Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-03-15

IOEe tne 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. It was discovered that the
|congressJnen who made the ugly re-
marks about newspaper men as class
were tho chaps who had felt the sting Of
. few 9mall pieces Of steel dipped in
wiring siuid, more poisonous, sometimes,
thar M compounds Of the Borgias; and
It was NisS "a at the same time that
while nel q. Nl men were disposed to
do all 4 their power, in legitimate
way. to help their fellow out of his
trouble, they did not indorse his meth.
ods, nor themselves go about with loaded
guns seeking the blood Of the representa-
tives Of the people. As q 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 seriate tothreaten the wholesale
arrest Of newspaper men Tor printing so
called secret session proceedings and to
close up the gallery heretofore devoted
to the use Of correspondents. 1t is q Gu
rious fact that the very sedition law un-
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
partiality of the American government.
This led TO deep jealousy Of the press in
administration. circles, where newspaper
men were dehounced as dangerous NAL.
contents aad usurpers of governmental
authority. In 1893 the administration
passed the sedition law, and the first vic
tim Of it was Matthew Lyon, of Phila-
delphia, who was tried for sedition, con-
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 continual grasp for power,
an unbodnded 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 ga 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
soon afterward he became involved in q
personal quarrel with 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 resolution 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-
lsrly at The Aurora newspaper. and in q
short time the administration was in q
quarrel with the editors of that journal.
All tho newspapers stood together, just
a. they are likely to do at the present
time II the senate carries its spite too far.
Half O dozen prosecutions were started
st once, federal militia officers assaulted
|. Duane, editor of The Aurora, and his
h lawyer, Cooper, was bounded to jail by
implacable federal Office holders.
In 1912 the editor of The Alexandris
Va.) Herald, just across the river from
Washington, was arrested for printing
secret session news about the proposed
embargo act, thrust into prison and kep'
there for several months. He refused Il
give the name OF his informant, ant
was finally liberated.
In 1918 two of the greatest senators
Clay and Calhoun, united in move
ment to expel members Of the pres
from the floor Of the old senate chamber
where they had been accommodated to
many years, and send them TO the gal
lery. The movement was successful.
Later, in Andrew Jackson's time, Reu
ben Whitney. who wrote articles TO
Frank Blair's Globe, was threatene
with death in committee room by Cor
gressmen Baillie Peyton and Henry A
Wise. These statesmen put offensiv
questions to Whitney, who retorted i
kind, and bloodshed was imminent
Afterward Wise and Peyton confesse
at the bar Of the house that they carrie
weapons with an intention to use ther
.pn Whitney IL occasion arose. and thu