Year: 1866

Unimpressible as are the American
people-if they can, with truth, be
said to be unimpressible--and weak
as are the great majority of the pub
lie journals of the country, it is not to
be disputed that the press of the Unit
ed States wields vast influence over
the popular mind. 1t is capable of
great good; it is also capable ofmighty
evil. Indifferent as are the greater
share of its articles, and threadbar6
and narrow as is its philosophy, it can
by constant repetition of the same
statements and ideas, at length fix
them upon the common memory, and
make them the springs of action in
matters in which the fate of the nation
may be involved.


The public journal is at once the
creator and the collaboration of the
popular orator. The orator draws
upon the journal for his resources, and
the journal upon the orator. In ca
ses Of agitation, the difference between
them is, that the one represents the
individual, the other the class I; the one
is the demagogue, the other the scum
of all demagogery.


Had there been upon neither side
newspapers and popular orators to
stir the public mind by untrue state
ments or unseund deductions from
known facts, there would have been
no jealousies between the North and
the South, no abolition excitement
and no war. 1t required years of
falsehood and misconstruction and ex-
aggeration to bring on state of ac-
tive hostility. The means of propo-
eating SANDER and intensifying hatred
in the absence Of these two imple-
ments, would have been insufficient
to bring on a confagaration. AS it
was, it is not necessary to inquire up
on which side the means were used
most unscrupulously. We are speak
ing of the result which they produced
war and its consequences of mutual
Injury and collective insolvency. The
truth which we desire to impress is
this that continued .malign agitation
in this country leads to war. 1t has
done so once there is no reason to
doubt that it is capable of doing so
again.


Therefore it is that we condemn the
efforts that are continually being
made by the press and orators of the
Republican party, to keep before the
people of the North the real or unreal
sins, follies and misdoings of the peo-
pie of the Souths Why this continual
overhauling of old accounts ? why
this constant and laborous presenta-
ton Of indictments to hatred, distrust
and suspicion, if not to perpetuate
condition of enmityp Admitting that
there are men in the South whose
passions are immoderate, and whose
words are Incorporate is it just al
ways to assume that these passions
and these words truly represent the
South in its collective capacity?
We sfnceroly believe tbat without
mutual tolerance there can be no per
manent union of these States and
that any temporary union will be
source Of infinite distress and expense
1t is due to the conquering party to
set the example of forbearance. More
than we can express, we regret the
narrowness and want of magnanimity
which characterizes the entire Repub-
lican press and body of popular ora
tors. The tene of the North, as it is
spoken through their vehicles, is that
of a people who have not been re-
venged half enough-who have yet
hatreds to feed and enmities to satisfy,
and who are resolved to keep open an
avenue to further satisfaction. If we
were able to discover any, the slight
est, wish for the restoration of desi-
rable unity, we would not hesitate to
confess it but we do not. The Union
looks farther off than ever, and is
daily, to all appearance, recedIng in
to the regions of utter hopelessness.


What we would like to know is,
whether the people of the North do
really take pleasure in this multipli-
cation Of the literature of Southern
hatred and disloyalty.


This elaborate slander--for even
the presentation of facts becomes de-
famatory when it is carried 70 ex-
Temes, or is made for an injurious
purpose-is war. 1t is the meanest
and most despicable species of war
1t is war that towards can prosecute,
and which, to prosecute, is sign of
cowardice. 1t is even more inimical
to national unity than conflict of
arms. Friendships were formed, and
lessons of mutual tolerance learned
in the midst Of actual hostilities but
here is no room for such meliorating
influences. 1t is a work purely of in-
jury, for which there is no compensa-
tion a cause which is to be worked
out in unhappy effects in a long and
ominous future.-Cm. Enquirer.


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