New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-12-27

.. Il ia about the same whether the par
ticular object chosen is file of cast steel
|. or file OF American newspapers. The
power of an honest press is in nothing SO
evident as in the Difference paid its be-
) hests by those to whom power has been
entrusted by the people. 1t was but
little while since member Of Congress
fined the invisible distinction between
what he irreverently called popular
clamor" and the voice Of the people as ex-
pressed through the press. This distinc-
ton was taken to justify the members in
holding on to self paid salary which a
part of the people chose to say was in vio-
ton of the constitution that the member
had sworn to support. An honest press
forms and expresses the voice of the
people as truly as the organs of human
speech utter the thoughts of the human
brain. Like all true and invective elo-
quence, the voice Of an honest press is
peace and harmony to the honest man; it
is q horrible clamor to the evil doer
against whose of1enses it is directed.
Clodius and Verres fed from the invective
of Cicero. The Hon. Mr.. Butler, of
Massachusetts, has gone a step further
than this more obscure offender to whom
we have referred, but whose name does
not at this moment occur to US, and is not
worth looking through the late debates
to discover. In an argument made by
Mr.. Butler to prove that the salary paid
by the act of 1873 was no abuse of power
or excessive compensation, he is thus re-
ported:
He spoke of the howl OF the newspapers
as having been provoked because their
dirty sheets were not allowed to go through
the mails free. 1t was on that account that
Congress had been pursued with forty jack
ass mud power. The trouble had arisen
from the fact that the members do not stand
together, but that they let men up there
pointing to the reporters gallery, who
lived by the bounty Of Congress, write
diatribes against them and blackeH them
all over, until the whole world was made
to believe that members Of Congress are
worse than other men, instead of being, as
they we're, the chosen of the nation, and
profession, clergymen, lawyers and doctors,
for when a clergyman got into Congress he
was not specially conspicuous for virtue |
any more than the rest Of them were. |
[Laughter.I
1t is not impossible Mr.. Butler may be |
smarting somewhat from the voice of the |
people as expressed through the Repub-
ican press of Massachusetts,. THE |
newspapers howl because their dirty
sheets were not allowed to go through |
the mails free" Their papers never did |
60 through the mails free, except ex-
changes. Those addressed to or franked by
members of Congress did 60 free, not for
favor of the press, but to distribute for
the member some document in his inter-
est. The people paid postage on tie
papers, the members alone enjoyed the
freedom of the newspaper mails.
They purpose in pending bills to
themselves for postage on
papers and documents, by specific al
lowance to cover this expense. The free
mail was abolished, not because of abuses
of the press, but of the members of
Congress not because the press sent
its "dirty sheets such could only 60
on the Endorsement of member-but
because the members sent home their
"dirty shirts under their franks, to be
washed and returned TO them. This was
said of them to mark their
even greater abuses. The " ranking
privilege" was given by the people to Con-
gress, and taken away because the priv
lege had been abused by the members.
What was the principal process of abuse?
Two parties were respectively represented
oy national committees at Washington.
Members of Congress were interested in
indicating their personal or party acts, or
n exposing those of their opponents, in
securing their own return to Congress-. or
possibly securing some official reward for
heir campaign services. The people sub
cribed and sent money for the expenses
If the committees, the members sub
cribed-t their franks! Yes, by the bushel, !
,ot even written with their own hands,
,ut scrubbed by clerks. It is because
hese members have been deprived Of this 7
'ower that the press pursues Congress t
With 'forty jacksss mud power" We +
must tell the distinguished lawyer, this is
thin logic, it will not stand t
nalysis between the galvanic points Of e
he type battery. Like some other very h
littering instances, it could be reduced b
D very sordid element. The member O
rom Massachusetts directed his denun-
iation against the reporters of the press, b
Tho ''sit up aloft" to note and publish the s.
cts Of Congressmen-recordi angels. b
hey have been stationed and paid by c.
ne people to sit there for that purpose, tt
ct it was charged that they ''ived by the 81
ounty of Congress" How many of them 7
lay be blnckmailed not to tell the con- il
ltuents of any member what he has done b.
+ said, we can not tell, but these report tt
rs are paid by the papers they represent Vi
they abuse any privileges granted c(
lem by Congress, and we hear of L
one, let these privileges, let this despica- as
lie bounty be repealed; let those reporters &C
no abuse their privilege be pursued and T
finished by Congress, as in some in sa
ances they properly have been. 1t is no al
ore right to hold the press responsible CT
r Bohemian reporter blackmailed by a til
ember Of Congress, than to charge the ht