Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-07-01
Eternal city :


| Himself from GoD he could not free;
| He builded better than he knew
| The conscious stones to beauty grew.n
| We have no reason to suppose that he
who started the first regularly published news
paper, was at all aware of the momentous
character Of his doubtful undertaking, yetthe
! slow but sure development OF the experiment
has opened one of the noblest and broadest
fields Of intellectual labor and activity within
+, the whole wide circle of human effort and
human endeavor, if we consider the grandeur
! Of It's aim and the benefcence of it's end
| How we would like to penetl ate the recesses
in which this unfailing and perennial source
of knowledge had its birth, and learn some
thing OF the consultations and real purposes
! of those who first entertained and executed
the plan of printing sheet for general cir
culation-whether they regarded it as some
! thing trivial serious--and see If any Of the
| golden beams which flood our noon day of
newspaper enterprise, gilded and played
around the heads of those nameless and un-
conscious benefactors of all posterity, to
whom we owe the ''debt of gratitude i'm
| mense."
| The branch of our art which relates to the
writing and publishing Of books, important
and extensive as that has become, is not the
one which concerns US as journalists An
institution unknown to the ancient world and
the middle ges, which has been called "The
| Fourth Estate" has arisen in modern times,
| become universal and permanent in its infu-
| ence and there is every assurance that its
| already prodigious power will constantly in
crease aud become more and more pervading
in the future than it has been in the past, as
no limits can be set to its expansion. Despots
and usurpers have always watched it's growth
with jealous distrust, and it has had to break
| the fetters with which they have bound it,
before it could assert its full and rlghttul as
tendency. During the last fifty years, it has
gradually been assuming a more lofty and
commanding position-adjusting itself more
perfectly to its natural and true relations to
society. It is not now as formerly, the mere
Indicator or follower but the creator and di-
| rector Of public sentiment. The PRESS is the
foremost and vital FACT Of our day and
countryside most effective medium through
which the principles of liberty and justice
find expression and are interviewer into the
| very texture Of our system Of government
It's influence extends, directly or indirectly,
to all classes and conditions, and none are
beyond it's reach. 1t helps to build up par
ties and it helps to tear them down. 1t
| makes and it unmakes politicians-the airy
and transient bubbles which fly up and float
for O brief hour on the surface of popular
nothingness-whileit it is the sustainer and Win
dicator of the upright and patriotic statesman,
who fearlessly discharges his duty. There is
no escape from its Argus eyes and Briarian
| hands. 1t promotes every public interest,
examines every political question, shapes
every social movement, announces every dis
covery in science, every Improvement in the
arts, and every invention in mechanics. The
| daily and weekly newspaper has become as
| common as it is in dispensible. tbs the COM
panion Of every intelligent citizen, and finds
its way into every intelligent family. The man
| without his paper is q man without his guild
| ing chart, on which is sketched the eddyings
and windings, the foods and tempests of the
busy life heaving and surging around him.
He can, if ne chooses, shut his eyes and
stand still, but everything and everybody else
viii be in motion, and will quickly rush
| ahead Of the idle starer. Men look to their
| favorite journal in order to keep themselves
we'll informed of the worlds daily doings, not
only of what has happened at home but what
has transpired in all the five divisions of the
globe 1t is resorted to not only for facts
but for opinions, not only for statements but
| for comments, not only for details but for
arguments, not only for suggestions but for
| discussion, and is daily read by thousands
who never open a book from one year to an
other. The newspaper is not only the collec
tor and distributor of news, but it is in re-
ality an educator of the masses, who depend
on it's often instructive essays and elaborate
articles, for the presentation, in the most Of
tractive and available FORM Of the most
enlightened and advanced views taken of
every subject AS in dew drop of the morn
ing may be seen mirrored all the scenery and
beauty of surrounding nature, SO in we'll
filled an well-arranged journal may be found
sketched and reflected the events, incidents
and changes of the worlds life for the
passing day. In truth, it does the thinking
of large portion of the community, who
adopt its conclusions and act on its counsels
This it is that makes the newspaper agency
of so much good or evil, and should impress on
it's conductors q deep and abiding sense of their
responsibility, and as far as possible, amid
the temptations and difficulties surrounding
them, induce them to take and adhere to
the resolution, first to place themselves on
the solid ground of right and in the plain
path of duty, and then have none but the
cause of truth either to advocate or to defend
to habitually cherish profound love OF
justice and humanity, and an equally pro
found hatred of wrong and oppresslon-and
then in all our divisions and disputes on
theories of policy and affairs of administra-
lion, peace and safety will be made to har-
monlze with salutary changes ana steaay
progress, and self-defence and self-preserva-
ton unite not only in confirming and consol-
idaung, but in beautifying and adorning our
political institutions. If we are wise and
grateful, we will do as our fathers did-aet in
the present for the future-for the ages and
generations coming after US. We Inherited
hberty-let us transmit it, with none of its
original brightness tarnished or lost.
Since Journalism has assumed the dignity
Of q distinct profession-a rank which it has
won for itself-such is the position it now
holds, though ii is far from having arrived at
the highest degree of effectiveness which it Is