The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1863-06-12
Burnside and the Press.
From the ". Y. World. June I

The bltterest enemy ofGene,al Ambrose
E. Burnside will scarcely ask now that he
should " write book Coming before
the country in burst of patriotic emotion
as a respectable and gallant subal,ern off,
Ger, General Burnside expressed bis readi-
ness TO sacrifice his fortune to the hope Of
going down into history as IN honest
man. If honesty were matter of the
heart alone it is possible that this hope
might have been fulfllcl. BA there are
alterations THE intellect which positive
ly cloud the moral perceptions; and it
will be difficult for those in future times,
who read the strange record which this
unhappy person has been making for
himself ever since bis fatal bIunder at
Fredericksburg recoi'ed upon him in q
delugs of loyal blood, to distinguish Gala.
mites of helpless incapacity from tho
:ransSS.esslons of downright moral ob,;o,
ity. His course in the case Of Mr. WI
landlsham bad already fixed upon him tho
| trigh,tul brand which must forever attach
to these who, holding a public station.
outrage private rights and public laws in
whirlwind Of fana.caI passion. And
upon tie heels of this comes his general
order No. "a, forbiddng the circulation
in bis department of the World, and com
manding The positive suppression Of The
Chicago Times. No comments can ale
quate'y paint the tone and tenor of this
simply unprecedented degree. l. speak.
for itself and for its author. We hesitate
at reproducing it, because as loyal Ameri-
can citizens we shrink from giving real
" air and comfort" to the enemies of our
country by propagating such evidence Of
the mental imbecility, the poitacl ignor-
ance and the despotic passions Of a man
who wears the national uniform and has
beer commissioned to maintain the honor
and advance the interests Of our common
country. But the document belongs to
she story Of our times. No repentance
can recall its madness or relieve its author
from the enduring consequences of tho
thing that he has done The dav will
come when it will seem to him better that
he bad tied milestone about his ne k and
cast himself into the sea and THOUGH We
have no wish to swell the inevitable tide
OF puollc scorn which must eventually
overwhelm man who is perhaps as much
to be pitied as to be blamed, we owe il 70
ourselves and TO our readers to Law before
'hem in the words Of Gen Burnside him>
self the damning evidences of his mental
and moral condition which this order bears
upon its face:
Here follows Gen. Burnside's Order
No. 81 When some noisy and irrespon-
sioIe person, some Wetmore cultIcss Of
any body's blood" some camorous leagu-
or with lnso!ence and small beer, raves
abou; the " tendency Of opinions and ar
| ticles - which he Dnver reads, sensible
men pass the bstbler by in silent disdain.
These things we all expect in times Of ex-
treme popular excitement. But the Off
cial lis Of the most foolish person in the
world are presumed, and properly pre.um-
ed TO be done with some dimense. a. least,
Of res possibility; aud when Maj Gen.
rn.-rnside tramples the laws Of bis country
,i2ler foot. orders postmasters to violate
their duty, AID den"~:"c tho "tender-
cies " Of one journal a. calculated to ex.
ert a pernicious and reasonable IT,. 1'ence'
and the g sentiments " of another as "o,.-
loyal and incendiary," it is both disloyal
and incendiarv. both pernicious and
reasonable, to hold him excused from The
most ample and substantial responsible
for his libelous words and Illegal deeds.
1t matters not that Gen. Burnside is
impotent TO prevent the circulation Of the
New York World it matters not that in
his attempt to suppress The Chicago Times
he has been led to insult the judiciary and
to confront the indignant public feeling
OF great States. He is to be held to his
accountability not for what he has done,
but for what lie undertook % do. Were
his interference with the freedom Of the
press to result in a violent collision between
the soldiery under his orders and the PEG.
pie Of the Northwest, upon him would
justly we; Oh the responsibility of all The
lives that might be lost in such collision
and Of the terrible unsettling of all law
that must attend it. When Gen. Burnside
declares the tendency of articles pub
'ished in this Journal to be ''pernicious
and reasonable" he states what he knows
10 be utterly false. He is guilty of a will
ful and deliberate SANDER for the sake Of
excusng an equally wiIful and deliberate
crime against the fundamental principles
not Of Americans only, but Of al! well-e.-
tablished liberty. If tina. crime should
bear the fruit which the array Of armed
ard angry feeling in Chicago already
prefgures, upon his hea! will it be
If" d;sloyal and incen1iary fentimen!s
have been repeatedly expressed in the Chi>
cago Times, their either is or is not law
under which the expression can be proved
and when duly proved punished. If no
such law exists, nor under the constitution
framed by men who had lived through
seven years of fierce and deadly civil war
can possibly exist, Maj Gen. Burnside has
no more right than any other man in his
department to make his own opinions and
his own self>wil the supplement Of our le-
gal system, or to amend the charter Of
American liberties bv a general insertion
Of Burnside as the national Providence.
This is so plain thing, it appeals so dis
Linctly and forcibIy to every man who can
read and think, that it is perhaps unneces-