Daily national Democrat., 1858-11-13

this watchfulness does not appear to be SC
necessary, for the landmarks of kingly pre-
rogative are ancient and well established
and it is only when some unheard of aggres
sion on the part ofthe crown, or the supreme
power, suddenly forces itself upon the atten-
tion of the people, that they arouse from the
long trance of ages and bestir themselves
not for their rights, for those have long since
been prostrated, but for the remnant of lib
erty that is left them by their kingly, oil
garchic or despotie oPpressors.
The American people are so emphatcaly
people of politics, that it is no wonder that
the field of journalism so swarms with polit-
cal newspapers. Every city, town, hamlet and
village, nearly, in the lard, has its paper,
and that paper, however neutral it may
strive to keep itself will sooner or later
verge toward, or bodily plunge into the
very mid-seas of politics Even the literary
magazines can scarcely resist the all-pervad-
ing political excitements of the day, and arilI
have a leaning, more or less, to some one of
the great political parties or isn,S thatattract
the public mind. The leading daires of the
country are political. 1t is true they contain
much besides politics, as all good papers will
but they all have certain political tcne, and
aim to impress upon the minds of their read
ers certain leading political notions Some
of these apparently ignore politics for a sea-
son, and sail along in the smooth seas of lite
rary and scientific discussion, or busy them
selves more particularly with comments upon
the current news of the times. But, no sooner
does some unusual portent announce its pres
ence in the political heavens, than they
trim their sails for the storm and prepare for
the battle of the elements. The people nat
urally look for an expression of opinion, on
any important national question, from those
organs which are recognized as having
weight and ability
1t is right that political papers should ex-
ist, and nothing is more destitute of truth
than the common cry that political news
papers must, of necessity, be unreliable Po-
litical newspapers of low class are edited
by mere "eampaign editors" who think that
abuse and villihcation and lying POLITELY
termed misrepresentation are the only efi-
cient weapons of political warfare; who
take it for granted that the public is great
gul'ible goose, ready to swallow down any
thing and everything, however false or pre-
posterous, that appears in print; who ap
parently think that their readers are ignor-
ant of all history, whether of their own or
any other country, and that they know no.
thing except what they learn from the chari-
table drippings of their own all potent pens
who brazenly state for facts in the political
history of the country what every intelligent
man knows to be false, and then dilate upon
them, like pompous dealers of fustian as they
are, strutting through loaded columns of shal.
low assumption with the sort of half lunacv
that generally results from an uncommon de-
gree of moral obliquity men who neger do
justice to a political opponent and neuer give
credit to other men for a particle of political
honesty or a genuine glow of true manly
feeling; who think that political principles.
like themselves, are humbug, and the sole
object of being an editor is to h,embug the peo
pie. God save US and all our tribe from anv
contact with such cattle
But, there is such thing as respectable
political editing There are some editors
who know how to answer argument with ar
gument instead of low and eontemptible
slang; who lay down their facts, whether of
history or of the current time, fairly, know
ing, as they do, that house must ultimately
fall if it is built upon the sand, and scornipg
as all noble minds must, the meanness of will
ful perversion; men who know how to han
die the weapons of satire without descending
to the position of an awkward, foul.mouthed
blackguard men who read and study. and
can shed some sort of light upon topic of
general interest, instead of mistifying it with
ignorantand arrogant assumptions; men who
know and feel that truth is mighty, and that
falsehood is weak and who would rather
die thousand deaths than shrivel up their
souls into the narrow compass of his who
momentarily breads the ignominy of an ex,
posure, or moves in daily consciousness that
good and true men despise him
That men of this class are at the head of
political papers at all is the fault of the peo-
pie who patronize them. Any paper thus
edited should be suffered at once to die ont
The moment that the public are convinced
that public journal systematically deals in
willfal Misrepresentation, they should leave
1t to rot in its own corruption. The public
want truth-they want facts-they want in
formation-they want to know how things
really are-how political leaders really stand
what is the real character of political par
ties They do not want mere Trades of vul-
gar abuse or long columns of ipompous and
swelling assumption, the only merit of which
is that fools and ignoramuses may possibly
think there is something in it. We are glad
to see that this class of editors is gradually
thinning out in this State, and may God give
the country a speedy deliyerance of the
whole of them.
Us We would call the attention of our rea-
a a q m as,4-