The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-17
FREEDOM OF The PRESS,

The decent newspapers of this country
united in the demand that the Louisiana
lottery should be suppressed. They urged
the passage of the anti-lottery bill by Con-
gress, though they realized that there
were provisions in the bill which permitted
a censorship OF the press which had not
hitherto been asserted. The honorable pub
Usher was willing to surrender some of
his rights if by so doing the lottery evil
could be destroyed and the people of this
country protected from the swlndlers who
were taking millions from the ignorant
dupes every year. But we are certain that
if the newspaper fraternity had realized
that the censorship which has been inaug-
urated as the result of the law would have
followed the opposition to the bill would
have been formidable. The purpose of the
law was to suppress lotteries and not to
persecute newspapers, though the latter
has been one of the effects of the
act.
In this connection we have
received the argument of ,Mr HANNIs
TAYLOR, attorney for JOHN L. RAPIER, pub
Usher of the Mobile Register, on petition
for writs of habeas corpus and certiorari,
against the constitutionality of the anti
lottery low. Last December lottery ad-
vertisement was published in the Register
and the paper was sent through the mails,
whereupon MIR RAPIER was arrested. His
attorney moved the court to quash the in
dictment on the ground that the law was
unconstitutional. The motion being denied
the attorney applied for writs of certiorari
and habeas corpus, claiming that the law is
in violation of the first amendment to the
constitution, which declares that Congress
shall make no law abridging the freedom of
speach or of the press" The argument is
thorough and interesting. The attorney
has gone into the question deeply, and gives
a history of press censorship in England
and the United States, explaining
| how it came about that the
freedom Of the press was recognized
as one Of the fundamental principles of the
government. After detailing the struggle
which the press had for liberty in the
mother country, Mr.. TAYLOR comes down
to the American colonies, where even the
laws were not at first published for genera
circulation, and it seemed to be thought de
slrable by the magistrates to keep people il
ignorance of the precise boundary between
that which was lawful and that which wa:
prohibited, as more likely to make then
avoid all doubtful actions. Instances o.
how the censorship was exercised in thu
colonies are related, some of the facts beine
here condensed:
The magistrates of Massachus etts, when com
PEELED by public opinion 10 suffer the publication
of general laws in l649, permitted it under pro
test, as hazardous experiment. For publish
ing the laws of one session in Virginia, in 1855
the printer was arrested and put under bond
until the Kings pleasure could be known, an
the Kings pleasure was declared that no print
ing should be allowed in the colony. Their
, we're not wanting instances of the public burn
l ing of books, as offenders against good order
Such the fate of ELLIoTs book IN defens
of unmixed principles of popular freedom, an
2 CALEF's book against CoTToN MATHER, whic
3 was given to the flames at mbridge A sir
a gle printing press was introduced into th
colony so early as 1899; but the publicatio
even of state documents did not become FIRE
until l7l9, when, after quarrel between Gov
) ernor SRUTE and the house, he directed this
4 body not to print one OF their remonstrance
, and on their disobeying he sought In vain
procure the punishment of their printe
When DoNGAN was sent out as governc
of New York in $685. he was expressl
p instructed TO suffer no printing an
that colony obtained its first press in 16
i through Philadelphia printer being drive
q thence for publishing an address from a Quake
: in which he accused his brethren in office