Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-11-23
0Rlo Statesn1arr,
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, NOV. %.
Davis bold Attempt to NIuzzIe tIie
Press-He OutdOes Lincoln.
Richmond Whig. Nov. lO.l

From The Richmond Whig. Nov. lO.l
The proposition of President Davis, in
his late message, to place editors and print
ers of newspapers under the thumb Of the
Executive, SO that that department may
have the absolute and entire control of the
whole press of the country, meets with no
favor out OF doors, whatever may be the
disposition of Congress. 1t is no novelty,
having been tried once or twice before by
his EXcellency, and been rejected almost
without consideration, by the Congress of
the Confederate States. 1t is the boldest
attempt to muzzle the press, or to '",N it
speak only such language as the supreme
head may like to hear that has been made
on this continent. Even in the Yankee
p Congress no such thing has ever been at
tempted. In the Yankee nation, whenever
an editor says anything which the Dictator
or his satraps consider Objectionable, he is
taken at once into custody, his types are
distributed or dispersed, his presses broken
or handed over to some loyalist, and he
himself left to mediate, in bastile, upon
the grandeur of the great Republic, and the
tender mercies of the best government un-
der the sun. But he is not insulted with
the reproach of having acted against law,
and being, therefore, justly clapped into
prison In pursuance of law. He Is told,
and he knows iJ without being told, that
he is there for having taken the name of
Abraham Lincoln in vain-tor having criti-
ciZed his measures or ridiculed his person;
for having attempted to bring the ruling
power into contempt or having said what
might expose it to eXecration. He knows
that there is no cause for his arrest and he
is not told that there is any. In fact, his
prosecutors do not hesitate to point to their
nTNa m loft fao haf - al k, Aln.,,
swords as their justification. Press and law,
they are given to understand, arealike silent
in war times.
The case is very different here. Wehave
a President who is remarkable for the con-
scientious scruples with which he executes
the law, especially when our enemies are
to be affected by it. Not for all the world
would he do anything tor which he had not
law to show. When he wishes to do any
thing arbitrary, he considers it better to
get law for it. 1t was in contemplation
at one time, we heard, to suppress The Er-
aniner newspaper, and this journal, for cer-
tain differences of opinion with the Execu-
tive, expressed in terms not sufficiently
courtly for the ear of majesty. But it was
not done, there was no law for the deed.
Lincoln would have acted differently. He
would have clapped the editors in prison
and knocked the type into "pi' without
waiting for any law. Ourmore considerate
ruler thinks it best to have law by means
of which he can effect the same thing. Give
him hook in every editors mouth, and a
ring in his nose and he will have no occa-
sion to send him to Jail. Give him the power
whenever an editor may express views not
congenial to his own, orsentiments with re-
gard to him, personally or officially, which
do not accord with his own high apprecia-
tion of his merits, to break up his paper by
trundling him and his printers off to the
trenches, and you enable him to accomplish,
under cover of law, all that Lincoln has
been able to accomplish by his most flagrant
violation. And such power the President
now asks Congress to bestow upon him.
viii the Congress of the Confederate
States consent to prostitute the entire press
of the Contederacy to the pleasure of the
Executive? Will they pass law limiting
the exercise of the most important func-
tion of editor, to his tools and dependents?
Will they render it impossible for the peo-
ple--their own people-their constituents
their benefactors-to hear the truth If 1t
be unpalatable to President Davis or his
friends, or his tools, or his minions? Shall
it, through their agency, become impossi-
BILE hereafter to hear one word against off,
Cidl lO uOW
against Presidential mismanagement, how
ever notorious-against oppression, pecu
lation, robbery, and all that class of crimes
of which free press is the only possible
corrective, because tits the only instrument
by which they can be exposed? If so, then
adopt the scheme of the message-detail ed
ttors and printers-make them dependent
for their daily bread upon President Davis.
The object will have been completely ac-
complished. You will have no editor who
dare whisper complaint of those high in
office-no printer will venture to set up
line or a sentence which does not celebrate
the virtues and the glory of the Executive.
To put printers and editors in the same
class with farmers, shoemakers, tanners and
other necessary trades and occupations, is
simply ridiculous. There is no analogy be-
tween the cases. There is no temptation for
the Executive to oppress any of these clases.
He can gain nothing by restricting the eXer-
else oftheir trades and professions to his own
tools and parasites. 1t is dangerous to give
him command of the press, because it enables
him to corrupt the fountain of intelligence;
because it enables him to blind the people
as to his own acts; because 1t places him in
a cloud which the people cannot penetrate.
We will not say anything about the i'm
portance OF free press. Every member of
Congress understands it and feels it. We
hope this m0nstrous proposition will re-
ceive such blow as will convince its au-
tn, that there is no use in prolonging its
existence or experimenting with itany fur