The Washington union., 1858-03-31
THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.


parison with this great engine great organ of
univcrsal-levcr of education. 1t is an estate by it,
SELF embracing within the range of its influences
elements which enter into every relation of human
economy and life. There is no hidden Of 30
ciety which it does not penetrate. 1t is states
man, lawyer, physician, clergyman, teacher
mechanic farmer manufacturer, man of lei
sure of letters and science. 1t controls the State
and it controls the Church--it directs the family
the legislator the magistrate, and the minister. None
rise above it's influence, none sink below its author
ty. 1t is the most pervading, powerful, and benef
cent institution of ancient modern society 1t is
more in harmony with the Divine intelligence, more
minute incomprehensible, inscrutable and yet
more simple, Ineligible, and influential in effect
ing the ends of human progress in eovating the
character and securing the culture Of than
any and all other agencies combined. This may be
regarded at first as an exTavagant assumption.
Individuals may deride the newspaper press, may
sail its integrity, question its morality and deny it's
controlling influence the will, judgment and ac-
tons of men; but such persons would measure the
volume of the sea by the rippes upon its surface,
and estimate the economy of Nature by the gifts
which have been strewn around their own hearth
stones.
If the newspaper press is capable of almost infinite
good, by disseminating TRUTH by correcting false
hood by giving character to nations, and Of writing
their history, concede it is also capable of doing
vast mischief 1t is no part of belief that it is
anywhere in the neighborhood of perfection. Nor
is it possible to WELD an engine so complicated and
powerful-to drive machine of such gigantic pro-
portions-without violating some of the rights of
individuals, or without offending moral principles
and sensibilities. We have few perfect govern
ments, lawyers statesmen, mechanics, or teachers.
Perfection is not stamped on mind or matter.
The newspaper press is democratic institution
in its every feature, labor and effect in its free
speech, opinions, and economy in tho mind that d
rects it, and in the judgment and taste that patronize
it, 1t is element in the social and political gov
ernment--representat deliberatve, and perva-
ding addressing the citizen and the magistrate up
holding and sustaining the good, rebuking and con
demning the offender. II feeds and stimulates the
mind with perpetual means of action; teaches the
ignorant to read to spell, to wrte to think draws
it out of channels and leads it into the daylight of
the worlds deeds and thus iberaizes, enarges,
and expands it. The newspaper press of the United
States has published more valuable matter within
twelvemontbs than the combined press of the world
published in the first five years of the present cen
fury. Linked to the elective telegraph and facili-
tated in its transmission by the vast system of rail
roads now in operation, it is great mechanical
organ of speech, almost infinite in it's scope, it's re-
sources, variety, capacity and rapidity of utterance
1t is not SO much the product as the promoter and
author Of genius and enterprise
TO give some idea of the magnitude of the news
paper press, it may be stated that the New York
Herald establishment publishes material every day.
which, if thrown into book FORM would make twenty
thousand octave volumes of five hundred pages
each, or over seven millions of volumes per annum
That great newspaper is little more than twenty
FIVE years old, and is steadily increasing in circula
ton. Its advertisements alone would fill near three
millions Of volumes per annum. The aggregate mat
ter thrown off daily and weekly in the United States,
nearly all Of rhieh read by the people, is absolutely
beyond computation. That it is demanded paid
for, and perused by the American public; that it is
rapidly increasing in amount, influence, and power
facts which point with significant prophecy to tho
office it holds and the authority it is destined to WELD
the mind of the nation 1t is the greatest power
in the State and, from its very nature places every
other to greater or less extent, in subection to
its laws. 1t is, too, conservative, disnterested
democratic power diffusng its blessings, elevating
and purifying those it would govern.
The newspaper press is the great leveler of the
age on an ascending nota descending scale; because
it opens to all the fountains of knowledge and pro-
vokos and insures universal inquiry and Judgment.
That it has disseminated error immortality, and vice
that it has been vehicle of SANDER and malevo-
lence that it has fomented pride and vanity that
it has blown up human baubles and prcked them
into ridiculous collapse that it has fostered spec
ulaton and been less subservient to schemes
of fraud and ambition, can doubt No party
could exist year without it. To strike it down
would be to instate Babel of infinite tongues--to
paralyze and confound all existing order and action
in tho social and political systems We like to be-
rate and underrats it but we could do nothing
without it,
We dislike to praise it or acknowledge it's power.
Many habtually deny its influence, and as constant
Iy court its favor and its encouragement It has
made more regulations for public men, more fortunes
r. u