New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-03-02
TIE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

We do not acknowledge that there
should be any punishment for what is
known as seditious writings or speeches.
Such prosecutions are always interpreted
by party. They may comprehend every
degree of oppression, from that of the
innkeeper who boosted he would make
his son t'heir to the crown"-thst being
the sign of his tavern--to the arrest of the
French subject for wearing un chdpeda
seditieiG, The words of Jefferson COM
prehend, in our opinion, the whole phi
Iosophy of public defamation: Error
ceases to be dangerous when reason is
left free to combat it. For all defama-
ton of individuals the law offers ample
redress; but a State or a church should
stand so exalted and SO impregnable that
either is unconscious of the futile weapons
which malice may hurl against it.
The mischief Of course and brutal
epithets employed against public men
consists in the fact that, while the venal
publishers who employ them are will
ing to take them back whenever it may
suit their interest to do so, great many
people take them as uttered in earnest,
and sometimes from desperate determine
tons upon no other basis than the empty
aspersions employed for q personal or
party purpose. There have been many
cases in history in which assassination
has been perpetrated by partisan hatred,
nurtured by persistent Islander Of men or
motives. The assassination of President
Lincoln is fiippantly attributed to the
greed Of personal notoriety in his muir
derer. The phrases employed at the mo-
ment show that the murderer supposed he
was liberating people from the sway
Of a despot. These were the ideas
inoulcated by the press and speakers of
the period, and while the charge and the
epithets have been alike recanted the
poisonous SANDER had done its work too
faithfully for remedy. The young man who
has Just attempted the life Of the present
Governor of this State as some other man
did Of the last Governor, is coolly spoken
of as s'demented. We have seen no evil
dence before or since the act which sup
ports the assertion. He undoubtedly has
brought himself 70 believe that his ''coun-
try" required him to come from another
State to kill the Governor Of this State.
II is fortunate for the public peace that
he did not turn his steps and direct his
pistol against Judge Bradley. This Grim
inal could only have derived his opinions
Of Mr.. Packard from the publications in
speech and print, which have pictured
him as q monster, whom IL was every
mans duty to destroy. We have seen this
advice openly and often published here.
We find in the late Democratic journals
such ineendiary phrases as follows:
The Returning Board fraud was consum-
mated to-day. The stolen State Of louisiana
was oou1ted, and is to make q President,
but the sc0vndrels tgho did he seork are 70
Be turned adEiftl or sent abroad to hide
their shame.
The decision Of the commission is
characterized as the result Of ''that par
tisan spirit which has ruthlessly ridden
over every principle Of justice and law. >
These are moderate expressions in COM
pazison with those which have teamed
from the same source for months past.
They only operate locally, and 60 to the
extent Of aiming the asSassins Of King,
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