Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-11-16

An Excellent Article ON the Retire-
ment Of The New York JOurnai
of Commerce from Politics -. A
Free Press.
from The Cincinnati Enquirer1
The publishers of The New York Journal
of Commerce have given notice that hereaf-
ter political disquisitions will be avoided in
that paper. The Journal Of Commerce has
been, during the Administration of Mr..
Lincoln, one of the most temperate OF the
newspapers OF the country opposed to the
measures of the Government. Free from
party obligations, and conducted by gentle
men of taste and ability, it has said and
done nothing of which aught but extreme
bigotry could complain. Yet, on several
J. occasions, its publishers have been inter
fered with by the direct action of the Gov
ernment; its issues suspended and its edi-
tors put under arrest; until, as we suppose,
it has virtually offered the alternative to
refrain from political disquisitions or to in
cur final suppression.
The Journal of Commerce-hOlding spe-
cial place in the ranks of New York jour
nalism-has been for many years highly
profitable concern; and we do not suppose
that the proprietors felt themselves at lib
erty to indulge in the luxury OF speaking
their minds for a few days, at the expense
of being broken up and perhaps imprison-
ed. They came, it is evident, to the conclu-
sion that there Is not, in New York, force
OF public sentiment in favor of a free press
sufficient to insure them protection; and as
this is the only real guaranty OF such free
dom, then withdrawal from an unavailing
struggle is an act of which no one has a
right to complain. When man has pre-
sented to him the alternative to hold his
tongue or to lose his life or his fortune, we
do not know of any moral obligation which
requires him to tempt his fate by uttering
his opinions.
Taking the present state of things as a
criterion, it is evident that the people OF
the United States have either consented to
abandon their civil liberty, or that they
have ceased to look upon free press as one
of its guarantees. Looking at things in
the abstract, one would naturally suppose
that every public journal would, for fear of
establishing precedent which might be
used against ITSELF instinctively stand forth
as the champion of freedom of publication.
This, however, is not the case. The organs
of the party In power demand and applaud
the suppression of those of the opposition;
and this, whether it is done regularly, by
officers receiving their orders from the
Government or by mobs or squads of
soldiers acting upon their own suggestion.
The breaking up of Democratic newspaper
office and tile maltreatment or imprison-
ment of its conductors, seems to afford
to our loyal journalists the highest en-
joyment of which their moral natures are
susceptible; and hence, doubtless, their fire.
quent demands for repetition Of the per-
formance.
Few people are aware as to the extent to
which the Democratic press has been inter-
fered with in the United States since the
present Administration came into power.
A list of the cases in which such interfer-
ence had taken place, either under official
command or by mob violence, including
those in which the conductors had been
maltreated or imprisoned, giving brief
sketch of the circumstances, occupying
from two to six lines each, taken from the
Journal of Commerce, filled a space of two
columns and half in the Enquirer, into
which, a few days ago, it was copied.
Doubtless the compilation of such cata-
logue had the effect to present to the minds
of the conductors of that journal the pre-
carious character of the tenure upon which
the life of All opposition newspaper depends
placed between the upper and neither mill
stones of vigorously parental Admins
tration and bodies of intensely loyal private
regulators.
There is no need to disguise the fact that
the opposition press exists by the suffer-
ance of the Government: that Is to say, it
has no recognized principle of right upon
which to depend for its protection-the on
ly question being whether the party in
power will gain or lose by its suppression.
1t stands charged, by authority, with dis
loyalty. The organs of the Administra-
tion openly assert the right of the Gov
ernment to deny to its issues the use ofthe
mails as means of circulation; and petty
military commandaEts in all quarters ac-
cumulate little amounts of petty populari-
ty by pompous pronunciamentos shutting
it out of their several Jurisdictions.
There is, therefore, no freedom of the
press in the United States. That thing of
which, for half a century or more, Ameri-
can fledegling orators did so boast on fourth |
of July occasions, as great light kindled |
upon this continent, which was throwing |
its beams across two oceans, and awaken |
ing corresponding signals upon every quar- |
ter of the globe, to the terror of antiquated |
despotisms and the demolition Of effete dy- |
nasties, has gone out, like the last snuff of |
an exhausted candle. Our Pharos was |
very fair; but it was built upon sandy |
foundation. 1t scarcely survived the first |
waves of popular commotion. Almost the |
first act that was done to dispense with the |
palladium of our liberties, /" and nearly the |
first thing which we demonstrated was
that, wise as we were, we knew nothing
about ourselves.
To suppose that the press of one side can
be free, when that of the other is under ter
ror, is the idlest of all mistakes. Every
blow struck at any press is warning to all.
If the war against freedom of publication
has made Democratic journalists fearful IL |
has made those of the other side subservient.
The state of the Democratic press may be
sorrowful, but that of its rival is shameful.
To be oppressed is bad; but to be sycophant,
/ pimp, or parasite, is infamous. The
organs of the Administration may vaunt as
much as they please Of their immunity from
,fficial power or popular violence; it is at a
lear rate that they buy their protection-at
he expense of their honor, their independ-
,nce, and-if they ever had such an article
their self-respect.