The Bennington daily banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1877-1877, 1877-08-13
The Licentious Press of Our Fa-

| Iu6IS'
In Centennial address, delivered at Bur
l1ngton year ago, Hon. l.. L. Chittendei
made, as it seems 10 us, "a broad and utterl,
unfOuuded assertion that the press of 10
day is more licentious in its tone of criticism
of public men. is more iucessant and out
rageous in its assaults upon private charat
ter than IA che early days OF the repnbH,
Inc language of the orator is ns follows
| u can say one word in this respect foj
reformation, If J Gan make one Vef1nOutel
adopt and practice hencefOrth the ancient
and better way, my time will not be wholly
lost
Now all thoughtful men will admit the
| growth of personal abuse, the frequency OF
these assaults upon private character.
1t would, indeed, be u reformation If the
ideas of one hundred years ago now con
trolled our editors. These personal attacks
in the newspapers were almost unknown.
Newspaper communications were then of a
different character Imagine time when
the newspapers united aud secured such
contributors as Hamilton. Madison and Jay.
such communications as those known as t6e
Federalist, aud compare them with the aver
age newspaper communications now. In
those days an editor was recognized leader
and educator Of the public mind. II he went
astray he was denounced as readily as any
false teacher in the schOOls or in morality.
No one will deny that as nation we have
departed from the faith and practice of the
founders of vermont. Not YermOnters alone
perhaps they have-but all the neopIe rf
all the States. The existing greed iOr office
that cOrrupting Theory which defines Office
to be the spoil of the defeated, and the pro-
property of the successful politician, The
vindictiVe spirit Of party which discovers mo
virtue in a political opponent, and which
strikes by foul means as BY fair which
seems to have driven out of our political lif.
all the characteristic traits OF the Statesman
aud the gentleman, and 10 have substituted
in their places the vocabulary of the fsb
market and the moras Of the gambling
housed Which fills the party press with
abusive attacks upon private character. and
causes newspapers to reek with scandals so
foul that we fear to introduce them into our
Idwelhngs-hese are practices of recent in-
yeDtion. for which we viii search in vain
the history Of the olden times.
The following extract that we make from
the Burlington Sentinel of the day effeetu-
ally expuses the error of the historical asser-
tons upon which Mr.. Chittepdeu, and too
many other public speakers, have hastily
erected the structure of a cheap. superficial.
and to our vicious social and political philos-
|Ophy: ..
heabove impeachment of the press of TO.
day, the denunciatiOn of the people of to-dav.
as fallen away from the better ways of tbeiI
fathers in this matter Of personal and pnblit,
scandal apd vitnperation. better known as
politlcal assassinatl0n' IS without particle
OF historical foundation. Why. our fathers
We're feaifuily given to this sort of vice to n
degree utterly beyond the usual license of
our own time, when II is considered that we
were then bnt four millions Of people and
are now forty millions, and our newspapers
were small scarce, and limited greatly to
mere local news. Why, the. press and nam
phlets of the days Of Washington, Adams.
Hamilton and Jefferson fairly teemed wifi
the vilest charges against all these Rrea
men; SO terrible was the abuse of George
Washington that IN Hamilton's papers h
preserved an anecdOto 10 the effect that The
great President once at Cabinet meeting
broke. into profanity in his indignation at
the charge upon him OF treasOnable pur.
pose to rake himself king.
Did not Giles, of Virginia. i'm Congress-
move nine resolutions of eensure against
Hamilton. charging him with stock-jobbing
with the public securities while ut the head
of the Treasury Did not no lass man than
James Monroe, afterwards Presidentl revive
the charges against Hamilton IN such a form
that Hamilton punished a pamphlet in
which he entirely explained the sIspicious
correspondence published by his enemies. by
frankly confesslng an adulterOus intrigue
with the wife OF one bis accusers into which
he had been entrappedi Was not Hamilton
branded by Washington paper as a corrup-
tlpuiet anu uu dliHtucluts anu ulu not Hamtl-
ton denounce in print no less luan than
Thomas Jefferson as the author and instiga-
tor Of these articlesl Is not the diary Of
John Adams tiled with evidence Of the hor-
rid rgncor Of tue press, and the terrible hate
between OF different parties, TO the point
that families ceased Intercourse with each
other, men cut each other in the street. aud
initiated DE Witt Clinton, who desrite
his great intellect always followed IN
public and private speech aud in print. Nj r
tin Van BuTen with the very obsaenitv Of
persf nal libel aud denuneiation; and fpally.
was not Hamilton driven to death by Burr
because Of thdl intense p0ltical enmity be-
tween them, to which Hamilt0u gave free
rein on all occasions. public aud pr1vnte.
These facts Qre So notorious that they
ought to be familiar TO Mr.. Ohittenden. LET
us further examine the following extract
from Mr.. Chittenden:
f"ThOse party leaders on both sides. who
hope 10 elevate themselves TO power over tile
murdered reputation Of others, should note
the handwriting upon the wall. The peOple
have had ennuPh-they are already showing
their disappruyal Of these persistent assaults
upon the characters Of public men. One oil
the necessary results Of this diseased public
opinion Is to drive from public life great
number of our best men who ought To be
there. / denounce without circumlOcution
or apology the slogan Of corruption, pceula-