Year: 1861




In an article in the New York Ledger, on
" the rights and duties of war;" Edward Ev-
erett makes some admirable structures upon
the tolerance of reasonable printing and
speech. He does not see how any Just notion
Of freedom of speech and press require us to
tolerate the license of reasonable words,
which may be of as much service to the rebels
as regiments and munitions of war. We pre-
sumo the paragraphs that follow will not be
copied by the Boston Courier, once the organ
and laudator of Mr.. Everett:


"Thcre are presses, for the most part in
the border states, though some Of them are
found in cities more remote from the scene of
action, which arc daily pleading the cause of
the enemy, misrepresenting and villifying
the government of the United States, exag-
gerating every article of unfavorable intelli-
gence, and exerting themselves to the utmost
to dishcarten the friends and defenders of the
constitution and the Union. But such is the
all but supcrstitious devotion Of people to
the liberty of the press, that these pernicious
journals have, with the exception Of single
instance in st. Louis, never been intcrfered
with. 1t seems to have been thought better
by those in authority, to tolerate the mischief
of these unpatriotic presses, than to elevate
them to greater importance by prosecution,
or to enroach in the slightest degree upon
that freedom Of public discussion which in
ordinary times is justly regarded as one of
the great safeguards Of liberty. But it is
preposterous to sacrifice the end to the
means. We should in this respect learn
wisdom from the enemies of the Union.--
While we regard as unbecoming our Christ
ian civilization that resort to lynch law, by
which every expression of opinion adverse to
the popular sentiment is suppressed in the
seeding states, we ought to remember that
in tolerating traitorous press among our
selves, we practice liberality which awakens
no gratitude at home, and is never recipro-
Gated by the opposite party. 1t is in fact an
absurdity in terms, under the venerable name
Of the liberty Of the press, to permit the
systematic and liccntious abuse of govern
mont which is taskcd to the utmost in de-
Tending the country from general disintegra-
ton and political chaos. The governor of
Malta was once censurcd in parliament for
some alleged severity toward the editor of a
journal in that island; and the liberty of the
press was declared to be in danger. The
Duke of Wellington said he was as friendly
as any body to the liberty of the press in
London, but free press in the island of
Malta was as much out of place as it would
be onssthe quarter deck of man-of-war. We
suppose the most enthusiastic champion Of
the liberty of the press would hardly think
it right to publish a journal within the walls
of Fort MclIenry, in which the officers of the
garrison should be daily advised to desert
and the men be constantly cxhorted to mutiny
and whose columns should be filled with
persistent abuse Of the government and all
engaged in its defense. Why should journals
of that description be allowed to ditf1se their
posion beneath its walls amidst the cxcitable
population of large city?


$50 too with reference to the freedom Of
speech in debate, one of the vital conditions
of republican liberty. The late session of
Congress has witnessed magnanimity on
the part of the majority in both houses of a
truly romantic cast The acts and the mo-
tives of the government, in the suppression
of an insurrcction, admitted by one of its
most distinguished chiefs to proceed mainly
from the disappointment Of leading aspirants
to office, have been assailcd from day to day
with a viruloncc and persistence which would
be harmless in time Of peace, but which in
time of war can have no other effect on the
popular mind, than to perpleX and dishearten
those who arc stalking life and fortune in the
cause of the country. This generosity excites
! no gratitude on the part of those toward
whom it is practiced and so far from being
rcciprocatcd, the member of the confederate
congress at Montgomery or Richmond, who
should assail the conduct and policy of that
body, as the government of the United States
has been assailed by the sympathizcrs with
secession at Washington, would not reach
his hotel in safety. lie would swing from
the next lamp post"