New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-07-20
FaERnoai or rnE pKEss.

public press in St. Louis has been stopped by
the military authorities. The only newspaper there
that protested against the invasion of the State by
the Federal mercenaries, and that denounced the
tyrannical and despotio action of the Federal Ex
ecntive and his nnions has been siienced by force
| This mas been done by people who have been
1 clamorous, for years, for the freedom of the
| press. Their howlings and lamentations, and
jeremiads over the fact that in some portions of
the South they were not allowed to publish incen.
diary Abolition newspapers, have been ftly illus
trated by this act of unnixed despotSm, this posi-
tive infraction of the Federal Constitution itself.
congress, Y says that Constitution, shall make
no law respecting an establislment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging
| the freedom Of speech on the press What Con-
gress Especially prohibited from doing is now
| done with IMMUNITY by mob. Military martinets.
without color OF law authority, silence the press,
andthas do what the legislative power of the land
is expressly forbidden to do. But what cares the
Lincoln despotism for the Constitution? What
cares 1t for law? If the President may fly directly
in the face of the Constitution to SUSPEND the writ
OF habeas corpus, shall we wonder that his lackevs
ioAo~ IN ms footsteps and eoaplete the Job Of
destroying the Constitution which their chief has
commenced?
lew weeks ago a mob surrounded all the
newspaper offices in New York and compelled
them to raise the Yankee flag That was another
exhibition Of Abolition respect for the freedom Of
the press. Citizens of Baltimore and elsewhere
have been dragged outof their beds at midnight
and put in irons for expressing their opinions of
the war That was an Illustration Of Yankee re-
spect for freedom of speech. With eonglonera-
ton Of yillainy and hypocrisy they are doing the
very things against which they have always pro-
tested, ard tearing into infinitesinal shreds and
tatters that Constitution for which they lyingiv
protested respect.
That infamous sheet, the Louisville journal at
tempts to palate this ST. Louis outrage by assert
ing that greater atrocities have been perpetrated
IN the South So far the contrary no duress or
even threat has been employed in the Southern
States Ihere were papers in the South that on
posea me secession movement to the last, and
changed their course only when they found they
were hghting against unanimous public senti-
ulent. There is Brownlow's Wing still permitted
70 daily dstil treason from its columns in State
which mas become a member of the Southern Con.
teaefacysoy majority of sixty thousand of the
popular vote. There are papers in Northwestern
virginia doing the same thing. But the St. Louis
journal was not an organ OF treason to the Federal
government. ltmerely discussed as every oppo. |
sitlon paper in the country has done from the |
foundation Of the Government, the public acts of
the men in power, If to express opposition to the
Administration be "treasou,,' then every Wing
paper which opposed Van Buren,, and every Dem. |
ocratic paper which opposed Taylor and Fillmore, |
were equally guilty Of the same offence, and de- |
served just as much TO be silenced by the strong |
arm OF the military authority. Papers in Ten. |
nessee and Virginia openly repudiate their allie. |
glance to their State, and profess fealty to the
Federal Government and vet are unframed. The
st. Louis journal, for simply opposing and de.
the garing usurpations Of the Abolition
despotistn, is forced to suspend its publication.
THESE are the facts OF the case, and neither the
Louisville journal nor any other Abolition organ
can conceal them from the public by even the most
falsehoods.
1t Is, however, hardly worth while to notice in
iiFidnal cases of the complete setting aside and
disregard OF the Federal Constitution by those now
power at Washington, since the President, in his
ate message, takes the position that necessity
Ferrides all laws and all Constitutions, and his
seyoo sic jubeo'' is all that is necessary for the
erpetration Of any act, no matter how destructive
may be Of the liberties Of the people. It is a
reclamation to all the world that the Northern
government is no longer republic, but despot-
sm-an anto1racy responsible for its deeds to no
ne, and ruling, not even as monarchs claim. "bv
l7lne right" but by open usurpation. 1t is virtn
lly military despotism, with every safeguard of
Constitutional liberty forcibly removed, aud those
rho oppose ii may consider themselves fortunate
escape with the loss of their property only, and