New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-04-20
rrE PRESS AND TmK PUBLIC.

mcntS of your subscribers in this quarter. we
fhoyeut the least doubt Of it, Representing
ftbat Is rejecting. conforming tO-tbe changing
opinion of the hour, may not be difficult bui
.it surely cannot be achieved by those VINO 90
Z mot try; and we never attempted the task' mo
rne il unadapted to our mental habits and tastes.
We might hoe cotton for n peck OF corn ana o
lcouple of pounds Of bacon per week, with Few
fcuts Of a horsewhip thrown in at intervals; we
fcan certainly chop cord-wood or dig potatoes Tor
q living. for we have tried; but to represent
,publc opinion in the editorial columns OF
newspaper is task quite outside OF our ca
'paoity. The physical possibility of doing it
'may or may not inhere in our faculties; the
moral does not.
We are sometimes inspired with intense dis
gust for a vocation whereof the popular estimate
appears to be so sor,lid and low. We have quite
often received epistles gravcly informing us that
what we think and say on a certain topic is I'M
popular in the evident presumption that we
,only need to know this to make us wear ship at
once, and come short round on the other tack.
The notion that writer should ever undertake
! to resist, correct and improve public sentiment
seems as inconceivable TO our mentors as that a
| man should practice law with a view to the
spromotion of Justice rather than for the sake OF
/. the money he might earn BY it.
I If the public is to be made any better, II
smust have instructors who do not represent
Fits average views but are wiser. better, pro-
founder, than they are. A journalist who uni
lormly represents" the popular opinion may
, make his newspaper profitable to its publishers
,.but what can he possibly have done for his read
sers As a vehicle of news, his sheet may be
valuable; but his editorials. considered as lamp'
salong tie public highway and guides to correct
thinking, can be of no use whatever.
) The idea which seems to lie at the bottom OF
athe degrading conception of our calling when
! we find prevalent seems to be not far from this:
IAN editor is an intellectual gladiator whom we
!. hire or pay to find or invent reasons for the
scourse which We have predetermined to take.
He is like the lawyer who, being paid his fee
sdoes his best for his client, whether that clients
Tease be good or bad. Tie cannot always win;
but he must ascertain what his clients want and
& represent" it as well as he can.
4 Now we know and could name journals that
Railways mean to ago with the tide" and gen.
serally succeed in this We presume that they
also succeed in making money; but they have
no more influence on public opinion than the
sweathercock has on the direction or force o! the
swind. They may be consulted as evidence Of
what is popular, and may, in that view, have
= certain value, but in no other are they worth a
astraw.
q Sometimes, we are addressed by person who
Ssays, Il have taken yourpaper fifteen or twenty
syears, and have never disagreed with il I'll
anow." We are very sorry to hear it; for, III
,sthe course OF so manyyears, we must have been
.,many times wrong, and you ought to have de-
Elected some of those errors. The end and aim
Of this journal are not 10 make It's readers think
in all cases as We do, but to teach them 10
think for themselves. We state our own Opin-
ions freely and frankly; we ask for them fair
consideration and a candid judgments but we
never dreamed that every one would make them
: his own. In fact, if we supposed every one
united in the belief Of a certain proposition, we
should waste no words in IFS defense. II is pre-
! cscly because we presume an opinion not gene
lrolly entertained that we show cause for cher
fishing it.
d On a single point, we insist on being better
understood. Several have written US, protest
Fling against sentimentality,' tenderness to
scriminsls," &c. They entirely mistake our posi-
I ton. 1t is in the interest not Of the criminal
!. but Of the yet undepraved that we resist penal
! inhictions that tend to barbarize the cOmmuni-
-r,'. 1t is in the interest Of Human Liberty that
) I'VE resist all that tends to invest the defeated
achampions Of Slavery with the honors Of martyr
gdom. We cannot well agree with those who
Ihold that great criminal escapes punishment
/ unless the law takes his life or nflicts on him
Some kind Of physical torture for our respective
Tstan1- points are not within hail Of each other;
1 but we can possibly make students Of history
and Of human nature comprehend that no
party triumphant in q great civil war ever yet
Suffered from treating its vanquished opponents
! with too much lenity. The danger is all the
$other way: for there will always be hundred
iyoices crying Smite :" for every one which
6pleads "Spare" In fact, they who would
ssilence the one only evince an uneasy con-
}sciousness that their side Of the question can
mot abide discussion. Better let all be fairly
iheard, and believe that they who "bear the
sword" in such a crisis are most unlikely, even
NJ unpronpted to rigOr, to bear it in vain"
ANr,a UuTrnpV