Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-03

IatsLligeRcer? | speak of this paper as it wa:
| conducted by Gales and Seaton, several years
before the war-and do not particularize il
n the spirit of the partizan. 1t is known
that its venerable editors, like myself-old
| Clay and Webster Whigs-had been for sew
eral years in state of political orphanage
Neither Of these parties, which arose ON the
ruins ofthe old Wing party, could assert any
lawful claims to our Knight-service We
were Japhets in search of a father, who wa
reported dead, and whose fine estate was, up
on that presumption, just then about to be
distributed among remote collaterals, to the
entire exclusion of the next of kin. For
! as many as fifty long years that venerable
journal had maintained the even tenor of its
way-national in all its views, conservative
in all its precepts, dignifed in all its dispu-
tations, code of political ethics, fountain
of useful knowledge for the people, an ex-
emplar of pure morality in journalism. In
that long time, who ever saw its columns
polluted with a coarse sneer, or a ribald
Jest? who ever saw it otherwise than fit
and profitable companion for the virtuous
and the good? have been in the gallery
of the Senate Chamber at Washington in
those days when "there were giants in the
land" and / have seen one of those old
men, upon entering the Chamber, receive
from the Hottest among them such an ova-
ton of respectful courtesy as was rarelyac-
corded to the highest dignitary of the land.
In neighboring State, before the late civil
war, an unknown traveller came to his death
by accidental drowning. A coroners in
quest was held, and the verdict was that the
deceased was stranger and gentleman,
and that he came to his death by accidental
drowning. The coroner was asked what
evidence he had that the deceased was
gentleman His answer was that he found
in one of his pockets copy ofthe bible, and
in the other copy of the National Iatelli-
geacer.
heseobservations touching the influence
and power of the public press, have reference,
of course, to free press, in a free land, and
they are intended to hold up to the public
appreciation the immense value of the boon
which the Constitution Of the United States,
under the administration of Andrew John
son, secures to the people of this country, in
a free and unfettered public press. In AIDES
potism the press Is a cypher so far as the
public veal is concerned. In almost every
country except England, the public press is
at this time fettered and muzzled by fears
and jealousies of power. Just before the
late war, it will be remembered that the
Count de Montalembert peer of France,
was fined three thousand francs and sentenced
to six months imprisonment, for publishing
a sketch of the British Constitution-its free
debates in Parliament, and its free press,
with some iust contrasts rather unfavorable
to imperial France. This transaction, L re-
member, sent thrill of horror to the hearts
of the people of this country. But how triv-
ial was this compared with some acts done
in this free country during the late war?
1t is related in the life of Lord Eldon,
that he once attended, when young man, a
levee given by Lord Mansfield, at which the
Earl of Northumberland was a guest. The
Earl was descanting much to these gentle
men on the pleasures he had enjoyed during
a recent visit to Bath and observed that
the only drawback upon his pleasures, was
the want of the London morning papers,
which he liked to read at the breakfast
table Lord Mansfield observed, in reply,
" Your grace may not live to see it, but the
day may come when these same newspapers
will write the Earl of Northumberland out
of his titles and estates, and England out of
King" This prediction was made just as
the public press of England was writing its
self into the most enlarged liberty-which it
has ever since most manfully maintained.
The present Earl of Northumberland, doubt
less still holds on to his titles and estates
but the old motherland is q monarchy only
in name-One of the freest and most stable
governments on the habitable globe-and
owing her grandeur and her glory, as the
greatest of all its instrumentalities, to the
perfect freedom of its public press May
the God of Nations, in his infinite mercy,
ever vouchsafe tosthis great republic, a free
and an honest public press. Then, indeed,
may Francois
:" Take away the sword for--States .can be. Saved
without it
But, the restoration to the people Of a free
press-of the right of specialize reopen.
ing of the courts of justice, and the re-estab-
lishmentof civil law and social order is not
all for which the real friends of union and
everywhere, are called upon to re-
cognize the justice. and magnanimity of An
drew johnson. He speaks on every fit oc-
casion, words of hope and encouragement to
the scourged and afflicted Southern people
And words Eof Cancellation are to them, of
infinite value in the present prostration of
their fortunes. In this, | verify believe, he
reflects the feeling of every brave soldier of
the Northern army, who has confronted our
noble legions and tried their proves in the
battlefield. But he has encountered, at the
threshold, the bullets of opposition from the
Northern Radicals-the sincerity of whose
lamentations over broken Union, is at last
indicated in their present |
logged perseverance in keeping the States
lsunder. Who could have beheld the big |
ears coursing down the cheeks of these pure
md patriotic men, or heard the deep sighs |
Of anguish which seemed to rend their hearts
1t the disruption of the Goyemment-dese |
men upon uhom the laRile of Washington had
allen, and not have believed that they would |
nave been the very first to have welcomed
he South back within the folds of the. Union.
But,
Alas for the rarity
OF Christian charity
Under the sun,
Il is not so. And the annals of that thirty
years of sectional strife; the rancor, nour-
shed by their unceasing obioquy upon the
Southern people; eliminating aslast in the
ate grand but awful clash of arms; the signs