The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-03
PENNYPACKER SHOULD HAVE
LIVED IN 1888.

LIVED IN 1888.
Commercially and industrially, Pennsyl-
vania is twentieth century State.
Politically it belongs to the era of 1888,
and has a Governor who would have been
the fashion in the sixteenth century. The
attempt to restrict the liberties of the
press is not of the spirit of this age. Those
who believe in the doctrine of the trans
migration of souls will be satisfied that
Pennsylvania Governor is not really
Judge Pennypacker of 1908, but reap
pearance of Recorder Jenner who lived in
1888. Everybody knows that Penny
packer is not the real Governor. but it
has been gcnertlly accepted that he is the
dummy OF Quay and Quay boodlers. 1t
seems that this general acceptance may
be erroneous and that Pelnypacker is the
reincarnation of Theo. Jenner His press
muzzling message to the Pennsylvania
Legislature is an echo of form of com
mitment in a judgment of an old London
court. addressed to the keeper of the
Newgate prison. The document is as
follows:
ITO the Keeper of Newgate or His De-
putty:
LONDON, SIS; You are hereby re-
quired to receive into your custody the
body Of Thames DeLaune, and him safely
keep, until he shall be delivered by due
course of law. for that it appeared before
me. by his own confession, that he is the
author and penman of a certain pamphlet
entitled, A Plea for the Non Conform
lists; and hath caused many hundred
sheets thereof TO be printed. wherein are
contained several seditious and danger
Gus matters against the government, and
for that he refused to find sureties to APP
pear at the next sessions of the peace, to
be held for the city of London at the Old
Bailey, and to be of good behavior in the
meantime, and for your so doing this shall
be your warrant Given under my hand
and seal, this 3Oth day of November, Ammo
Carroll Secundi nune Angliae, etc, So
Annoq. Dom 1853.
THO JENNER, Recorder,
Eek. per- A. NICOLAS"
The bigotry that imprisoned the author
of "A Plea for the Non Conformsts" had
more excuse than the Pennsylvania law
that seeks to destroy the liberty of the
press, for it was undertaken in an age
when education was restricted to the few,
when men believed in the divine right of
kings, witchcraft and other fables. Re
corder Jenner was a product of 1853. Pen
nypacker was a product of the same age,
but lives out of his proper surroundings
Jenner could put in Jail the man who
made plea for liberty of thought. Pen
nypaeker may pass laws to. enslave the
press, but the enlightened public opinion
of the twentieth century will turn them
to naught. In all America there is only
er's law against the freedom of the press
Ia little Republican sheet in Piedmont
North Carolina that says the News and
Observer would have been suppressed I'M
der such a law in North Carolina. It's
opinion shows what it desired. There
wasn't a Radical or Populist or enemy to
good government in North Carolina who
didn't want the News and Observer sup
pressed when by editorial. cartoon and
graphic story it was furnishing the infor-
nation that overthrow the Re-pop-li-can
rule in North Carolina. BY attempts to
hire assassins, by libel suits galore, by
villifcation and abuse ad nauseum these
''lewd fellows of the baser sort" sought
to silence the News and Observer or i'm
pair its influence But they all failed. A
law like the Pennypacker law would not
have succeeded, for it contrayenes the
constitutional guarantee of freedom of the
press which North Cardinals demand
placed in the Federal Constitution. And
since Fusionism met its defeat chiefly by
the exposures made in the News and OBJ
server, there are tax-dodging corporations
and political servants of political cor