The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-04-18

New YORK, April Is, S76.
Ihe great political mud-throwing machine of
athoasand newspaper power is now in the full
tide OF unimpeded operation blackenipp repu-
tation and character casting obloquy upon Re-
publican institutions, bringing shame and dis
grace upon the American name, enthroninp
slanderers and making perjury the synonym of
patriotism. 1t sweeps over the land like pes-
thence, sowing its malarious slime with reck
lessness of consequences and a disregard of
probabilities which renders it a terror to all de-
cent people and an object of indifference to
those only who have already fallen into such
disrepute, that they are past further damage
The prevailing craze Of false accusation and
wild calumny is as welcome to rogues as it is
disgusting to honest men There are two po-
tent reasons for this The one is that while so
many people are unjustly aspersed it is quite
impossible to discriminate between the inno-
cent and the guilty. The other is that rascali-
ty is so widely represented to be the rule and
probity the exception, that anybody who pur.
sues course of strict rectitude, is getting to be
thought entirely beaind the age and his up
rishtness is as likely to he asoribed to weak
oSneiLAOhs"iity do W iuucItut NlTlu6s
1t is trite maxim that she who calls all
mankind knaves proves himself one" aud it is
an equally ncontrovertible proposition that
nothing will so tend to make the world de-
praved as the establishment of q belief that de-
pravity is all the fashion.
This is an oppOrtuue moment for addressing
to Maine folks vigorous, hearty, manly pro-
test against the universal mania for traducing
notable citizens which now RACES SO fercely
throughout the entire Union. To borrow a
phrase more expressive than elegant which has
long had place among the popular by-words,
You knoac hoO 1t is yourseluesr' 1t has struck
home-not for the first time to be sure, but with
rather more deliberateness of aim and par.icu-
larity of allegation, than ever before. Calum.
ny resembles death in many points, but espec.
tally in this that it Gloves shining mark"
Fellows who make a trade of sander point
their weapons as high and at as long a range
as they dare to. And protracted career of
unchecked license has inspired them with a
boldness in this regard, which no sense of re-
spect for purity of life or eminence of station
can restrain.
The latest charge against your representative
Mr. Blaine is not put forth with any ex.
pectation that it will be believed, but with
view to throw just go much Of cloud of sus-
picion about him, as to injure his prospects for
presidential nomination. Its disseminators
do not trouble themselves with any specula-
tious as to its verify. That is subordinate and
wholly unimportant consideration. If it will
answer their purpose it is utterly immaterial to
them whether it has much or little foundation,
or none at all. 10 the midst of the grand cam
pagn of 1S72-at the outset of which every
man of any prominence, and many of no
prominence at all, was the object of brutal as.
sanlt if he supported the Republican cause, Mr.
Blaine came in for his share OF the general
clamor. The N. Y. Tribune accused him of
having bartered his influences as member of
Congress to secure favorable legislation for
western railway. and of having received as a
brbe, large quantity of the bonds of the
Company. This he denied with Indignant en-
phasis, demonstrating that it was a wanton
fabrication, and putting in by way of final
clincher the chronological fact that he did not
take has seat IN Congress until sirteen months qf-
ter the legislation he had been represented as us-
ing his official trust to promote had been cons,tn-
mated. The answer of the Tribune to this re-
markably effective exculpation was character
istic After showing how weak, evasiye and
unsatisfactory the vindication was it eoolly
turned upon Mr.. Blaine for exposing the ludi-
crous and fatal anachronism which extipguisbed
the last vesige of pausibity in its story, by de-
scribng his defense as 6isingenuous .'quibble
about dates.''
1 ntaH hot g.. -
man in Maine, whichever party he belongs to
will feel wroth at this vituperative mode of
warfare, and so far from injuring the object of
it among his neighbors it will lead to precisely
the opposite result. But these calumpies are
intended to produce effects at distant points.
and if the practice of smutching everybody
had not been so wretchedly 'overdone as to
have lost its power for evil, there is no knowing
how much mischief it might have wrought.
Just now my object IN referring to it is to
improve it as the text of discourse against
the habit of evil speaking which is proving so
baleful to public morals so destructive of the
good order of society. There is no sin Of our
time which cries so loudly for the anathemas of
the pulpit and the rostrum. There is very
little use of revival meetings and evangelical
preaching so long as the violation of the TX
commandment goes unrebuked iu the presence
and before the eyes of whole nation. VERY
few presses hesitate to give circulation to un-
supported averments affecting the honor and
integrity of public officers. Sometiu ues when
they are exceptionally gross or suspiciously
anonymous, they qualify them with such
phrases as, sit said" at is reported" sThere
is rumor afloat," ''We have heard" SIT has
been intimated." Now whenever Journalism
gets lifted out of the miry ways in which it has
unhappily CROPPED SO long, no conductor Of a news.
paper making the slightest claim to good stand
ing in his profession, or possessing the least rep
utation for conscentiousness will ever suffer his
columns to be contaminated with supposititious
libels. Self respect will not permit him to pros
titute medium of information to the public
into vehicle for the spread of allegations
which, if they happen to be baseless may infict
grievous wrong upon individuals ana fami-
lies and wide circles of friends The unthnk-
ing, hap hazard, dd cdptandum paragraphs, re-
plete with insinuation and spteful detrac-
ton, which float so currently iu all quarters
the small change of scandalmougers-would
be contemptuously thrown into the waste
Lasket. Any man at all fitted for the respon-
sible post of an editor, should exercise the
most watchful guardianship over his columns
to prevent them from containing line or a
word which could possibly have had its incep-
tion in pigue or malice, whether personal or
political. free press is the hope and safe
guard of liberal institutions. A lcentious
press is the ally Of despotism, the blight of mo-
ralty and the foe Of human progress and en-
lishtenment.
The raging madness every where so prevalent
in respect to our government and its rulers finds
fresh illustrations with painful frequency
The habit of eDunciating vague and declama-
tory philippics against the most faithful SER
wants of the state has grown so common and
has been pursued with such impunity that it
has infected persons who might fairly be pre-
sumed by reason of their associations and edu-
cation to be superior to its pestilent influence.
The latest example of this contagion of bad
precedent is in a pronunciamento just issued
by William Cullen Bryant, Theodore d. WOOL
sey, Alexander HI. Bullock, Horace White and
Carl Schurz, which opens with this extrava-
CANT sentence: "Ihe widespread corruption in