Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-05-02


where the Judges Of the Supreme
Court were elected by the Legislature,
that office vas an approved means of
buying off pertinacious persons who
would insist on preferring their claims
to a seat in the Senate; until 1t hap.
pened, in some of the States, that the
court OF last resort became q sort o falms-
house for political paupers, and such
mer were set upon the Bench as stirred
the laughter and excited the pity of all
beholders. It was also necessary to
AFFORD time for the necessary amount OF
what has been expressively, il not ele-
gantly, termed ~log-rolling,' that is,
for the supporters OF two candidates fQr
different offices to arrange 20 vote for
both, one set selling their votes for the
Votes of the Others or 1t meant that
equally moral and respectable practice
of buying the votes Of particular mem
bers for a particular candidate, by voting,
or promising to vote, for some bill or
Measure Of doubtful utility or certain in
Jury. which these purehaseabie members
1 had at heart. Sometimes votes were liz
the market to be bought with money.
| The candidate 'electioneered in his
own way always by professions Of ultra
devotion to the tenets of the party-ereed
and the promise of vast services to be
| rendered to the State; sometimes by
promises OF place or contracts, some
times by ~abnegating his w principles,
always by misrepresentihg his oppo-
nents. We have already spoken Of the
appliances Of liquor and the substituting
| of sIanderous lies. To paint the whole,
with strict regard to truth, bat in all its
minuteness Of detail, would disgust the
world with popular Government q
~picture of it would excel any of Ho-
GARTH.
The Press also played its part in these
elections, as in that of President
vocation generally being to SANDER and
Willy all the candidates, except those of
the party Of which it was the seavenger.
By the American ~common-law, it is
Iaudable to publish lies, ifone can thereby
| iniure his political enemies or serve his
political friends. This freedom Of the
Press has been deemed so valuable as to
be soIemnly guaranteed in our Constitu'
tons. It is becoming a very grave ques-
ton, whether a Republican Government
Of law and order can endure, where this
/ ucentious freedom is universal and
whether there ought not to be estab.
Iished, in some way or other, q censor,
ship of the Press, to keep it within the
limits, or at least in the neighborhOod
of Truth and Decency. The little reG
value Of the Press was strikingly shown
during the war, by its almost universe
dumb silence, North and south, in regarC
to the unconstitutional usurpations o
power. Many of these Sentinels o
Freedom were, indeed, the advocates
or at least the apelogists of that accursec
contrivance of tyranny, Martial Law.
Men came, at last, not to be at al
ashamed of the practice Of the basr
means we have family described, to Sc
cure success in the Senatorial elections
Nay, rather, they came to glory in being
adopts in the new school of politica
morals, and sought to win applause b.
describing to admiring listeners by VIVA
tricks they had attained their ends
Why should they not, under the domin
ion Of the doctrine that, in politics, tn
end justiAes the maRns3 And it cam,
also, at last, to be q sufficient encomiun
on a Senator, however devoid Of elo
luenee and craftsmanship, that he wa
an adept in political management, coul'
" stock, " shuttle and cut the cards well
and cheat adroitly in playing them. w
know SOFAS senst9rs $40 never resolve,
any other praise. 1t Is q wonder tina
| the Deity Is not Disguised with his crea
lures.
1.-THE wal against Evil" says the goo;
Curate, in SoUvEsTRE's " Scenes de 4
GouGanerie, should be Eaged as ou
Chouans carried on the war against tn
Republicans, without calculating tn
enemy's strength, and never believing
we have ended It. Every TACT nay be
come an arm, every example a bush
from behind which one fires a musket
shot against error. If we do not kill il
we make it lose blood, and, by force @
wounds, it ends by dying in the corne
of a ditch.n History sometimes record
and preserves the names Of the rogue
she pillories. Sometimes, on the con
trary, she hastens to forget them. Polit
zeal knaYes are not worthy of ar immor
tally, even of infany or contempt
Leave it to the police to photograph tb
rascals Of society.