The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-03-27

fore the statesmen were inclined to stand
by Taulbee, while the newspaper writers
were for Kincaid to q man. But the lit
tie furry in this end of the Capitol soon
blew over. 1t was discovered that the
congressman who made the ugly re-
marks about newspaper men as a class
were the chaps who had felt the sting of
few small pieces of steel dipped in
writing fluid more poisonous, sometimes,
than the compounds of the Borgias; and
it was discovered at the same time that
while newspaper men were disposed to
do all in their power, in legitimate
way, to help their fellow out of his
trouble, they did not indorse his meth.
DDS, nor themselves go about with loaded
guns seeking the blood of the representa-
tives of the people. AS rule the house
and the profession get along pretty well
together.
At the other end of the Capitol the
feeling is deeper There the trouble is
Of ancient origin. History is repeating
itself in the hostility which is now lead
ing the senate to threaten the wholesale
arrest of newspaper men for printing SO
called secret session proceedings and to
close up the gallery heretofore devoted
to the use of correspondents 1t is Gu
rious fact that the very sedition law I'M
der which the senate proposes to prose
cute correspondents, or one very much
like it, was passed early in the history
of the republic as means Of regulating
and intimidating the press. During the
time of Washington and John Adams
the Anti-Federalist press was very bitter
in its criticisms of the administration.
The Aurora, an opposition paper Of Phil
adelphia, enraged the administration
and the senate by printing, before the
government got hold Of them, Talley-
rand's dispatches complaining Of the
Partially of the American government.
This led to deep jealousy Of the press in
| administration circles. where newspaper
men were denounced Us dangerous NAL
contents and usurpers of governmental
authority. In 1898 the administration
| passed the sedition law, and the first vic
tim of it was Matthew Lyon, of Pbila-
|
victed and sentenced to four months
imprisonment and to pay fine Of 81 900
for printing letter in which he stated
that with the president "every consider
alton of the public welfare was swal-
lowed up in a continual grasp for power,
an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp,
foolish adulation and selfish avarice."
While in prison Lyon was elected to
congress and took his seat on getting out
! of Jail Then an effort was made to ex-
pei him as "a malicious and seditious
person, of a depraved mind and wicked
and diabolical disposition, guilty of pub
fishing libels against the president of the
United States with design to bring the
government into contempt" THIS reso-
luton was defeated, and Lyon kept his
seat. He must have been very pugna-
cious sort of journalist, however, for
snon afterward he became involved in a
personal quarrel with a fellow member,
Griswold, of Connecticut, and they came
to blows on the floor, and one of them
seized the poker from the fireplace and
beat his antagonist over the head with it.
Another rssolution to expel was offered,
but again Lyon was victorious, and he
held his seat to the end Of his term.
The sedition law was aimed particu-
larly at The Aurora newspaper. and in a
short time the administration was in a
quarrel with the editors of that journal.
All the newspapers stood together, just
as they are likely to do at the present
time il the senate carries its spite too far.
Half dozen prosecutions were started