The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-12-13


al For the last twenty Eve years oil mail matter
in the Southern States has been subject to sur
veilance and every newspaper excluded, that any
postmaster In eli that country, in tho exercise of
his sovereign prerogative, chose to consider in
eendiary. The Democratic party has not only
acquiesced In this usurpation Of power, in viola
ton of the Constitution, but the Post Master
General, under all the Democratic Administra-
Z. tions for many years, has not only winked at
the acts Of his petty officials in excluding every
thing but Democratic newspapers from Southern
MALE, but permitted It by published ORDERS
Under this system Of espionage and oppression
no man in all the slave States has heen permit
ted, for years, corrective by mail, any newspa-i
per that the petty official 10 the town where be
received his mail matter, chose to deny him
And these petty tyrants not only decided: upon
what papers we're and what we're not proper to
70 into the hands Of Southern people, but they
violated the letter mails and examined tho pri.
vate correspondence Of such persons as they
chose to consider suspicious, or wished to drive
from that country. An unguarded expression
in private letter 70 friend has cost many .
man coat Of tar and feathers, : ride upon :.
rail or even life ITSELF ny q. ins. sd stso
IA These practices, in violation Of the dearest
and most sscred rights Of American citizenship,
having no excuse Of necessity o. public peril
have run, through series Of years with the full
sanction and approval Of the Democratic party
North and South. No conservative" Democrat
was ever known to object to the hanging Of "Ab-
oIitionistsn or the exclusion Of Abolition" news
papers from the mails It was al right 70 ex-
clude the New York Tribune from all Southern
mails and good enough for Greeley. But things
have changed. War exists. Civil War upon
tho most gigantic scale known in modern times.
The life Of the nation is in peril-the liberties Of
the people and the hope Of free government in
the Western World are trembling in the balance.
Blind partizan newspapers, acknowledging no
allegiance except to the Democratic party, which
is in arms to overthrow the Government, have
taken the side Of rebellion in the loyal States
and tried to SOW discord and aid rebellion in
! destroying the Government If ever there was
proper reason for sbridging the liberty Of the
press, surely it might be found in the presen,
peril. If ever the Government had proper
excuse for refusing to carry certain mail matter
i surely it might be found for now refusing te
carry newspapers which are laboring with des-
perate energy for its overthrow. During th,
last eighteen months several such newspapers
have been excluded from the mails. But onl,
such as we're notoriously outspoken in their trea
sou were thrown out. Those sugar-coatin,
their secession ideas we're allowed to send thei
papers upon their mission of death and destruc
ton. But this exclusion Of reasonable publ
cations from the mails, in time Of war, is con
sidered an outrage Of the most oppressive an
tyrannical kind. Those who could see nothin
wrong in excluding all "Blsck Republican" pa
.ners from the mails in one half of the State!
o in time Of profound peace, now consider it a
abridgment of the freedom Of the press to pre-
vent the dissemination of treason BY the exclr
son from the mails Of such papers as the Ne,
York Day Book.