St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-07-08

to the one who committed the assault
is favorable to the employment of the
former weapons named rather than the
latter. But it is quite essential that
this question be settled, for the man
who trusts in and defers to the law,
backed by public sentiment, for pro-
lection finds himself wOfully left if law
and public sentiment fail him, as they
seem to have done in the case in ques-
ton. And you must know that this as
sault unpublished will lead hundred
men in this community to arm them
selves, each with revolver; and with
the present state of public morals and
of public sentiment and laxity of law,
revolver is a dangerous weapon to
have at hand, and this conformation of
this assault will prove a sad mistake.
Another question involved by this
affair is that of the freedom of the press
in it's discussion of matters that per-
tain to the welfare of society together
with the acts of public men. For
what was this editor struck down ?
For that he had criticised adversely
the act of public man, and as incl
dental, the business brother of the
assailant, recently deceased, had some
time in the past pursued in violation
of the law. Now we agree with 9TH
ers that this discussion, together with
the illusions, were in bad taste and
calculated to grieve, if not exasperate,
the friends of the deceased, therefore
reprehensible. But we shall do well
to consider that the one who took it
upon himself to avenge this, claimed
insult to the memory of the dead, is
himself engaged in the selfsame bust
ness to which these illusions referred,
if common report is true. 1t would
seem that there is something about
this business that is somehow in bad
taste If it will not bear post NOR
tenn allusiOn without being regarded
as an insult to the dead, better fOregO
such a business. But have said the
illusions against which exceptions
were taken were incidental. The mat
ter under criticism at the time and by
the RichfOrd editor was the act of a
public man in sending a floral tribute
to the funeral of one who was under
stood to have been a rumseller for some
years Immediately prior to his death.
The time and spirit of the criticism
were doubtless in bad taste, as we
have said but in that this matter is
now forced upon the attention of the
people and has become legitimate
matter for discussion, we raise this
question: Has a public man or any
other for that matter, any right to do
that which from its very nature and
tendency he must know will encOur-
age vice and crime, even though
prompted to the act by a spirit of kind
ness and sympathy? This is one OF
the self evident propositions about
which no man would think of arguing
for moment, and against which no
respectable man will make objection.
Now we leave you my hearers to
bring up to the bar of this proposition
the act in question and yours shall be
the verdict and not mine. And thus
this question of the freedom of the
press i'm the discussion of the acts of
public men is at once involved here.
Shall the press be gagged and CARROT
ed in its attempt to criticise men and
measures ? The question is not Shall
the RichfOrd Gazette stop it's throwing
mud but: Shall men who are sensi-
tive to the touch of the editors quill be
sustained in silencing the press with
loaded whip and knuckles? Things
are coming to a strange pass in this
community if men engaged in an I'M
lawful business, when alluded to are
to be allowed to pound the offender in
to silence, and the case is still strong
er where the allusiorl was simply Incl
dental, but the real purpose to criti-
else one who seems to offer encourage
ment if not Endorsement of an unhOly
and unlawful traffic.
wonder if it is really true that the
business of a rumseller is so sacred a
thing in st. Adams that brutal assault
is justified and cOndOned by public
sentiment in its defence. Does it mean
that the press is not to lift pen or voice
against this damning vice? | wonder
if it is this that answers for the silence
of the press of this town as regards the
violation of law by rumsellers in our
midst? | imagine | see into the in
wardness of some things through the
lens offered by the late assault, and
wonder what the press is for. Are the
limits of it's freedom fixed in this town
by any police? One thing, however,
is evident, that the only editor, "be he
good or be he bad" who has attacked
the rum oligarchy in this town has
been pounded by rumseller until, re-
port says, he promised silence. Isn't
that fine showing? We are making
for ourselves a not very enviable rep
utatiOn abroad, and at home we are
coming to need a new "Fourth of
july"
Another evil attendant upon this
careless expression of demOralized
sentiment is the confusion of moral dis
tinctions. Public sentiment in justify
ing the assault says, practically, that
the illusions made by the assaulted
editor were worse than the crime of
rum selling-'Served him right" Now
this tends to vitiate the public con-
science, and prostitute principle and
law, and to cause virtue to cover and
cringe in the presence of vice; and
even worse, it tends to level all dis
tinctiOns between them. There is no
coarser or more dangerous kind of
moral influence exerted than that
which defends crime and when it
comes to conformation of the crime of
assault it amounts to crime itself, for
it gives immunity beforehand to vio-
lent men and makes further assaults
almost certain.
At this point another fact stares us
in the face: that we have familiariz-
ed ourselves with public vice al
ready too long. We have accustomed
ourselves to public tolerance of evil
until we seem as a people unable to
make any moral distinctions. We
have depressed moral indignation as
against one of the blacklist crimes
(rum selling) until there is no such
thing known among us as moral indig
nation against it, or against a coward
ly and brutal assault. L wonder how
much longer this cOwardly, faithless
acquiesence in this crime will continue.