The Rutland weekly globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-08-15
8utlana attteklu Globs.
FRIDAY MORNING. AUG. 10, 1873.
TILE OLD RATTLE AGAIN.


America Abroad" written especially for
the instruction of the youth of the country,
but which, may be read and studied with
interest and profit by children of larger
growth, Is an imaginary lecture, supposed |
to have been delivered by professor |
Mapps," in Wurtemberg, where the stu
dents of the Academy Squadron the
heroes and participants in the adventures
and travels described are, for the time
being, supposed to be temporarily sojour-
ming. After briefly describing the country,
he goes on to say that ''thc government Is
an hereditary monarchy, and, like so many
English stock companies is ''limitcd.'
With close regard to truth but, at the
same time, with an admirable and Keen
vein of sarcasm, he continues, rs follows
Liberty Of speech, and liberty of con-
science, are guaranteed by the constitution;
Jm liberty oftte pres, NIehe monarchy and
the stock companies, is, also, 'Nmhcd. In
slancing over this admirable book, last
evening, we were fOrcibly struck particu-
larly upon reading the passage quoted and
hhlicized, with the thought that unless the
people bestirrcd themselves, in earnest, the
liberty of the press would I've ''limitcd" not
only in Wurtcmberg. but in this country
and throughout the world. We have not
the time or space to here recount the des-
peratc struggles, which were constantly
taking place between the people and the
crown, in which the sovereignty of this
country rested prior to the revolution in
the effort to secure this liberty. without
limitation. suffice it to say, that as early
~ 1899 ''jury of the country" established
the freedom of the press, in Massachusetts,
hy the acquittal of Thomas Maule, who
was indicted for a libel and ''diyers slam
ders against the government" The cause
releb,e, upon this subject in the United
States, is that of John Peter Zenger, who
was found not guilty, in 1873, OF publish
ing false, scandalous, and seditious' IL
bel against the government. We refer to
these as being the two leading cases. but
tens and hundreds Of prosecutions, by the
representatives of the royal government,
were, from time to time, being instituted
all over the land, and royalty was unre-
lenting in its efforts to destroy or limit the
freedom of the press and make it supple
tool of tyranny.
These repeated endeavors, coupled with
long train of other abuses, wrong and
oppression, eliminated in the Declaration
of Independence and the revolutionary
war. In that contest, as every school boy
knows, the people triumphed, and in order
10 secure, for all time, the results of their
victory, they ordained and established a
constitution, in which they endeavor to set
this matter at rest forever, by declaring
that no law shall he passed - abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press. -
Even this explicit prohibition, in our or
ganic law, did not secure freedom of the
press, for Congress was found, before the
close of the second decade of our constitu-
iIonal history, to enact the odlous ~ alien
and seditiOn law" a President to approve
of it, large and powerful political party
TO sustain it, and governmental officers
ready and anxious to enforce it. Vermont
furnished two victims, but the free people
of the state showed their appreciation of
the law, by electing, by an overwhelming
majority, to Congress, one of these = con-
yicts" while still confined in Jail. Yer
mont having thus set her seal of scOrn and
disapprobation upon this uncOnstituti0 nal
attempt to abridge the freedom of the press,
other states followed in the wake, and the
law was soon after repealed. State legs-
latures, governors and courts, subsequently,
renewed the attempt to stifle the voice OF
the free press of the north in their dis
closures in reference to the enormites OF
slavery, but these insidious attacks were
met at every hand, and the assailants re-
tired abashed before the power of an UNI
trammelled press. Discounted III this
kind of warfare, theyresorted to attempted
secession and actual rebellion, and the
slave power, finally, went down forever
and, with it, the proposition that man car
hold property in man. Just now, another
determined and combined effort is being
made to limit the freedom of the press
There seems to be concert of action, il
different nations of the world to bring
around this limitation. We have, hereto
fore, alluded to the signal discontinue
with which the attempt, made on the par
of fraud and corruption, was met in thu
United States, in the case of the New forl
Sun, hut ii has been endeavored to eXer
else the same kind of terrorism, almOs
simultaneously, in other parts of the world
Let us take a look at Great Britain, TIN
old home Of the right of trial by jury, FREE
speech and free press the country wher
concession after concession has been wrest
ed by the power of the people from an un
willing monarchy, and whose boast is tina
her every institution breathes the air of al
almost perfect freedom. In Great Britain
perhaps without parliamentary enactmen
or judicial decision, ii has come to he re
garded ms a fundamental part of her con
stitution, or unwritten law, and as a sacred
unalienable right, that the press was "a
free az the air they breathed We know
that it was only obtained by long. bite
and mrelenting war, marked. all alon
down Its progress, by fines, penalties, i'm
prisonments and, even. death on the scat
fold. The victories and defeats aye, tn
scaffold has not been all on one side.
was complained Of Charles the First tina
mo newspaper was suffered to appea
without his allowance" and that no news
paper, as they were miscaled, "ever con
tanned any intelligence which it did no
suit the purposes of the court to publish
Charles head was struck off, but the sam
blow did not strike off the shackles of tn