The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1863-07-23
Free Discussion as n Defence Of
"A .-..s, the Union. 5E

Free Discussion as n Defence Of
Il ,sag the Union. 90
From the New York Evening Pest, May 30.
"The Union cannot be restored without
freedom Of speech" said Mr.. Godfrey Gum
ther at the Vallandigham meeting on Mon
day evening; and we were glad to read that
his hearers applauded him. He spoke .
profound truth; and he might have added
with equal truth, that the Union could
never have been endangered by such re-
bellion as now troubles US. had the right Of
free speech been faithfully and thoroughly
maintained everywhere within our limits.
1t was because all discussion of certain
subjects was forbidden and punished with
violence in the cotton states, that the cons
pirators against the Union were able there
to seize the reins of government and to sub
vert the constitution. 1t was by prohibit
ting all teaching at variance with their own
doctrines that they succeeded in deceiving
the people of those states to their ruin. 1t
was only by crushing out all freedom Of dis
cussion that they were able to palm. off up
on the poor whites of the South such tales
of "the Yankees" as upheld one part of the
Union to the other as a monster. -
Had speech and the press been as free in
South Carolina as in Massachusetts,, in Mis-
sissippi as in Illinois, in Alabama as in
Ohio, there would have been no rebellion !;
the criminal designs of southern conspira-
tors would have been exposed to the peo-
pie, and these would have united against
the demagogues and put them down. The
best proof of this is found in the fact that,
just in proportion as the press and speech
were free, just in that proportion do we
find States or parts of States loyal to their
duty. West Tennessee easily fell prey to
the conspirators-there freedom of speech
was crushed out by threats of the bowie
knife and revolver. But East Tennessee,
where Parson Brownlow so long insisted on
the right of an American to speak his mind
on every subject, is loyal to-day. Eastern
Virginia, where the aristoeratic slavehold-
ers had long crushed out free speech, has
become a rebel stronghold, but Western
Virginia, where discussion was measurable
free, remained loyal. OF all the slave states
Missouri was that one where the rights of
free speech and free press had been most
successfully asserted and exercised and, in
the words of Mr.. Pollard, the rebel histor-
ian Of the year Of the war, "the convention
chosen in that State contained not q single
secessionist'' people, informed of the
merits Of the struggle, cleaved to the Un-
ion.
We rejoice to hear those assert the neces
sity of free speech who were, until the war
began, the only ones who attempted to in
terfere with its exercise in the free states
But they do not stand alone. Everywhere
in the South, where our armies have driven
out the rebels, men are awakening to the
vital importance Of the freest and fullest dis
cussion. Thus writer in the Nashville
Union says:
| 81 do not say now that slavery is wrong
necessarily, or that it is such an evil that it
ought to be removed, but Isay that If any
one else thinks so, he ought to have the
right Of saying so. and to show its evils to
others, by fair argument, il he can. Upon
this subject, as well as others, he has the
right Of free thought and free speech. Any
statute limiting him in this respect is des-
potic violation OF his rights. To apply a
stigma to him for the exercise of this right,
is simply an evidence Of weakness and mall
|ignity. A fool can use odious epithets and
saeers as effectually as the wisest philosop-
her. Besides, philosophers never treat the
arguments or opinions of opponents in this
way"
'.Without free speech the Union cannot
b. restored"--to this we would add--with
free speech il can never be destroy ed, or
even imperiled; and If the American people
sitter putting down the rebellion, desire to
clinch the nail and to make the Union per.
petually secure for their children, they have
only to ordain that wherever the American
flag floats or American law rules there
speech and press shall be free as air.
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