The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-18


poration plumber.
Ignorance and Insolenco OF . Southern
Senator.
To the bill before the United States Senate,
abolishing the franking privilege, Mr.. Mason,
on Wednesday last, moved an amendment, that
no mail matter should henceforth be carried
Free to which amendment an amendment was
offered, exempting newspapers now having the
privilege of free transmission by mail, which
are papers sent in exchange to editors, and pa
pers circulating in the county in which they
are published.
Mr.. Clay, of Alabama, according to The OIL
cial report of his speech, published in the
Globe then used the following observations
hope that amendment will not prevail. That would
just achieve Of the most Objectionable features Of this
privilege Of the free transmission Of matter through the
mails which TO centralze power in the great cities, and
to give immense circulation TO such papers as the
Herald and the Tribune which think 40 not DO much TO
effect of would be to destroy all the local papers, and to
give increased powero the papers In the great metropo
lis of the Union and presume that is the object of the
Senator from New York In making the motion. aud per-
baps the object Of the Senator from Pennsylvania in &C
ceptngit.
Never before, perhaps, was such piece Of
standardization uttered by any Senator since
| Congress had an existence. The HERALD has
always commended for the abolition of the free
transmission Of newspapers through the Post
Office, whether as exchanges between editors
| or as circulating within the county in which
! they are published. We advocated the aboh.
ton Of this privilege for years, and before any
Senator or representative ever thought of it.
| AT the opening of the present session of Con-
! gress We reiterated the same views in comment
| ing on the report of the Postmaster General;
and now Senators have adopted Ithem The
Senator from Alabama has also borrowed our
ideas, though unfortunately, he does not under
stand the effect of them. He has manifestly SCOT
hold of the wrong end of the story" No one
will suppose that we are so stupid as to advo-
cate the abolition of a law (which gives an i'm
mense circulation to the HERALD and gives
power to papers in the great metropolis of the
Union" Clay's speech is exceedingly foggy,
and it is very questionable if he understands
what he says; but if it have any meaning at all,
it means that the exception proposed to be in
troduced in the bill before the Senate was
something new that would ''give increased
power" to the HERALD.
Now, what was proposed by the amendment
was to let the law stand as it was before, as far
as newspapers were concerned. So that it is
evident Mr.. Clay was attempting to legislate in
utter ignorance of his subject, and that he did
not know what the law was. He thought the
proposed amendment "would give increased
power to the papers published in the great me-
tropolis Of the Union" The proposed amend
ment was just to leave them as they are, and
its effect, consequently, could not be to Gin
crease" their power. Now we want q change in
| the law. We do not desire to have the mails
burthened with useless exchanges" and with
miserable little papers circulating only in the
counties in which they are published The
HERALD derives no benefit whatever from the
existing law. In the city and county of New
York the HERALD is not circulated by mails
its circulation is altogether by means of our
own carriers. Mr.. Clay is therefore ignorant
of the manner in which papers in ''the great
metropolis of the Union" are circulated and
thinks we do business here after the slow coach
fashion of editors in Alabama. It is amatter of
no consequence what time their papers reach
their destination. The HERALD is In the hands
of the readers in this county, delivered free of
expense, hours before it could be delivered by
mail, and the great bulk ofits circulation out
side Of New York does not pass through the
Post Office but reaches the subscribers long
before the delivery Of the mails.
So that to alter the law or to let it stand as
it is could not affect us either one way or the
other. But the alteration for which we con-
tend, and which we have SO long advocated,
would make a vast difference in the expenses
of the Post Office Department, and free it from
an intolerable burthen. We hope the popular
branch Of Congress will adopt this reform,
which the interests of their constituents 80 i'm
peratively demand, and send back the bill so
amended to the Senate.
Mr.. Clay and the HERALD, therefore, as far as
we can understand him, or as he can understand
himself, agree about the proposed amendment
to the bill. But he makes an allusion to the
conduct Of the HERALD, and its effect on the
morals and politics Of the country, which is as
impudent and impertinent as it is unjust, and
in the mouth of q Senator from Alabama it
becomes as uDgrateful as it is untrue. The
HERALD has always stood disinterestedly
by the rights Of the South, while the
vast majority Of its readers have ever
been in the North, and it has done more
to secure justice to the class Of States to which
Mr.. Clay belongs than the whole Southern
press put together. And it has done more to
expose political immortality and public corrup-
ton than any other journal ever published in
the United States We have no interests in the
South; but for quarter Of century we have
battled for its rights on high ground which fell
lows like Clay cannot comprehend The gene