New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-10
rur pppSS AyD Sr4TEsuiNSHIP.

without dsparaging the merits of the speeches
delivered in the Senate in the recent debates
on the Reconstruction acts, il must be conceded
that on either side the speakers laborod I'M
der the disadvantage that the topics they
were discussing had already been exhausted 10y
the press Through the prompter medium OF
our daily journals, every point and argument
had been so clearly advanced and frequently
reiterated that, from necessity, the oratlons OF
the Senators shone with reflected light, not
with an original ciiulgence No fact in our
American life is more important than this, OF
indicates more gratifying advance, not only
IN the power of the press, but in the intelli-
gence Of the masses of the people on political
questions. For the newspapers in this respect
are representative of their readers. They dis
cuss public questions with thoroughness and
ability, because the reading people demand
thoroughness and ability in their discussion,
and easily detect the Numbering nonsense OF
the charatan and the deinagogue. Our Amer
lean journals, therefore, can no longer tie
themselves TO individuals known as great
men, nor to the machinery of parties. They
can no longer follow, but must lead. They
cannot wait to know nor afford to care what
the majority Of the Senate, the House. the
Legislature, the Convention, or any particular
candidate will say upon any question which
demands discussion, but must speak in clear
tones rs promptly as the contingency arises,
and with such care and consistency As shall
insure respect for their utterance.
The influence of the ascendancy of the press
over politics has been to aid the popular mind
in discriminating itself from the chains of yul-
gar hero-worship, or that blind allegiance to
precedent which disallows progress. By eman-
cipating the people from man-worship, and the
alteration of precedent, and leading them to
the discussion of political questions on the
broader basis of first principles and abstract
justice, We are breaking their idols of flesh and
parchment, and leading them to the altar of a
more divine inspiration. Less importance at
taches to the opinions of our leading statesmen.
They are seen to be mainly mere opponents OF
q popular sentiment which is educated by the
press. The Ship of State has had its masts IA
iced, its sails lowered and shortened boilers and
engines put in, and has been metamOrphosed
into a steamer, of which our Politicians are the
visible engine, but the Daily Press is the pro-
polling power The anti-Slavery revolution
which swept over the North, and through the
educated power of the North abolished Slavery;
the long and persistent arguments by which Con-
gress was induced to abandon reconstruction
policy which disfranchised the coored race, and
adopt one of impartial suffrage and to forego
vindictive measures and practically adopt uni
versal amnesty toward Rebels, are among the
most conspicuous instances of the leading
power of the press, which is both the oracle of
public opinion and the forerunner of its legis-
lation. Whether wholly for good or in some
measure for evil, the public press has become
the educator, not only of the people, but of the
"Senate, the Pulpit, and the Bar" the former
leaders of public opinion Hence it is that
when great questions of national policy and
law come to be discussed before either branch
of Congress, the State Legislatures, or even
the Supreme Court, it is seldom that anything
more than a repetition of the arguments already
made familiar to the public ear Is presented.
The points in the case as entertained by each
speaker, are known from the paper he reads,
and if he ventures to restate them, it is gener
ally assumed that he does so as an advertise
ment of his rhetoric among his constituents,
and not to affect the body to whom his speech
is made. This state of things oxpedites legi,-