The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1859-04-12
Defamation.

IL ls commonly Sdlu tuat law Is TIC Sc
curity for peace, and the guardian of in.
jiv.dual rights. If this be restricted to
mean statute law or common precedent,
practice, or any other formal and legal
proceeding, then Is law far from the agis
that Is claimed to be. The law of social
justice, the golden rule thst we are to do
Others only what we should he satisfied to
receive from them, is the only assurance Of
justice. Of benevolence, or of common
courtesy. The cannons Of civilized inter-
course demand this, and the sanctions of re-
ligion enforce the obligation. We can
imagine no worse pests to society than
those social Shylocks who are always ready
to DO any evil to which no legal conse-
qnences are attached, and even TO CRAFTY
their malice in defiance Of law, when the
penalties are indefinite or capable Of being
evaded.
Sheer malice is now, however, so COM
mon or so mischievous as the careless abet
ting Of evil, the persecution or injury with.
ont malicious intent, or, indeed any object
except the needless joining in common de-
famation. Trace ISLANDERS to their origin
and il is not difficult, usually, to detect
their motive. There may be palliating cir
cumstances attending the first utterance.-
Imagined or real injury, anger, or other
infrmity NAV tip the arrow with venom,
but there is not even this excuse for unn-
tcrested parties who furnish leather for the
darts, and speed them on their ertand Of
mischief. It would be ridiculous, If it
were not painful, 10 notice how the mere
love Of talk and the fondness for gossip,
make half the community the emissarics
of one social faction, while the other half
are as firmly bound to the other.
It is said that every citizen owes debt
to tho community in which he lives, for
the position he holds in it. We submit
that the obligation is mutual. No man
who has pursued the even tenor Of his way
till he has reached point where he is an
object of envy to his less successful cotem-
poraries, and of example TO his Juniors,
can have done any good for himself with.
out beneftting the circle in which he
moves. He has established his character.
1t is not unfrequently the case that he has
lived down slander and overcome ermity.
To that there are no scars of these con-
ficts, would be to pronounce him iivul-
nerablo; and that, we fancy. can be said
of few. But when long years have handed
the carly events Of life 10 oblivion, to
rake open the wounds of the past, and to
parade things before the public which, if
true, have been cancelled by amendment,
and, il false, cannot, after so long an in
terval, be disproved, is most unmanly and
unjust. Whenever disparaging report
gains circulation, it inevitably reaches
quarters where the vjndication can never
follow. The stain Of detraction, to GER
tain extent, is ineffaceable.
Hence, we should hesitate even to circu-
late true charge against neighbor, for,
as is well remarked by DR.. Moore, in that
old time novel Zeleuco, ga malicious false
hood ceases to do harm when the truth
comes TO be knowna but the mischief at
tending a malicious truth is much more
durable"
Ordinarily there is little truth in mali
cious "reminiscences; often mono whatever.
And always, whatever be the actual in
trirsic character Of revived rumor or
charge, il takes it present hue from the
motive and intentions of the party who re-
produced it. We have more than once
witnessed injustice and persecution Of this
sort, and our first and generally correct,
impression is to stamp as false whatever
angsry, emnity or opposition may allege
from the forgotten past. 1t is not what
anv man was. but what he is, with which
We have to do. And he who can be as
sailed only by reviving the alleged sins Of
his youth, must in bis heart despise, as he
may defy, his calumniators.
Common defamation is what the writ
ten law cannot prevent any moro than il
can establish common fame. The conser-
vative and honorable principles Of social
intercourse are the only protection which
a citizen really has for the honor and re-
spect which are dearer to sensitive man
than his wealth or, we had almost said,
his life. We should say, without reserve,