Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-11-14

In the Olden time long ago, when the prlVy
Council of England cast its mellow rays
across the Atlantic to brighten up plantation
matters, Gov Berkeley, Of Virginia, in reply
to certain questions Of the Council, among
other happy remarks, devoutly said:
''But thank God there are no free schools
nor printing, and hope we shall not have
for these hundred years for learning has
brought disobedicnce, and heresy, and sects
in the world, and printing has divulged them,
and libels against the best Government. God
help US from BOTH"
The Berkeleys of 1860 had no such cause
for thankfulness.
And here we cannot but regret that in his
preliminary report, designed for the people,
Mr.. Kennedy has not single table upon the
schools, seminaries and colleges of the coun-
try. Thirty pages are taken up with mortal
ity tables, to some extent confessedly untrust-
worthy, and upon the same we have long
and learned disquisition, which will no doubt
be appreciated by the doctors. To the
subject of education Pathological half page
is devoted. Oar people are not so desperate
| " mortal as most other people, and are vast
deal more intelligent.
1t appears, however, from the examination
made, that about 100000 persons received
instruction in the various educa ional instltu-
tons of the different States in lS59-6O, or
about one-fifth of the whole free population
But the facts as to the public press arc
stated in tabular fom not only, but com
mented on by the superintendent in his best
heroics, which does some amends tor the poor
way in which education is treated. The
public press is the great educator OF our
grown up people, as the system oil free schools,
adopted in many Of the States, is of the ma
iority Of those growing up to manhood. The
yery great increase in the circulation OF
newspapers and periodicals. during the last
ten wears is an evidence at once ola high de-
| gree of popular intelligence, and of high
standard of journalistic ability. There is no
doubt that this country has the best, and the
best sustained, public press in the world-the
best, we mean, for the people, and not mere
ly the learned few. Newspapers penetrate to
every part of the country, and throughout the
North at all events, reach even the most OBJ
scure hamlet, and regularly find their way to
almost every household. Printing Offices 60
with the vanguard of civilization towards the
west, and in the new country are about as
numerous as the mills. The dailies OF the
great cities cannot be carried by the Govern
ment mals-they have created, during the
decade, an entirely new line of business, sup
porting thousands of families on issues fair
! iy Joined that they have defeated many of the
most maturely considered measures OF Con-
gressional Committees. But of the influence
of the public press of the country this is not
the place to speak. as
OF newspapers and periodicals there We're,
at the date of the last census, 4,051 of which
3,242 were political in their character, 29S
literary, 277 religious, and 234 miscellane-
Gus" - that is agricultural, commercial, sci
entifc, etc. In 1850, the number of papers
and periodicals of all kinds was 2,526. with a
circulation of 426, 409,97S copies. The cir
culation in 1860 was 927 ,951, 54S, being a
ratio of increase in circulation nearly twice
the ratio of increase in the number of papers,
and more than thrice the ratio of increase in
the population of the country.
The number of daily papers published at
the date of the enumeration was 3S7; weekly,
I3,173; semi-weekly, 70; tri-weekly, Sc
monthly, $50; quarterly, 80; yearly, Is. In
point of circulation the weeklies might seem
to be first, the monthlies second, and the dali
lies third; for of weeklies the circulation was
1881 $50; of monthlies, 3,41 1853 and OF
dailies 1,47S, 435 But of the dailes 3l2 edi
tons of each paper are issued during the
year, making the total number of copies
printed 5S,314,S $50; Of the weeklies So edi'
TONS making the total number 394, 260, $780,
and of the monthlies II editions, making the
total number 4O,943,5OS In fact, the total
number of daily papers thrown from the
press during the year is about half that of all
| the other papers and periodicals combined. =
m xvasOh or tho
weight of the whole number of daily papers
printed in the year of the census was 2s,.
l644,67S pounds avordupois-enough to load
1872 wagons with tun each, or to make a
train of them seventy miles in length. We're
all the papers and periodicals printed in 1860
placed in such train, it would reach from
New York to Richmond. Should they be
pasted into one vast sheet, they would make
a covering for the continent, and leave rem
nant large enough to shut out the sun from
the British Islands.
But, not to dwell upon the mere material
aspect of the public Press of America, it will
suffice to say that, if its records shall be pre-
served, the historian of two thousand years
hence who shall narrate the events which are
now taking place, will find upon their dingy
pages his best authorities and his most trust
worthy sources of philosophical generaliza-
ton. Not all that is left Of Grecian litera-
ture, not all the grand works of the, fine old
Romans, give so correct picture of the great
peoples Of antiquity as the daily papers of
America are now taking Of a people far great
er than that whose phalanges swept down
the LIBRARIANS from the Hellespont to the
Indus, or than that u the tramp of whose le-
| oions echoed round the world" - ;f ,
But we need CLEAN no further details from
this document, whose facts and figures are so
honorable to our people. This nation, with
its millions of inhabitants, with all the varied
creations of their industry, skill wealth, and
| intelligence works of our busy hands
and our thoughtful brains-with all its accu
mulated evidences Of the pfaotieai superiority
of Republican institutions, must not be blot
ted from the worlds map. Constitutions and
paper charters out of the question, political
hair splitting whistled down the wind alto
gether, the American people, for their own
sake are worth saving from anarchy or aris-
tocratic rule If saved to themselves within
the next twelvemonth, the coming census
will reveal still greater evidences Of prosperi-
ty and national progress than the one just
taken. Georgia, free, would grow like Ohio,
and Florida like Iowa. Should it so turn
out, the great Rebellion will not have been
crushed in vain, and the free United States
of 1870, prosperous themselves, would exert
a benefcent influence upon other peoples
which should be felt to the remotest parts Of
the earth .eN9 f+r 34
THE REPORTED CAPTURE OF MOBILE
The Cincinnati Gazette, of the 18th, says:
We are not inclined to credit the report
which comes to us via Cairo, confirming"
the previously reported capture ofMobile. If,
as the dispatch states, General Grant has re-