New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-10-17
TEE: HERALD.

THE HERALD.
! The Herald still abors under the deuslon
that it is a paper of some influence. 1t is, We
dare say. an honest error-if it is not too great
stretch of charity TO suppose that paper can
be honest even in q blundeI-but if the
Government should ever put itself to the useless
trouble of shutting up its editor for his harm
less treason, he could be condemned to no more
severe punishment than the enforced reading of
his own columns, for the last SIX months, to
convince him OF how idle and absurd all his
prophecies have been, and how exactly the
course the people have chosen to follow ia
measured by its opposition to every thing he
has advocated, all the views aud measures he
has proposed and cherished with 50 much
earnestness. The Hcrah is q most curious an'
omay in journalism. 1t never even by accident
blunders into any accordance with popular SEN
| timent it never by any chance falls into an
accurate and wise estimate of public aiiairs; by
singular oblquty of mental vision it always
sees the thing that is not, and by still
stranger moral perversity, always advocates that
which is so palpably monstEOus that 1t 10 re-
jected by the popular instinct even without an
argument. From the secession Of South Caro-
lima to the fall OF Sumter, The Herald outdd
all the journals of the South in it, advocacy OF
the Southern rebellion. 1t justified 1t rs wise
and necessary defense against the Anti-Slayery
sentiment of the Republican party and of Ger.
tain Northern men, precisely as it now cIamOrs
r al gf m
men for presuming to form Judgment upon q
system which has we-ngh proved our national
ruin. II endcayored 10 bring up public opin-
ion to the point Of acknowledging the
! independence Of tie Southern Confedcracy.
| II labored to bring about a compromise with
the rebels by demanding that everything they
asked for should be granted. 1t denounced
any measure of coercion, any attempt to en-.
force the laws, aud insisted that our troops
should be Withdrawn from Southern forts. IL
never ceased in its abuse of Mr.. Lincoln and
/ his Administration, declaring again and again
/ in these terms and in similar language, that
the people "would hold it TO q bitter re-
&" sponslbility for the shameful imbecility and
a" lanaticism with which il was betraying the
4" interests of the country" Ii appealed to
the people of the North, and especially to the
capitalists of this city, OF Boston, aud of Phila-
dclphia, to atop the wheels of Government by
refusing TO lend it dollar, that il might be
thus coerced into yielding to the South all that
it demanded at the point Of the bayonet, aud
compelled to compound peace. 1t cOmiOrted
the South, and threatened the North with the
dire calamity Of a divided North, and con-
sequent bloody civil war among ourselves. 1t
predicted tie ruin that Was to visit US by the
overthrow of all our trade, which would be
removed to Southern cities to flourish under n
Southern tariff. 1t declared that the North
West would thus be seduced BY their interest
from their allegiance and would desert the
Government and the Union for the sake of
free goods smuegled in under the COnled-
crate tariff. 1t denounced any attempt
at blockade of our ports as Illegal
and impossible. II threatened the country
with an acknowledgment of the Southern
Coniederacy by the great Powers Of Europe,
declaring that it was certain to be made be-
fore the middle Of the year--Juy last. And
above all, it urged that the bastard COnstitu-
ton, conceived and brought forth at MOntgom-
cry was 50 much superior TO the Federal Con-
stitution that it should be substituted for it,
declaring that it would be accepted by the
Northern people by an overwhelming majority.
Nor did il do each one OF these things once,
but all of them many times. From the mo-
ment Of the secession of South Carolina up to
the 10th of April, when there was mass
meeting at the corner of Nassau and Fulton
streets, for the special lightenment-either
one way or ahOther-of The Herald establish
ment that paper was uniform and persistent
lin its devotion to the cause Of the insnrrec-
tionists, using oil its ingenuity and ability, all
its industry and power, to the one sole end
and aim of establishing Che rebellion upon the
ruin of the Government and the degradation OF
the Northern people. Day after day, week
after week, month after month, The Herald
was consistent and earnest, and in its desire
for the contamination of treason and the over
throw Of the institutions Of free people,
sometimes forgot its friyolity and fppancy and
in the deyout sincerity of its purpose was even
occasionally decent for q day or two together.
1t would be easy to Gil several columns OF
extracts to show that oil we have here said is
true to the letter; that il reiterated again and