New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-24


made Use Of n their self-inaicted Pensnce.
The personalities Of the press and the person
aties Of debate sre the theme OF many structures
ard the full Fowl source Of foods Of twsddie.
This newspaper has been accused by its enemies Of
dea,irg in personalities We cannot deny the i'm.
peactuer. in its general meaning, for il ' mpOssi-
bic 10 treat Of men or Of Affairs without them But
We ,bink We have never yet had a chsrge OF i'm
proper personality made out against u.s. For OBJ
serve, there is such thing as personality
snd We trust there can be found 10 one more resdy
to copdemn and discoultenance practice Of such
than We. But, on the other hand there is such a
thing as proper ard legitimate personality, and the
Of this weapon, justly, censcentiously fairy,
fesrlessy, is a main duty of every journalist, of
every public AID Of every private man. For what
is it but criticism and comment on passing history
ard the actors in il Facts imply agents who
deal with them. Events imply actors who have
helped brig them about, or who have withstoOd
them. How can history be written unless the
characters that have made it are discussed Aud
what is that but personality A newspaper is the
history Of the past day. L has to deal with the
fscts of that history and with the men that shaped
those facts. The motives, purposes and passions,
good or bad that caused the men to make the facts,
are all legitimate subjects Of opinion, of speculation
Of comment, Of condemnation, or oil Prase' ana
this is and must be personal. Personality IS an IN
eyitabe attendant on the expression of opinion BY
speech or pen. And what is inevitable, in the ns-
ture of things, msst be right within its proper
limits.
AID what are the limits that separate rightful
from wrongful personality They seem to US to
be broadly and distinctly defined. They are as
marked as the line that separates public from pri-
vste life In fact that is the very line that parts
the two. Whenever man becomes Public Man,
by act by speech or by publication his public acts
bis spoken and bis printed words, become public
property. Every other man is at liberty to con-
ment upon them, on their substance, their form,
their surroundings. Whatever Of these things can
be used to illustrate their true nature and the char
acier Of the man whom they express, it is right,
because it is necessary, to employ for that purpose
II the facts with which the man is Concerned be
great public crimes, it is right and necessary to
argue from the fruit to the tree aud to pronounce
the one evil because of the i'll nature of the other
If the substance or the form of the evil shiog be
capable of such treatment, Sarcasm, irony raillery
rdcule in all its forms may be justly used and no
blame incurred. So if the thing said or done be
simply absurd, Il may be riehtfully shown to be
such by any one iesirous and capable of go doing
And this may be done in debate or by public speech
as well as by the conductors of the press. And
what more than this did Mr.. Sumner do in his
speech Whist was ,ad and done publicly BY But
Ter or Mason, or any OF the rest of them, WAS pub
lie property, the substance and the manners and he
had Just as much right to make such use Of either
as suited bis purposes, as the historian or the
rhetoricisn of thousand years hence suppo,ing
their memory had not rotted long before.
1t is when personality passes the boundary be-
tween public and private Life that it becomes base,
criminal and cruel. If a journalist or a speaker
sink into the house of the man whom he would
defeat and expose, and spy out bis private mistor-
tunes weaknesses, or even vices, and make use OF
them to break down bis influence and destroy his
character the act is crime and deserves whatever
amount of denunciatiOn may be poured out upon it.
Still more if he attack innocent members of his
family and aim bis shafts at his heart through theirs
Most of ALL if b. forge and fabrcste alseh0Ods con-
corning him and those dearest TO him. for whatever
Interior ends. Such falsehoOds as were coined and
circulated by Mr. Tomb, and The E1prtss about
COL Fremont and his family, to say nothing Of those
about his religion, are examples Of what We mean
that are fresh in every mans memory. This, then is
tte test to distinguish just and necessary personality
from the wrongful aud vicious If what ID said
relate only to what public man has said or done
as such, if it touch only bis public acts, his public
speeches. his published words, and things necessarily
pertaining to them then neither the public nor the
individual has ny right to complain Of anything
that is said as being personally offensive. The one
or the other may not like what is said to its taste
and may demur as to its justice. Those qualities
are open to comment 10 criticism and to refutatiOn.
But no freedom of remark which confines Itself TO
the character of public action, or 10 the logic, or
the rhetoric, or the delivery of printed or spoken
article or discourse, and 10 the quality of the char
icter or talents that produced them, is justly OBJ
no1ious to the blame of improper personality. Not
so when the privacy Of life is invaded, and
poison sought there in which to dip the arrows Of
political strife Such combatants should be secuted
from the field of fair and civilized warfare. The
distinction is plain as way to parish church. If
worthy people would only take pains to notice it,
there would be much less twadde talked than there
is now