The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-08-13
THE OLD BATTLE AGAIN.

V-ttDlllle ART, nOWtNtI, Nbth SphtNiihS.
THE OLD BATTLE AGAIN.
In one of ''Oliver Optics" series of vol
tunes, describing the adventures of Young
America Abroad" written especially for
the instruction of the youth of the country,
hut 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 partici pants in the adventures
and travels described. are, for the time
being, supposed to he temporarily sojour-
ming. After briefly describing the country,
ne goes on to say that ''the government is
m hereditary monarchy, and, like so many
English stock companies is ''limited."
With close regard to truth but, at the
same time, with an admirable and keen
vein of sarcasm, he continues, as follows
Liberty of speech and liberty of con-
science are guaranteed by the constitution;
5t liberty ofthe press, like the mOndrchy and
the stock companies, is. also. 'iimited." In
glancing over this admirable book. last
evening, we were forcibly struck, particu-
larry upon reading the passage quoted and
italcized, with the thought that unless the
people bestirred themselves, in earnest, the
liberty of the press would be ''limitcd" not
only in Wurtemberg. but in this country
and throughout the world. We have not
the time or space to here recount the des-
perate 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
as 1899 "jury of the country" established
the freedom of the press, in Massachusetts,
by the acquittal of Thomas Maulc, who
was indicted for libel and ''divers Sian.
ders against the government. The caust
celebre, upon this subject in the United
States, is that of John Peter Zenger, who
was found not guilty, in 1875, OF publish
ing "falsc, scandalous, and seditious' Ii.
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 ant
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
to secure, for all time, the results of theil
victory, they ordained and established q
constitution, in which they endeavor to sci
this matter at rest forever, by declaring
that no law shall be passed - abridgng the
freedom of speech, or of the press
Even this explicit prohibition, in our or
ganic law, did not secure freedom of thu
close of the second decade of our constitu
tlonal history, to enact the odious ''alier
and sedition law" a President to approve
of it, n large and powerful political party
to sustain it, and governmental officers
ready and anxious to enforce it, Vernon
furnished two victims, but the free people
of the state showed their appreciation o.
the law, by electing by an overwhelmin.
majority, to Congress, one of these - con
victs" while still confined in Jail. Yer
mont having thus set her seal of scorn anC
disapprobation upon this unconstituti ma
attempt to abridge the freedom of the press
other states followed in the wake, and tn,
law WAS soon after repealed. State legis
lattires, 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 enormities OF
slavery, but these insidous attacks wert
met at every hand, and the sssailants re-
tired abashed before the power of an un
trammelled press. Discounted IN THU
kind of warfare, they resorted to attempted
secession and actual rebellion, and til,
slave power, finally, went down forever
and, with it, the proposition that man car
hold property in man. just now, anothe
determined and combined effort is bein,
made to limit the freedom IF the press
There seems to be concert of action, il
different nations of the world, to brinl
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 tn
United States, in the case of the New YOrl
Sun, but il has been endeavored to cxer
else the same kind of terrorism, almos
simultaneously, in other parts of the world
Let US take look at Great Britain tn
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 I'm
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, it has come to be re
garded as fundamental part of her con
stitution, or unwritten law, and as sacred
unalienable right, that the press was