New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-06-13

lth0r0ugn-pace0 Man-OWler. VIII iobi"s'
not only holds reading of any DO
scripton in exceeding contempt put
he believes, and says, that the oniel
evils which afaict other communities than MS
Own arise from the multiplication of books and
the diffusion of knowledge. Most Of the slave
holding philosophers have always insisted that
to educate the masses of mankind was TO IN
yoke anarchy and promote infdelity-that
Common Schools so far from being the blessing
which We consider them, were political curse
that the more ignorant poor men were Kept
the better. Hence we suppose that they
feel the high price of whisky much more
keenly in Richmond than the high price OF Ihe
Examiner, for the examination of which they
do not care the rinsings Of a punch-bowl. we
think nothing could better illustrate the an
tagonistic positions of free and of slave COM
munity. The latter is more afraid OF discussion
of any kind than boarding schoOl miss is OF the
ghost Of her grandmother. OF course, IN any
society, the members of which are required TO
think alike upon a topic Of principal Importance
newspaper would be the most needless
thing conceivable. The dominant class In
the Confederacy supposes Slavery to be
the greatest of God-given blessings
and it expects the sub-dominant class to think
the same way. Everything is settled for
centuries to come. To 60 ahead is Yankee,
and to stand still alone becomes pntrlarchal
gentlemen. 1t is evident that q society ike
this is limited in its position; and, although 1t
may move backward, progress involves some
thing pretty near to its complete dissolution.
Thus tho slaveholdng scheme is in itself toler-
ably rounded, consistent, and complete; and,
considered as the work of the devil, could
hardly be improved, even by his own admitted
ingenuity. But freedom implies not merely
physical but an intellectual enlargement-au-
dacity in graphing with great questions Affect
ing the culture Of mankind-curiosity in the
solution of social problems-discontent with
any manifest blundor which is capable OF cor
rection-the application of discovery to new
and higher methods Of life. To be free is not
merely to possess the privilege of locomotion qt
will but the boon Of thinking, and of subse-
quenty reducing thought to concrete and prac-
teal results. Hence, while Shareholders want
no newspapers, Freemen feel them TO be as
much a necessary of life as bread or meat.
1t will be very dreadful, by and By, for the
exclusive and isolated lords Of the plantations
to find their enormous estates cut up into small
farms, with every small farmer taking at least
one newspaper, and some of them two or three.
II will be ntolerablc when perchance they may
read something in their local journals irritating
10 their peculiar sensibilities, not to be able
to go over and shoot the offending editor, or at
least administer the balmage Of tar with the
appropriate feathers. But tiis elassT Of men, in
season, will die out. and the world will be the
better for their departure. After they have
become conveniently few in Richmond, we shall
hear no more of newspapers there at half
hundred dollars per annum, even although that
fine city may DO in a state Of siege.