The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-09-30
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 80. 1858.

TuITRSDAY, SEPTEMBER 80, 1858.
Americans are emphatcally a newspaper-reading
reople In this country, everybody reads the pa
nars and many read little besides. They furnish
the merchant and the financier with the facts and
6oures by which they are guided in the transaction
Of their business the politician with the data by
which the movements and calculations of parties
are controlled society with the staple of its daily
thought and talk and the world at large and pos
terity after u.s. with the materials out of which |
public opinion is formed and history is written. |
We say this, not out of any disposition to magnify
our office, to exaggerate the Importance of the
profession to which we belong. Ever since Mr..
BURKE spoke of the Press as the ''fourth estate"
and numbered itwith King Lords and Commons,
as one of the ruling Powers of the realm, it
has been the custom of popular orators, both |
in England and America, to do homage to
our craft. 1t is not however upon such vague and
underlined admiration as this, which finds its APP
proprate expression in complimentary toasts and
laudatory speeches, that we would rest the claim
of the Press to be ranked among the Great Powers
of the world 1t is upon the commanding and
controlling influence which it exerts over the daily
lives and actions of men-over matters alike of
public interest and private right-over the desti-
MES of nations and the happiness of individuals
Chronicling day by day, the fluctuations of trade
and of politics. the rise and fall of stocks and gov
ernments the last revolution and the latest fashion
in IN bonnst the power of the Press considered only
mense. 1t is immeasurably greater as the organ of
opinions and the exponent of principles. Thence
arises the true necessity for an honest and indie
pendent Press and the real evil to be apprehended
from a corrupt or slavish one Whatever tempta-
ton or DISPOSITION dishonest journalist may have
to disseminate false intelligence, the certainty of
detection and the fear of exposure, will ordinarily
suffice to deter him from the experiment. No SIM
liar guaranty exists against the circulation of
erroneous opinions A journalist may freely teach
that which is logically false morally wrong
who would not dare for the world to wilfully
msrepresent facts, and would not willingly run
the risk of so much as installing them Yet who
would compare the utmost evil which may be
done in the one case, with the possible harm
that may result in the other? Better by far
that whole community should be deceived,
in a simple question of fact, to its own
shame and loss, or to the injury of others, than
that its morals should be corrupted, its principles
perverted, its sense of right bunted or led astray
Better ten thousandfold, that newspaper should
wilfuly and wickedly lie about the the prices of
cotton or grain, the state of the crops, private
character or public events, than that it should be-
come the apoogist and defender of official delin-
quency popular outrage, or should systematic
cally seek to the faithless from censure and
the guilty from punishment, and to u to sleep the
conscences of men with anodynes and steal away
their judgments wth~fattery and sophstry In
the case, disgrace and punishment would be so
sure to follow upon the heels of transgresson,
that the offence having been once committed, the
power to offend in like manner again would be |
forever taken away. Not so, however, in the case
of a journa- which confines itself to the dssemna-
ton of false notions of public duty, and the ncul-
cation of low standard of morality In such |
case the mischief may escape detection, until it is
almost too late to think of applying remedy. |
The evil arises from the fatal facility with which
men are prone to embrace opinions which they find
ready made to their hand, and which are pressed
upon their acceptance, without any opportunity
being given either for investigation or reflection
Such, for the most part, is the case with the opin-
ions which are every day presented and urged,
with greater less degree of ability in the
columns of the daily Press. As we have previous
ly suggested, in a somewhat different connection,
1t IS not with newspaper as with book, which
Is read only in the hours appropriated to study
or relaxation, and which men may con over at their
leisure The newspaper is picked up to-day amid
II the SAME PfessT tine feaaefSH aaaa ly
ordinarily bava TO
weigh accurately its judgments. Besides-that is
trouble which most men under any and all cir
cumstances like to he spared 1t is really marvel
lousy small-the number of independent thinkers
in the world. Most people had much rather bor-
row their opinions, as from necessity they are
compelled to obtain their facts-from their neigh
bors. To such, the newspaper must be source
OF inexpressible relief. 1t gives them facts, and
furnishes them with opinions into the bargain
In the same columns may be found the fullest
details OF passing events, and conclusions deduct
Bile therefrom, reasoned out with more or less
plauslbliity. These conclusions adopted by any
considerable portion of the community, become
the common sentiment of large bodies and
masses of men, and thus it is, that bv !
the direct agency of the Press. public |
oPihlou 10 hlohlOueu duu COnLrOlleu. That, under |
such circumstances, it is the duty of one journal
10 act as a check upon another, and to exercise
the same vigilance in exposing, and the same zeal
IN combating, the doctrinal errors of the press,
that 1t would manifest in unravelling and exposing
any mlsstatement of facts which might emanate
from the same source, must be perfectly obvious
lhereln, IN fact lies the only safety of the public.
Inc influence OF the Press for good would no lon
ger be commensurate with its power for evil fnews-
papers were to abstain from noticing, and if need
be, denouncng, each others errors of opinion he
cause of some mistaken notion of personal courte-
sy, or from the fear of being thought censorious
and quarrelsome. 1t is not so that we measure
our rights and responsibilities We conceive that
Inc denquencies fapublic journal are as legitimate
SUBJECTS for comment and rebuke as those of any
other public servant. That is the rule and none
other, by which we have been guided in the STRIFE
lures which, from time to time, we have felt con-
strained to make upon the conduct of some of
our contemporaries, and by the same rule we sub
im 10 be tried and judged ourselves. If any have
oeen pleased to ascribe course in this respect
" o'her ana less creditable motives we can only
say, that they must have poor opinion of the OBJ
Jects Oh TINS Journal and of the ambition of its
'oiiuucIoiS' VINO can suppose that either would be
sa'iSneu' oy the mere achievement of a personal
triumph over an unworthy contemporary, or
'i'e successful management of personal contro-
versy.
We dare say that every American reader of the
lighter literature of the day kaows all about PAUL
DoMBEY, and Little NELL, and Tiny TIM and
DICK SwIvELLER, and SAMUEL WELLER, Junior. and
RALPH the Raven, and DOLLY WARDEN, and BARK1s
that was always willing and the whole host of per-
sonaoes trood had and ;nd;+,ron+ A.. l..