Delaware State journal and statesman. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1855-1870, 1861-02-12

The proper antidote Of falsehood is truth and !
you give them both free press and a fair fed
the issue Of their encounter will demonstrate ln'
strength Of the one and the weakness Of tue
other Secret error may Ions thrive In dark
negs, but published error withera in the SUR
beams. Truth, on the contrary draws new life
and strength from the light aud as its printed
page circulates from hand to hand, it grows
I brighter and clearer by the wear of many hugers
and under the gaze of many eyes.
II men will not adapt themselves to their in
stt1tions, they will soon adjust their institu-
| tious to themselves. Hence civil liberty and
mental servility cannot long coexist. Enslave
the press, aud you enslave the minds which it
dereyes and degrades; and as the people be;
come subservient. the government will grow des-
pohc. half truth is more dangerous than
whole falsehood, for its truthful appearance lulla
suspicion and throws us off our guard. II the
press is allowed TO divulge to the people only 50
much of the doings and purposes of their rulers
as will please them, and to their rulers only 81
much of the opinions and sentiments Of the people
us will flatter them, neither party will know the
other The blind will lead the blind and both
will tal-the one into despotism, the other into
slavery.
There is wide difference between a free and
centious press By free press we mean one
through which all arguments and opinions on nil
HeNsAlNhs uuu autItGlf nuny Dt puflhuNut hAtu-
out censorship or other legal restriction the
writer's and publishers being held responsible for
such abuses of their liberty as would iniure pri-
vate reputation or corrupt the morals Of the
community. Such press is an engine Of pro-
digious power. 1t is sentinel on the watch
tower Of freedom. No tyrant Ior usurper may
feel secure till he has hoodwinked its Argus
eyes, wrested the signal trumpet from its hand
and lips, and smothered the respiration Of its
iron lungs. The coup d'ctat of Napoleon III,
would have recoied on himself had he net para
81 zed the press before its elastic force had time
to cause q rebound. The apparent unanimity
of the secessionists in the States Of the extreme
South is due to the muzEling Of the press, the
choking down of free speech, and the naugura-
tion of reign of terror. Lovers of the whole
country are there; friends of the Union are
there; sane men are there but they are silent.
They dare not speak out. When the expression
and publication Of sentiments opposed to those
entertained by the majority will insure a coat Of
tar and feathers, or hanging on the nearest tree,
few will indulge in so expensive a luxury But
alas for liberty where fetters Calling are rivet
ted on the mind And alas for liberty in the
North if ever the demand for a similar slavery
OF speech and the press mere shall be paid as the
price of Union We yield to no man in patriot
ism and love for the Union of these States. We
believe that not only our hopes for the future,
but the hopes of the world are bound up in its
preservation. We would make any sacrifice and
concession, within the limits Of honor and sell
respect, for the restoration Of fraternity and
peace. But manhood we will never yield. Free
m and its most powerful supporters we will
never yield. Subjug tion and slayery Of the
mind We will never submit to-never-no not
for ali the wealth
That einews bought and sold have earned"
But should not the press be restricted to truth
When you can set over 1t an omn sclent censor
and not till then The question Of Pilate, q" What
is truth 2" was not answered by the Divine Per
sonage to whom it was addressed and no human
intellect can solve it now My truth is my
neighbor's falsehood /; and his is mine. Opinions
which are current as truth in one age and oun-
try are repudiated in another. Jesus of NAzu-
reth, who spake as mover man spake, and whose
precepss are now the moral aud spiritual guide
OF some three hundred millions of the human
race, was charged with being in league with the
father of lies, and bis eountrymen cried, Cruel
fy him, cruelty him; his blood be on us and on
our children" If the sermon on the Mount had
been subjected to the censorship of the Sanhe-
drm, It would have been condemned as contain
ing more falsehood and heresy than any writing
OF equal length which Hebrew brain had ever
conceived, or Greciar stylus committed to parch
ment
The wise and good Socrates, Of whom, in later
times, Cicero said that he brought down Philo-
sophy from heaven to earth, was executed by
the A,henians as a corrupter Of youth and con
temner Of the gods. While their descendants
were sculpturng monuments to the memory of
Socrates, they called Paul babbler, and set
ter forth of strange gods. Calico was imprisoned
for teaching that the earth revolves around the
sun, and his book was suppressed by the hier-
archy as heretoal and damnable. few years
since biologists were accused Of infdelity, be-
cause they made the startling declaration, though
in terms not very unlike the language of Moses,
that the earth was created "in the beginning"
and that consequently il must be more than FIVE
days older than Adam. Men once thought that
they were doing God service by torturing and
burning out one another's heresies But in our
age the absurdity of such methods of elimination
and publication is clearly seen. We can dis
cover no logical relation between stretching the
limbs of the body and Strengthening the couYie-
tions of the mind, nor between racking the joints
and reUtifying the conscience. We have learned,
too, that the only FIRE which will burn error at
the stake is that which the lens of truth con.
oentrates at it's focus.