Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-08-22
rRBAsoNAB1E NBwspAprps

In an article in the New York Ledqer on "the
rights and duties of war;" Edward Everett
makes some admirable structures upon the
tolerahce of reasonable printing. lie does not
see how any just notion Of freedom Of speech
and the press requires us to tolerate the license
of reasonable words, which may be of as
much service to the rebels as regiments and
munitions of war. We do not suppose that
the argus will copy the following paragraph, we
therefore publish it for the special benefit and
consolation of our unhappy contemporary:
There are presses, for the most part in the
border states, though some of them are found
III ?i,'es more remote from the scene of action.
mHcn arc daily pleading the cause of the enemy.
nisIepresenting and vilifying the government
OF tne United States, exaggerating every article
vi uni"Voraole intelligence, and cxcrtinp them
serves 10 the utmost to dishcarten the friends
ana defenders OF the constitution and tho Irnior
nut sucn Is inc an uut supersttious devotion of
tne people 10 Tue liberty OF the press, that these
pernicous journals have, with the excenf;on ~
single instance in st. Louie, never been intor-
fered with. 1t seems to have been thought bet-
Ter by those in authority, to tolerate the mis-
chet OF these unpatrotic presses, than to elevate
them to greater importance by prosecution, or
to encroach in the slightest degree upon that
freedom of public discussion which in ordinary
times is justly regarded as one of the great safe
guards of liberty. But it is preposterous TO
sacrifice the end to the means. We should in this
respect learn wisdom from the enemies of the
Union. While we regard as unbecoming our
christian civilization that resort to lynch law. by
which every expression of opinion adverse to the
popular sentiment is suppressed in the seeding
states, we ought to remember that in tolerating
traltorous press among ourselves, we prac-
tlce hberality which awakens no gratitude at
nome, and is never reciprocated by the oppo-
site party. 1t is in fact an absurdity in terms.
under the venerable name of the liberty of the
press to permit the systematic and licentious
abuse OF a government which is tasked to the
utmost in defending the country from general
dlsintegraton and political chaos. The COVER
nor oil Malta was once censured in parliament
Tor some alleged severity toward the editor of
journal IN that island and the liberty of the
press was declared to be in danger The Duke
OF wellington said he was as Friendly as any
BODY to the liberty of the press in London. but
a free press in the island of Malta was as much
out OF place rs it would be on the quarter deck
OF man-of-war. We suppose the most enthu
slas,ic champion of the liberty of the press
would hardly think it right to publish journal
within the walls of Fort McHenry, in which
the officers of the garrison should be daily adj
vised to desert and the men be constantly ex
horted to mutiny; and whose columns should
he filled with persistent abuse of the govern
ment and all engaged in its defense. Why
should journals of that description be allowed
to diiiuse their poison beneath its walls amidst
the eXcitabe population of II large city