National Republican., 1874-07-03
THE LICENSE OF THE PRESS.

before. BY all means let US have the
Mosby letters.
THE LICENSE OF THE PRESS.
Senator Carpenter has written another
letter defining the scope and bearings of
the so-called gag law, in which ne takes
the New York World to task for its mis-
representations of his previous epistle. He
maintains that the idea is unfounded that a
company or individual publishing a paper
In New York could be sued under this bill
in the District of Columbia for libel pub
lished in New York, and taking the World
itself as an example. says: 'Tn order to
come within the section you complain of,
two things must concur-irst, you must
''be engaged in doing business in the Dis
'trict out Of which the cause of action
''arises. and second, you must have an
''agent here in respect Of that business.
| Neither of these conditions exists in your
lease. You are not publishing a paper
''here, nor have you any agent in respect Of
''the publication of g paper here" In other
words, he insists that if the World should
establish a branch publication house in this
District, conducted by an agent and the
house here should Publishs libel here, then
suit therefor should be brought here and not
| in New York.
The World, in commenting on Mr.. Car
penter's first letter, says it has "an agent
Gin Washington charged 10 collect and
transmit to US, by mail and telegraph, all
important facts and rumors concerning
''men and things in that capital. Suppose
'this agent to ascertain, no matter how,
'that Senator Carpenter has received say
''fee Of S. 900, from some person or persons
interested in inducing him to bring about
such legislation as will give marketable
''value to certain intrinsically worthless and
Sat present unmnrketable bonds. This
''fact, which we have supposed our agent
''to ascertain, it would clearly be his duty
go transmit to us, and it would as clearly
''be our duty to make it known to the
country, it having been long ago laid
down, even in England by the eloquent
Lord Camden, that paper which points
% out the Sase and mischievous proceed
ngs of men in power, and goes to open
the eyes of the world, ought not to be
" considered as libelous'
To this Mr.. Carpenter rejoins, in a man
ner which fully sustains our own pro-
nounced opinions on this question. "Do
you know" he says, that nobody objects
"to your doing all this, and that no action
"of libel, no matter where commenced,
"can punish you for doing so3 But the
"real question is this: Whether you ought
"to be permitted to publish of me that I
have received bribe of So, 000 whenyou
"knUw have not, and you make the state
"ment and send it TO your many readers,
"wen knowing it to be false, and you do
so with the malicious intention of unjustly
"preiudicing the people against me? This
" is the question you want to discuss. No
"body denies your perfect right to publish
"the truth, no matter how detrimental it
"may be to individuals. But the question
"is, have you a right to prejudice and ruin
ga man by false accusation inspired by
"malioe? If by liberty of the press you
"mean the right to publish the truth, no
"matter what it is, you are conceded to be
fright. You may follow every man into
the corners of his life, hold up his frail-
" ties, and expose his weaknesses to your
"hearts content. You may hold mi
"croscope over every mans conduct, and
"make the most of the truth in all cases.
but you ought to be satisfied with this.
"YOu have no right to invent accusations to
satisfy malice; no right to charge man
with what you know he has not done to
" feed your iIl-will If you claim this to
"be a part of the liberty Of the press the
people will know how to deal with it. |
"When the press will restrain itself within |
1.-The limits of truth, public men, by ex-
"treme circumspection, by being as harm
"less as doves, and avoiding reporters, may
"be safe, and will neither need, nor can
"they avail themselves of libel suits"
It will be admitted that Mr. Carpenter |
in the foregoing sentences has tersely en-
bodied the great evil of which our public
men have so much reason TO complain. |
Like other men who do not fear Just criti- |
cism, unbiased criticism, he does not hest |
tate to declare against the unbridled license
of which certain portions Of the press Of
the country have been guilty for the past
two years. No man has escaped from its
comprehensive detraCtion, no matter how |
pure his motives or how upright his life.
And not only have individuals been sub
jected to this infamous passion for SANDER,
but Congress as body, the courts Of the
District and the Administration have been
its victims. To illustrate, let US take the
case of the correspondent Buell., now under
Indictment for defamlng the character of
Senator Chandler. When suit was first
brought against him it was heralded
througout the length and breadth of the
land that the District courts, under the i'm
mediate influence and control of Congress,
had taken up the cudgel in Mr.. Chsnd
ler's behalf; and notwithstanding the
fact that every journalist in the city
knew that the courts had no jurisdic-
ton in the premises, it was asserted
that they would assume it. In this way
the people were first led to believe that the
courts were the mere tools of Congress, and
the individuality Of the case-the contest
between Mr. Chandler and Mr.. Buell-was
lost sight Of In other words, the case was
presented TO the people as one in which