
being the philosophical and beautiful creation
which it has been adjudged to be, it is the most
unmitigated of humbugs. The fault does not
lie in the capacities, natural or acquired, of the
journalists of the country, else Bedlam Is
Plato's garden, compared with their aggregated
acouirements Where, then, does the fault lie,
and how, or rather why come these strange,
these passngly strange cOutrarities and dis
crepancics in these formally expressed opinions
upon document like the Presidents Message!
Journalist A, after mature deliberation, pro-
nounces the message as a whole, but very indif-
ferent, and in some of its parts surprisingly
wanting. Journalist B, after likewise linking
his pen and lingering his scalp very many times,
g IT,, -
ographer the document, from iFst to last. "a
string 81 pearls" and worthy OF all aeeePtation
Journalists C and D, cut and come again upon
choice extracts, like the LecOmpton Constitution,
our Spanish relations, or the advice touching
our financial embarrassmentS. Every part and
parcel of the publication is showed up and
showed o., in all the phases ofdexterOus jugglery.
4 man who takes half dozen papers, as most
we'll informed men do has at one sitting, per-
haps, six several opinions, either in whole or
in part, laid at the bar of his judgement. The
man who has leisure and balance and cultiva-
ton of brain to weigh .and analyze these opin-
ions, is all tho better it may be, of the cross
fire: but who shall answer as to what is the
effect, ultimately upon Jones or johnson, who
take but one paper, the whole drift and teach
ing Of which is to learn them that their neigh
bors, Smith and Brown, are ignorant enough
and sOft enough to believe another, and false
doctrine. Allowing that there is no, what We
callmoral perversiOn, as a result, certainly there
is both expenditure of money and time to be
reckoned up.
Tho question, then, naturally comes agaiu to
us, why is this so? Weconfess ourselves at =
loss for what might be called an elaborate an
swer. weeOuld very briefly, and to ourselves,
very satisfactorily answer, that it was reckless
and selfish PArtisanship. But this is but the
mere head under which is cOmprehended the
entire ends and aims of partisanship: under
which must needs come the application of
that old and quaint question of the Latins, viz.
..Cui 6oao'" or, for what good.
The other day We saw it noticed, that in all
probability there would be DougiaSite organ
established in Washington City. For WHAT
Why, to look after and advocate the claims of
Mr.. Douglas, as it is generally understood, to
the Presidency. Last spring Senator Hunter,
30 goes the belief established or helped to cs-
t,blish an organ At Richmond To be brief