New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-06-30


sentiment halts or goes sstray, the press
a near to enHshten its ignoranc'
Q invoke its justice, arouse it
. energies, and awaken its sens
: Of responsibility. It is these that ar
handmaids to all political liberty and al
personal right-the chancellors and de
J fenders of every nation, class and ind
> vidual. Of the press Curran said: at j
surely the great sentinel-is gives the Ggh
to see and the tongue to speak" Yes, and
when the press is darkened. or restrained
the public sentiment finds spontaneousl!
a means of vindication and redress.
Men will live with more patience in thu
shadow of any other despotism than tina
which subjugates the press or makes it the
instrument of its usurpations. the oracle
of its falsehood or the apologiss of it,
crimes. History. has sufficiently attested
the hopelessness of any tyranny by which
the press has been enslaved. Bya sublime
instinct there is among all races, countries,
factions, where civilization has lifted the
veil of barbarism from the minds of men
ever jealous and unsleeping vigilance,
perpetual watch and ward over the rights
and immunities of the public press. Politi-
cal liberty, freedom of conscience, and all
exemptions from mental restraint, are its
needful aids. Where these prevail, the
press is the governing power, crownedand
throned, giving the slight to see, and the
tongue to speak,"
With what degree of fidelity the public
press everywhere reflects the public senti-
ment depends upon the universal freedom.
Hence. in our country, it is radically the
power that governs. No statute can have
force against the influence of an enlight-
ened public press, conducted with moder-
alton, and adorned with virtue-and no
statute ought For in so far only as
legislative bodies enact the general will
are they faithful to their trusts. When
they seek to lead, and not to follow uni
versal opinion, they commit usurpstion.
This is the prevailing error of law makers.
They gather no wisdom from the public
mind, but seek to impart it. They do not
await the common need of any law, but
enact it, and expect it to exist
without need, or that the need
will follow. 1t is for this reason
that Legislation increases, while it should |
yearly diminish. And hence, too, there |
is endless conflict between the statutes
and the popular will as reflected by the
press. Therein the press indispensably
prevails. The press makes opinions, in
lleFes sympathy, magnetises mems minds,
While the statutes do none of these. Tho
PRESS is the channel Of the common
thought 1t receives daily from indi-
Vidual minds, ripples and wavelets and
streams of mentality that are poured into
The great ocean and drunk from by others,
Who again return through the press new
streams, perhaps clear or brighter, or of
more depth or beauty. And these unceas.
ng mental processes are better and truer,
AVE sources ever ascending, and ever
higher and nobler than the enactments of
legislative bodies, who seem rather to
make laws for the sake Of exercising power
han to exercise power for the sake of
making just and needfnl laws.
But it is less as the public guardian
han as the great teacher that the press is
7idening the field of it's influence, and &C.
uiring daily more strength. The thorough
sres and the public resorts abound with
IS offerings; and easy of access and lavish
art, they lead unawares the unlettered
ito communion with better minds, and
pen the doors of the great temples where
istory has its tablets and philosophy its !
To the common schools of
lucation the press is the powerful auxil-
ary. The child learns his excuses
? rote, but through the press 7
one expands into intercourse with the .
tier world Of thought and sentiment.
be gravest eulogium or the profundest T
squisition at school presents to his mind :,
} real hero or absolute truths, but !,
rough the press he perceives individuals .
ID events, and is enticed into reflection .
ID warmed into sympathy. It is the =
ess which is cementing the bonds of
man brotherhood, charging the chari- =,
's, intoxicating q practical Christianity, | D
spring moderation, resisting the partial :,
d severe and receiving into its embrace :,
o universal and liberal.
There are men who are masters in the -
of the world, who take crowns r.
pledge, and -concede loans upon the "
'rtgage of kingdom, that never had
Ter education than that for which the 81
lrnal press may answer. The instinct re
gain is temporal power. beyond the N