The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-06-23
/ False issue.


aspirants, harp upon more than another 1t
is that the right of Free Speech and the Free
dom of the Press has been curtaiIed Ply the
present administration. From the first COM
Imencement Of the war by the rebels, the OPP
position have claimed the right to tath and
qorite treason, rebellion and disunlon, when
ever and wherever they thought there was
a chance to effect anything by Ito make
a convent, to stir up distrust and ill-feeling
or in any way to hinder obstruct or harass
the administration in its efforts to put down
the rebellion. As a general thing, they have
been allowed to run the full length of their
tether-to abuse the president, to rail at and
spit upon his bolicy to their hearts content.
A few more prominent traitors like Vallan
digham, who set themselves Systematically
to work to prevent enIistments, and to en-
courage desertions, have been mildly dealt
with by government, and temporarily re-
strained from their reasonable work. But
the great majority of takers and writers OF
treason, and abettors and encouragers Of the
rebels, have had full and unresarained play
of tongue and pen.
They know that this cry of usurpation and
restriction Of the right of Free Speech and
the Freedom of the Press, is false alarm,
a solemn lie, but it is a convenient string to
harp upon There is nothing the people OF
this country are so tenacious upon and SO
tender of, as this right Of Free Speech and a
Free Press, and therefore nothing which a
brawling demagogue can use with more
effect with the uninormed and unthiuking.
While the very fact that these writers and
speakers continue TO hurl their demunciations
against the President, against the war; and
against every act Of the President or Con-
grcss. to make it more etfectual i'll crushing
the rebellion. year after year without inter
ference. is the fullest and most complete ref
utation of their assertions to every think
ing man, there are some who cannot see 1t,
and actually think there has been usurpatlon.
But, even if it were a fact, that this mon
Ister rebelIion-ths deadly civil war that
has been forced upon the coulltry--with its
reasonable sylnpathizers in our midst had
,lade it necessary to silence for a time the
more dangerous reasonable tongues, and re
strain the more reckless and paricidal pens,
these men are the very last ones who should
complain. The party they are SO anxious to
restore to power, and the institution they
are so anxious to preserve, have together,
practically usurped tie right Of Free Speech
and Freedom of the Press iii every slave
State, for the last quarter OF a century. In
nunberless instances men have been seized,
robbed, mai treated and even hungin times
of profound peace, for no other crime than
being suspected of being aboltionists, OF hay
! ling republican newspapers in their pockets.
And yet these men who are now SO loud III
their protestations against any Infringement
of the right Of Free Speech and Free Press.
never spoke or wrote a word against that
kind of usurpation and restriction Of guaran-
teed rights. OF what practical benefit have
these constitutional guaranteed rights been,
or what amount of protection have they fur
nished to persons or property, anywhere
south Of Masons & Dixou's Line for the
last quarter of century? Could you go to
Charleston, to Richmond, to Louisville, to
Memphis, to Nashville, to Knoxville, TO Bal
timore even, or anywhere else i'll the slave
States, and advocate Republican principles,
without even abiding to the question of
slavery, without being mobbed, tarred and
feathered. ifnot murdered outright: Every
body who knows anything, knows you could
not. And these brawlers for the right of
shouting and writing the most glaring trea-
son in a time Of actual war, when every word
I they utter or write, is calculated to aid and
abet the armed enemies of the country,
know full well that such was the case, and
would be again, if they could by any pos
sibility accomplish their object, of restoring
| the Union by compromise with slavery or Of
establishing an independent confederacy
! based upon that delectable institution. The
truth is, there is no honesty, no truth in
this cry of usurpation and infringement of
the right OF Free Speech and Free Press
Speech was never so free but that its abuse
could be restrained if the public good requir
ed it. Nor was The Press ever so free, but its
abuse could be restrained if the public good
or the public morals required it. 1t is the
last resort of demagogues and office seekers,
in the accomplishment of their own private
ends and aims
J. c. Fremont has entered the arena of
ACKNOWLEDGMENT and self qualification,
and his first step is to join in the cry of these
demagogues, Of executive usurpation of the
rights of Free Speech and the Freedom of
the Press. No man better than J. c. Fremont
knows the utter falsity and baselessness Of
such change, His own acts, while in com
mand of the department of Missouri. show
that he only needs the power, to exercise a |
more arbitrary rule than President Lincoln |
ever dreamed Of. He knows too, that under |
the rule oft1e very men who are now in
fellowship with him, and who alone of all (
the American people, applaud his nomination,
hundreds of men, eight years ago. were mob
bed, maI-treated and abused for no other
crime than that of advocating his election
to the office Of President. Then, his popular
vote might have been, aud would have been
swelled by thousands, if not by hundreds of
thousands, lad the right of suffrage been
free and unrestricted, and men had been al