Year: 1876

There has been Of late good deal Of
ill-considered talk, says the New Y ork Ma
ton, about the recklessness of the press in
recent rakings-up and diffusion of charges
against publicmen. Sometimes this comes
from orators who are troubled, and not
unnaturally, by the effect which the course
Of the newspapers has in diminishing pub
lie respect for public officers; sometimes
from editors who are friendly to the Ad-
mnistration OF to the senatorial group,
and are exasperated by the discredit which
the production OF charges" throws on the
Republican party; and in both eases we
are treated to homilies on the immortality
of evi! speaking and tale bearing. Gener-
al Hawley delivered one such discourse
unfortunately for him, only two or three
days before the Belknap explosion, and
others appear now and then in the columns
of papers which still expect "reform with
in the party" and count upon the contin-
ued usefulness OF the party. If however,
we look back over the assaults of the press
upon prominent public men, during the
last ten years, we venture to say it would
be impossible to discover much, if any,


foundation for this view Of the matter
We have examined most of what has been
said or written on this subject for specific
instances of the persecution of men in po-
sitions at all prominent without justiica-
tion or probable cause. and we have not
lighted upon one. Who is the man in
public life at any time during the past ten
years, on whom the press has fastenad as
corrupt OF slippery, who to-day stands be-
fore the world as completely vindicated !?
In some instances, the paper has got hold
of the wrong charge, but rarely, if ever,
of the wrong man-that is to say, if the
persons attacked had not done what they
were attacked for doing, it generally
turned out that they had done something
else of the same character. The news
papers, in other words. have been almost
always correct in their charges their er-
rors have been in their specifications OF
course, this shows that "trial by newspa-
pers" is by no means an admirable thing,


by no means process by which public
man ought to stand or fall. 1t does not
deal out exact justice it occasionally deals
out gross injustice but it does on the whole
and in the long run put the public on the
track of the wrong doer. 1t calls atten-
tion to the fact that he has fled, indicates
the direction he has probably taken, and
follows his trail until the proper authori-
ties are able to secure him


Since the outbreak of the war, as every
body knows, the Republican party has re-
fused to inquire into abuses, partly through
overweening confidence in its own
strength, and partly through the convic-
tion that the dangers against which it was
guarding the Government were so tremen-
dous as to make administrative corruption
of comparatively little moment. Under
these circumstances, and during this long
period, the press has furnished almost the
only check upon fraud and venalty in ev-
cry department. 1t has made or brought
about nearly all the disclosures of official
misconduct in municipal, state and feder-
al politics, with little or no help from the
machinery of Government, and in the
teeth Of the powerful efforts Of the rings
and professional politicians of every
grade to throw discredit on it. 1t was
easy to throw discredit upon it, we do not
deny, but it has been instrumental in
bringing a large number Of criminals to
justice; and that it has done but little in
justice to innocent men we most positively
assert. Its general estimate Of character
has rarely been mistaken.