Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1863-10-24
nlistrllancous.
The Public and the Press.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

The Newspaper Press, which began TO be
power within the recollection If many
yet living, has become the migh,est ins,ru
ment tor the propagation of Ideas, the
moulding Of Opiuion, hat the world has yet
known. 1t already supplies to majority
uf our countrymen the better part of their
education, with almost oil they know of
current events--of History, Politics, and
Legislation. AT its bidding, parties rise
aud fall, Presidents are made and unmade,
Institutions are brought to- Judgment, aud
hoary abuses totter to their fall Aud,
mighty as in its present influence, it is still
rapidly expanding aud increasing There
were nearly as many dalies issued in the
uuited States in 1868 as there were week.
lies half century ago. while as many per
| sons ure now regular readers Of news
paper, if not more than one, as could read
at ull in the fist Two decades of his centu
ry. And every year adds not merely to
the number but to the proportion of those
who are regularly informed, however im
perfectly. of the progress of events through
the medium of newspaper of the day.
Religion vjes with patriotism in seeking the
aid Of this mighty engine; the Pulpit, the
Bar, the Bench, as well as the Forum, the
Department, and the Stump. are glad 10
secure larger auditory, wider inaence,
through the medium of the Press.
That the responsibility resting on editors
and writers for the Press has been immense
ly increased by the comparatively enormous
issues of our day, has already been sufficient.
ly insisted on. The journal even of the
last century was a naked and mcager
synopsis of the latest battles, sieges, mur-
ders, fires, and shocking accidents'-boiler
explosions and railway collisions not yet in
elusive. Editorial comments were rare,
brief, and insipd, even in the best of them
A leader of the modern stamp would have
startled the London or Paris Of a century
since like al earthquake The gazette oi
that day sought only to inform; its living
successor aims to enlighten, TO instruct, and
amend. The reader of to-day buys for 9
dollar an amount of information for which
his great. grandfather must have paid twea
ty, while the ability. learning. and goot
taste now embodied aud eyineed in the con
duct of great journal arc such as tha
respected ancestor and his cotemporarie'
could Tot have commanded at all. Tha
be who dips his pen to write that which I
million persons will read with interest ant
favorable prepossessiou should consider vel
what be says, is a truth so plain aud trit'
| that it needs not to be established or en-
forced. but only to be brought freshly tc
remembrance r.
Bot the responsibility of the reading pub
lie for the chacacter Of the journals it sus
tains and favors-has that been duly con
sidered or insisted ONT II sheets of vile
licentious. corrupiing, debasing tendenc,
are supported aud rendered profitable b.
. the patronage of people who would fai
pass for decent and virtuous. what shall W
think of them What shall we think c
their moralityf How reconcile their act
with their professions
There are many subjects wbereon huma
opinions have slwsys differed, aud vi