The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-05-03
FROM THE CAPITAL.
The Censorship Of the Press-Why
Forney's Chronicle IS not Sup

From the Worlds Correspondent
yU.eu,ScroN Anril o.

From the Worlds Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April %.
In the light of these comparatively
better and more liberal days, it seems
scarcely possible that only few months
ago there was in this country such a
thing as n censorship of the telegraph
and the public press. Positive enough
| i'm it's operations, yet rs distinct branch
or bureau of the then government" 1T
was vague, indefinite sort at concern,
vested i'm and exercised alike hy Sew
ard, Stanton aud all or any at their sub
ordinates, civil or military. in amy part
of the country; while any Radical who
chose to he complainant of anything
offensive i'm public Journal, constitn-
ted himself a censor, rang his family
tea bell for help, and forthwith the jour
nal was warned or suppressed, and tho
offender was very likely put i'll prison.
In view of the approach of cholera, the
keen noses these fellows had for any
thing in the shape of offensive mat
fer" would make them valna-
BILE agents and adiuncts to the
Board of Healthiust now Aparagraph
calling the late Lincoln long-legged,
unganly, or questioning the sweetness
of some OF his stories was "dlsloyal'
Not "to stand by the President in those
DAYS was treason" A breath against
Stanton was opposing the government
| 70 call that immaculate patriot, Butler,
common thief, was "copperhead ours
ing" and "the revilings of rebels Half
the editors in The country kept ohe eye
ou the Capitol, while the other was fixed
on Fort Lafayette. Radical mohs talk
ed about cutting and cleaning ont news
paper Offices A little crippled boy who
peddled papers on the train between
New York and Bridgeport, and thus, as
! was shown, supported widowed moth
er, for selling one of the New York jour
nals was seized by force from the Unit
ed States Marshall's Office, with all the
fuss and all the expense attending such
operations, and was thrust as Il State
prisoner'() into Fort Lafayette, where
he was kept in close confinement for
months; and when the doors weir bolt
ed upon him aud hundreds of like Sis
pected persons, there and elsewhere in
the country, the Radicals went about the
city streets. and through the country
roads and lanes, and shouted: Free
speech. free PRESS. free soil. and. above
all things. free pinnder.
Remembering al these things that
| tnr more than !"Nr years the President
was the government, and that diSre
Sprct to- thc one was "djSloyalty' II the
| other: that Stanton. not rs yet clothed
by seward with divinity, was still a
saint NOT To- hn lightly spoken against or
of; and, in short, that everything not
radical was necessarily rebel i, is en-
rinus, not to say amusing, 10 see the int
mense amount Of radical yituperation
now poured out against tie President.
Much of this stun - hut the II echo OF
what !, said by Stevens, Summer, Wade,
Wilson, and other common sCuld- and
Ma,Enuaya. ia The halls vt Congress.
But with the Vrecedeut7, established 10y
chs Radicals. il eNCites considerable sur
| Prise even among the radicals thrm-
| selves that the public pres, il permit.
| ted not only te ahnae the President aud
! his policy, bat actually 10 ady"ratr the
diauninn srhcmus Of the leader, who
are paving the Nay ana preparing the
pnh,iC mrud tor a ueW lehellt"u san
stranger does it seem that 4. radical
sheet, published uGier ihe very shadow
of the Capitol and actually supported
by the pdhliC money, IS permitted not
only to villify ami abuse the head OF the
government which supports it, hut to
ialsify the position and policy ct the
President; 50 rs to place him before the
people rs a traitor 10 his country.
This il done every day 10y Forney
Washington Chronicle 1t fairly foams
with falsehoods and yituperation 1t
not only abuses the President bat lies
about him. Everyone wonders why the
sheet is not suppressed. The answer is
simple. 1t is at once the tool and organ
of the radical majority in Congress, and
does not circulate greatly beyond that
body and their immediate circle OF ad-
mirers aud friends. To make a martyr
Of Forney by suppreSsiUg his sheet
would cost the country good round
sum of money When Mr.. Seward threw
the Chronicle ont Of the legation mail
bags, old Stephens rose in the House and
proposed what was, IN effect, an appro
priation of nearly twenty thousand dol
lars as a plaster for Forneys Seward
sore. The suppression of the paper itself,
particularly if it was done by order of
the President, would make hole in The
public treasury, by vote OF Congress,
which would be pleasauter for Forney
than it would for the public. Public
economy, then, advises the non, suppress
sion of'the Chronicle; and its value, not
only as an exponent, but as public ex-
poser OF Radical schemes aud designs,
renders its continuance in every way
desirable.