Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-09-08
PUBLIC PRISONERS.

We need not say, for the information and warn
ing OF our readers, that among the olectioneerin,
arts to which unscrupulous partisans will updoubt
eddy resort during the present canvass is the for
gerry of representations purporting to be extracts
from Southern newspapers, and which will be dis
seminated in the Loyal States for the purpose of
manufacturing or moulding public opinion accord
ing to the wish of the forger
We have already seen the extent to which this
nefarious business has been carried, poisoning at
their fountains those channels of communication
through which the public is compelled to receive
the most of the intelligence it derives from the
region beyond our military lines. So audacious
have been these forgeries, and SO adroit in some
cases has been their execution, that we have seen
the Secretary of State made the innocent victim
OF supposititious paper purporting to be an Off
cial report of Mr.. Mallory as the Confederate
Secretary Of the Navy. As "pious frauds" were
once conceived in the supposed interest of the
Church, SO we have at the present time our " loyal
frauds" conceived in the supposed interest Of the
States and palmed off upon the people for the pur-
pose of hoodwinking and deluding them.
Sometimes these forgeries' are concocted in a
spirit Of literary pleasantly, if to crafty the
craving of the multitude for sensation writing, or
to test the extent to which the popular credulity
may be presumed upon, as in the case of the fcti-
tious narrative purporting to give an account of
the tragic scene produced in the city of Charleston
by the explosion of shell, which, SO the story ran,
cnnU ord fhn vuha fha IF
Pickens was being celebrated into the chamber Of
death. The whole story was an idle hoax. Some
times these forgeries are concocted with higher
aim, and therefore with still more dishonest pur
pose than when they merely seek to tickle NOR
bid appetite for exciting news. Among such for
geries We must class all spurious compositions
which, whether purporting to be official papers
like that Of Mr.. Mallory, or whether purporting
to be expressions of public opinion in the South,
are fabricated for the purpose of misleading the
Northern judgment as to matters and things in
issue before the Northern people We may be
sure that the same men who did not scruplc to
forge report for Mr.. Mallory when it was seen
that such report as was actually forged would
temporarily serve the interests of the Government
will be even more unscrupulous in the service Of
their party.
We need not say, therefore, that it behooves
all honest people to be on their guard through
counterfeit articles represented to be taken from
the Southern papers md calculated to have a
bearing on the pending political canvass. We
have had in our own hands the evidence that arti-
Giles credited to particular papers in the South did
not appear in the papers to which they were cred
ited and the thing that has been is the thing that
shall be- 1t will always be safe, therefore, to scru
tnize the internal evidence which every alleged
extract from Southern journals may present as to
it, character for genuineness and to withhold Gre
donce from the claim of any questionable ex-
tract to be considered genuine which cannot be
automatically traced, in its reproduction at the
North, to some reputable paper, known to be
above the suspicion of lending itself to such
electioneerng resorts, and which shall hold itself
responsible for the accuracy and truthfulncss Of
the extracts it may make from any Southern jour-
nal And it is in this view that the impunity
just allowed by the Administration to the most
criminal fcrger that has yet been detected in his
neiarious trade becomes doubly matter Of sorrow
and shame to loyal and honest citizens, who desire
for themselves, as for their country, to see the
fountains Of the public confidence protected from
the arts Of these public prisoners.