The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-06-09

sentIng Jefferson county, has MADE Mini
self Gn) famous by offering the following
bill in the Legislature. In all our OBJ
of Radical malice, stupidity
and arrogance, we do not recollect to
have seen the equal of this thing. Its
author has discovered method by which |
efectually to silence the press OF the
State, in case he can put it into operation.
He provides the penalty of fine and I'M
prisonment for any editor who INDUCES or
permits them to be INDUCED through the
paper under his control, personalities re-
fiecting in any manner whatever on any
individual" or who prints, or permits
to be printed "'words, expressions, or
''epithets commonly regarded as insults
eand calculated to injure the feelings or
prejudice the standing of any individual,
''or which if spoken personally would
"lead to breach of the peaee"
the editor, printing, or permitting to be
printed, such matter is held to be can
instigator of riot and blood-shed and
common disturber of the peace" County
officers are required to swear terrible
oath that they will do all in their power
to ''put down" all such criminal practices;
and Judges are required to charge grand
luries to take special cognizance of them.
Bravely done Balch! Your bill is not
passed and we do not incur its penalties
by saying that in your attempt to inter
fere with the rights of thepress, to vex,
harrass and humiliate it, you have succee-
ded in writing yourself down an Ignorant
an. Ifpassed it would be too absurd and in
definite to be operative. If it was de-
signed to protect the acts of Radical dem
agogues of your sort from criticisms,
why didn't you say so? Under your bill,
an editor is as amenable to horse-thief
for publishing his crime and calling him
horse-thief, as he is to earpet-bagger
who makes a trade of politics and lives
by fomenting strife between the negro
and the white man and plundering both
for living. Your bantling denounces
personalities rejecting an any manner
''on any individual" and is thus broad
enough to throw its protecting shield over
| the vilest criminal as well as the veriest
demagogue in the land. Wouldn't il
''injure the feelings" of thief for In
stance, to call him by that term; and
| wonld'nt It have a tendency in his case,
as well as any other, if spoken to him
personally" to get up rumpus, or in
Balch phrase-''lead to breach of the
peace? ?"
Besides, Balch, how are the Courts to
decide what viii hurt ''feelings?" The
sensitive organs of some animals are in
one part of the body, and in others, in
other parts; and some have "feelings"
that can't be injured" at all. For in
stance, the sensitive part of the cat is in
its caudal appendage, the ass is sensitive
about the ears while the hide of a rhi-
nocerous cannot be penetrated Some
men consider their feelings injured by
what others would not regard as ''per-
sOnality." Some are sensitive on one
subject. Some on another. And again,
a lack of conscience, or a conscience har-
dened, has rendered the sensitive part OF
the natures of some people as callous as
the scaly cuirass of an ArmidiIlo. Now,
how is an editor with the right of calling
things by their right names taken away
from him, to grope his way in the pur-
suit of his avocation amid the inextrica-
lie difficulties by which Balch would COM
pass him? Undoubtedly, he would be at
the mercy of all the thieves, murderers,
scalaWags and scavengers whose acts are
proper matters of newspaper publication
The other day, that party of which
Balch is shining light, ordered 5000
copies of the Constitution of the United
/ States and of the State of Mississippi. to
be circulated for general information,
| both of which instruments Baleh is under
| the obligation ola solemn oath to sup
port. Now, if he will turn to the former
of these instruments, he will find that its
trainers were so convinced of the uses of an
untrammeled press, that they expressly
prohibited Congress from ''abridging its
freedom" And if he viii turn to the lat
ter, of which he ought to have some
knowledge, he will not fail to take note
that its trainers inserted clause declar-
ing that ''the freedom of the press shall
be SACRED" And if he will refer to the
Code of Mississippi, he will find that Ii
bells are made aetionable and punishable
on conviction of the party accused. 1t is
further provided however, that IN every
prosecution for libel, it shall be lawful for
the defendant to give in evidence in his
defence the ''trasth of the matter written,
spoken, or published, and probably this
is the point of the shoe that pinches.-
Balsh would have no such troublesome
thing as the truth to come between his in
tention to punish offending editors and
its accomplishment.
But enough of Balch. We commend
him to the tender handling of our breth-
rem of the press. His bill was referred to
the Judiciary Committee.
AN ACT to Restrain the Vicious and Pun
ish Crime.
Section l. Be it enacted by the I.egisla-
ture of the State OF Mississippi, That if
any editor of any newspaper shall publish
directly or indirectly or permit to be pub
lished in his paper any personalities reflect
ing in any manner whatever, on any indi-
Vidual, or If such editor shall use or permit
to be used in his paper, words, expressions,
or epithets commonly regarded as insults
and calculated to injure the feelings or pref