Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-12-15
ImnersonaI Journalism.

W e see 1nllG1l Ill INC CIdtc ptpCIo III IL
gard to the personalities of the press. We
know not, and care very little whether these
reflections are directed toward us. We are
not advised whether these censOrs regard
the JOURNAL as one Of the papers which i'll
duge in personalities to such an extent as
to fall under their displeasIre. We reflect
upon individuals generally with hesitation,
always with regret, but cOnscientiouSly
fearlesaly and pointedly. We never touch
upon such matters dOubtfully or by inuen-
does; and never unless we regard it abso-
luttely necessary.
1t can hardly be an accident that those
who write most and object most to the per
sonalities of the press are the younger Oc-
Cupants of the SanCtun--th0se whose edl-
torial experience and political recollections
do not carry them back beyond the late
war. Such lectures might be excused, even
justified, coming from those whose Opin-
ions and tastes were formed during the
l. contests between the old parties. Editors
and politicians who followed the successful
! leadership of JACKSON, or upheld the hon
| ored, but defeated banners of CLAY, and
whose political models were buried with
WEBSTER and CALHOUN, can afford to
lecture their younger friends upon the per-
! sonaities of the press. Their blows were
always aimed, full breast high, at the form
| Of noble and honored opponents. The
merest faint of character, the slightest
breath of suspicion, was sufficient to end
the political aspirations Of the most trusted
| leader. Constituencies were SO jealous
| that popular favorltes must be above sUs-
! picion.
| Men educated i'll such a school, whose
| hopes are buried i'll the grave of the Repub-
| lies better days, might well find fault with
| the present style of political controversies.
| Mindful Of the past, they may forget the
. manner of men who have had 6 great
| ness thrust upon them " in the civil disOr-
| ders of the last few years. When men and
parties differed only as to the means of do
ing the greatest good to the country, per-
Sonal reflections were It's unusual us they
were unnecessary.
But what Of to-day? Must we erect an
imaginary standard of political virtue and
bow before it i'll conventional reverence,
while rogues deplete the Public Treasury
and ignOramuSeS disgrace the State? I'M
personal Journalism is now as impossible as
it would be improper. With governors like
Holden, judges like Jones and Logan and
Tourgee, tinanciers like Littlefield, legisla-
tors like Stevens, and sheriffs like Cclgrove,
whose very ignorance and crimes were
their only advocates for pleferment, no
journalist could do justice to the State
without fully exposing the characters of
such men who are set up in authority.
Are newspaper publishers to permit the
rights Of citizens to be outraged, their per-
sonu Liberties to be abridged, their laws to
be set at defiance, their public credit to be
destroyed without protest, because, forsooth,
the exposures lead them into the denuncia-
| ton of individuals ?
The President complains that his political
friends at the South are the subjects of per-
sonal prejudiccs and social ost-acism, and
yet he receives into his confidence such
CllillIldI refugees us 11Oluclt ana BullOck,
and his lcentious prOtege, Bowen, is thrust
upon the people of Charleston, digni1ed into
a martyr through Executive clemeEcy. The
robber, Littlefeld, not only finds protection
but promotion, in another State, the finances
of which he has already wrecked.
Fighting against such a party and against
such leaders, Impersonal Journalism is i'm
possible. The political warfare made upon
the people of the South has been personal
warfare. Men have been prescribed because