Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-11-24


press should vest in the military authorities
rewer to detail such editors and needful
employees of newspapers as they may con.
slider proper for the conducting of said pa.
pers, and to put all others in military service
is one which this House can by no means
spprove.
He supported his resolution in a long
speech; appealing to the bill of rights, and
to the necessity Of having an untrammeled
press, and thus severely assailing the policy
Of Davis:
Tho President desires that we should EN-.
power him and his official subordinates to
decide what newspapers shall be hereafter
printed, and what not what editors shall
be sent to the front of battle, and what eai-
tors shall be kept at home 10 o state of se-
curity what opinions as to public men and
measures shall go forth daily and weekly to
our fellow citizens In other words, Ire de-
sires to be empowered to establish system
of censorship which will give him unlimited
command over the public sentiment of the
Confederacy, as far even as our remotest
settlements extend. He asks to beinvested
with power with which we cannot clothe
him without destroying the very freedom for
which we are now contending in arms. He
asks for power which no King or Queen or
Imperial Potentate in all the world does now
possess, or would even presume to claim.
Other gentlemen might do as they please,
bm he shouldyeld up none Of these essential
rights either to President Davis or to Prest-
dent Lincoln. or any Of the eficiol min'ions or
surUiU0rs of the mushroom greatness or SELF
idottztng cdntty. In the exercise Of his pow.
er instances of partality and corruption
have been innunerable. The relatives and
friends, dependents of men in office, have
been uniformly favored, while the most
Beritorious claims Of others have been ut
terly and cruelty disregarded.
As an illustration of how this power of
detailing" and exempting" men had
been exercised by the President and Secre-
tary of War, Mr.. Foote said he would cite
the case of man who had been arrested a
few weeks ago for fraudulently obtaining
and selling passports to parties running out
of the country. He was arrested and tried
on the charge, but. though the evidence of
his guilt was conclusive, he was allowed to
90 unpunished. 1t was said that there was
"no law to reach his case," and so he was
turned loose. Yet the act stood before the
world, and he did not hesitate to say it was
an act of cool, diaboical viainy. In the
evidence ELECTED on the trial it was shown
that this map engaged in this infamous and
nefarious traffic, had and carried in his
breeches pocket letter from the President
Of the Confederate States. recommending
him to the universal confidence Of the peo-
pie of the South Nay, more. This pro-
curer of fraudulent passports had for more
than whole year kept out of the army by
secret exemption given him by Mr.. Sed
den ito write history of the war, which,
when written, no doubt will throw Tacitus
and Livy in the shade Here, said Mr.
Foote, we have an illustration Of Mr.. Sed-
den and Davis exemptions and de
tails. " Here is what may be expected if
Congress should invest tire President with
the power he desires Here is an example
OF how that power would be exercised. The
President would discriminate between the
editers he would send some to the held,
and those be liked and who hattered him he
would permit to stay at home. He would
such thing as free, unshackied press if
ordinary power. The editors would all have
to print what suited Mr. Davis, and if they
were not subservient to him, he would put
The power which is now asked at our
hands is not sought for any honest and pa
trlOtic purpose. Let Us suppose a case, con-
tnued Mr.. Foote, which may be much near
er the truth than all present know Of Sup
pose that there are several newspapers in
this city which are under the supervision
and direction Of intelligent, able and patri-
otc editors. Suppose there be another one,
ha ha 90 =
acknowledged integrity, whose father before
him was AN honest and patriotic man; sup
pose that relations exist between this pa
per and the Government which admit to its
columns daily all the official scribblers of
the vicnage, from the Department of State
down to the lowest clerkship OF bureau;
suppose you find in its columns almost every
morning silly and exorbitant commendations
of official functionaries of little brain and
no principle; suppose all the acts of feeble
and corrupt administration lauded od nau
scum suppose even that such oratOrical
productions as President Dduis' late Macon
harangue, that most disgusting specimen of
ftstida and biltingsoate 0rdtory that has
ever been uttered outside of all insane asyllnss,
to be extolled in the columns Of that paper,
and TO be pronounced alike wise, eloquent
and paterRat in its spirit and bearing sup
pose, in addition, that just such paper as
this, on a somewhat smaller scale, bound by
similar obligatins to men in power, to be
snugly located in every town and village in
the Confederacy suppose that all the ADLER
and more independent papers of the coun-
try, whose editors refuse to bow the knee
to Baa, and who, it is feared, might, from
time to time, if lett undistprbed IN their
vocations, be found revealing important and
annoying truths about public men and their
actings and dongs, should virtually be sup.
pressed by being deprived of their editorial
directors. l ask you, sir, weuld country
in which such proceeding were had be free?
or would people who submitted patiently
to such outrages be worthy Of freedom p
Sir, 1 tell you and my coult,ymen erer1,-
where, that Mr.. Dauis ioW neoer rest salts.
fed untit he shall haze established uaconsfitu-
tionqi poper. He rs sUery day soliditpng
his poioer more and more, His disregard of
public sentiment is such as no Uise and pater.
nal Epecutire Chiefhas ever before erhibited
He sets at naught at his o,on pleasure, our
best considered legislative enactments. :
Throughout the ConteO4racy, those ,cho h1ce
done most to earn the esteem and command
The confidence Of their .tciioio-cittzens, 10Th