The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-02-25

as the printing press. "A great writer III
the south of Europe declared that the
king of Naples had made 1t unsafe Tor
him to write ON any subject save nat
ural history Austria could not bear
Kossuth's journalistic pen pleading for
the redemption of Hungary. Napoleon
l, wanting to keep his iron heel on the
neck of nations, said that the newspaper
was the regent of kings and the only
safe place to keep an editor was III prls-
on But the great battle for the free
dom of the press was fought IN the
courtrooms of England and the United
States before this century began, when
Hamilton made his great speech IN be-
half of the freedom of J. Peter Zenger' S
Gazette in America, and when Ersklne
made his great speech in behalf OF the
freedom to publish Paine's Rights OF
Man" in England. Those were the Mar
athon and the Thermopyle where the
battle was fought which decided the
freeom of the press in England and
America and all the powers OF earth
and hell will never again be able to put
upon the printing press the handcutfs
and the topples of literary and political
despotism.
1t is remarkable that Thomas Jeffer-
son, who wrote the Declaration OF indie
pendence, also wrote these words, III
had to choose between a government
without newspapers and newspapers
without a government, l would prefer
the latter - Stung by some new fabrl-
cation in print we come to write or
speak about an "unbridled printing
press :" Our new book ground up in I'M
Just criticism, we come to write or
speak about the unfair printing press, "
Perhaps through our own indistlnctness
of utterance we are reported as saying
just the opposite of what we did say,
and there is a small riot of semicolOns
and hyphens and commas, and we come
to write or talk about the laundering
printing press, or we take up news
paper full of social scandal and of cases
of divorce, and we write or talk about
"filthy, scurrilous printing press. "
But this morning l ask you to consider
the unreasonable and everlasting bless
ing of good newspaper.
find no difficulty in accounting for
the worlds advance What has made
the change? "Books, you say. No, sir.
The vast majority of citizens do not
read books. Take this audience or any
other promiscuous assem- blage, and how
many histories have they read? How
many treatises on constitutional law or
political economy or works of science?
How many elaborate poems or books of
travel? Not many. In the United States
the people would not average one such
book a year for each individual. Whence
then this intelligence, this capacity to
talk about all themes, secular and reli-
gious; this acquaintance with science
and art, this power to appreciate the
beautiful and grand? Next to the Bible,
the newspaper, swift winged and every
where present, flying over the fence,
showed under the door, tossed into the
counting house. laid on the work bench,
hawked through the cars All read it
white and black, German, Irishman,
Swiss, Spariard, American, old and
young, good and bad sick and well, he
fore breakfast and after tea, Monday
morning, Saturday night, Sunday and
weekday. | now declare that consider
the newspaper to be the grand agency
by which the gospel is to be preached,
ignorance cast out, oppression dethron-
ed, crime extirpated, the world raised,
heaven rejoiced and God glorified. In
the clanking of the printing press, as
the sheets fly out, hear the voice of
the Lord Almighty proclaiming to all
the dead nations of the earth, Lazarus,
come forth !" and to the retreating
surges of darkness, LET there be light p
In many of our city newspapers, pro-
Tossing no more than secular informa-
ton, there have appeared during the
past 80 years some of the grandest ap-
peals in behalf of religion and some of
the most effective interpretations of
Gods government among the nations.
Good and Bad Newspapers.
There are only two kinds of newspa-
pers-the one good, very good; the
other bad very bad. A newspaper may
be started with an undecided character,
but after it has been going on for years
every body finds out just what it is, and
it is very good or it is very bad. The
one paper is the embodiment of news,
the ally of virtue, the foe of crime, the
delectation of elevated taste, the might
est agency on earth for making the
world better The other paper is brig
and among moral forces, it is be-
sinner of reputation, it is the right
arm of death and hell, it is the mightiest
agency in the universe for making the
world worse and battling against the
cause of God-the one an angel of in
telligence and mercy, the other fiend
of darkness. Between this archangel
and this fury is to be fought the great
battle which is to decide the fate of the
world. If you have any doubt as to
which is to be victor, ask the prophecies,
ask God. The chief batteries with which
he would vindicate the right and thun-
der down the wrong are now unlimber-
ed. The great Armageddon of the ma
tions is not to be fought with swords,
but with steel pens; not with bullets,
but with type; not with cannon, but
with lightning perfecting presses, and
the Sumters and the Moultries and the
| Pulaskis and the Gibraltars of that con-
| fIict will be the editorial and reportorla
! -a.,.,, &c onr oroaf navuSnappr pSfahli gh