The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-05-27
Suppression Of Newspapers at the
North.

The suppression of the two newspapers, the
World and the Journal of Commerce, by mil
itary authority, in loyal State, may well oc-
casion alarm and indignation in the breast of
every citizen who values the inalienable rights
guaranteed to him by the constitution of our
government. That such an arbitrary act was
perpetrated, without civil CONFUSION and rev.
olution following as inevitable consequences,
shows either an extraordinary degree Of for
bearance, or culpable Indifference of the PEG.
pie to the preservation of their dearest rights.
ance was exercised than to be assured that our
liberties will be tamely relinquished at the
bidding of any tyrant, elective or hereditary.
But if our rulers continue to perpetrate such
unlawful acts, no matter how plausible the
pretences, the time may come when "forbear-
ance will cease to be virtue" 1t is an old ak.
ium and true one, that no nation ever lost its
liberties in day. The general condemnation
of the suppression of the liberty OF the press
in New York, not only from the opponents of
the Administration, but from its ablest and
most influential friends, we trust will have the
effect to check the encroachments of arbitrary
power, and satisfy our rulers that whatever
differences of opinion may exist on minor
matters, the country will be united in defence
of the fundamental rights of the people.
Such utterances as the following from the
New York Evening Post edited by WILLIAM
CULLEN BRYANT, cannot fail to have due
effect:
With our views of the Importance and invio-
liability of the liberty of the press, our readers
will not expect us to approve of the suppress
sion of the two newspapers, the Journal of
Commerce and the World, by the authority of
the federal government.
If there be any right which the founders of
our government sought to guard from viola
ton with special care, it is the right freely to
discuss political questions and puplic measures
by means of the press. Accordingly, the Con-
stitution of the United States provides that
Congress shall make no law abridging the free
dom of speech or of the press and in another
article declares that the right of the people
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, from unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated" The freedom
of the press is asserted in the same article of
our constitution as the freedom of religious
belief, and guarded from infringement by the
same explicit terms.
Moreover, in every constitution of every
State in the Union it is expressly stipulated
that certlin rights are to be exempted from the
ordinary proceedings of government. and
among these is the freedom of the press, which
is placed on the same high level with the rights
of conscience and the right of the people to
assemble for the purpose of demanding re-
dress OF grievances, or to bring about a change
of administration. The early statesmen of
our country, by whom these constitutions
were made. were so jealous of the infringe
ment of these great rights, that they would
not leave it to the discretion of anv govern
ment of the States or the nation, to interfere
with them.
1t is, therefore, with pain that we see the
offices of any of our journals entered by the
agents of the government, and their publica-
tion stopped, at the command of the Execu-
tive. y To march platoon of armed
men into the office of journal and stop its
publication, in q part OF the country which
has not been placed, and which there is no
necessity of placing, under martial law, is
proceeding which has strange aspect when
we compare 1t with the constitutional provi.
sions by which the rights of the press are so
sedulonsly guarded from violation.
We cannot, therefore, but join in the hope