Year: 1873

We often hear the remark made that
while a case is on trial the press ought
not to discuss the subject. This is not
good rule, but it is certainly true that the
press has no right to anticipate an inves-
tigation, and pronounce man guilty of
a crime before he has had the slightest
opportunity of explanation or defence.
We have received letters censuring us
for not joining in the hue-and-cry of de-
nunciation of good men charged by their
enemies with wrong-doing; but we know
too well the priceless value of character
and the strength of integrity to be be-
trayed into hasty accusation, or into the
indulgence of even suspicion until the
evidence is before the judges. Such sus-
pension of opinion will not weaken the
force of verdict of guilty when it does
come. It will rather strengthen, because
it will not then come as judgment de-
sired, but one to which we'were reluc-
family driven by facts that could not be
denied nor explained away. Let man
be held innocent until he is proved
guilty. This is an uncharitable world.
If there were no Scripture proof" of it,
we would believe that human nature is
not sweet nor good. 1t loves to see
man in trouble 1t has a taste for slander.
A newspaper publishing a good deed of
great man would attract no attention
but the cry of a great crime by public
man, bad deed, would be hailed with
avidity, and thousands of copies of the
paper would not satisfy the demand.
Men would tell of it to their neighbors,
and they to theirs, and so the tale of evil
would spread like wildfre, while the
virtue of philanthropist would not be
thought worthy of being talked about.


Our plea is for charity, for a kindly
judgment of the motives and actions of
our follow men; for moderation and for
bearance in making up a judgment, and
great caution in its expression when the
Judgment is unfavorable. And we shall
find that the advice we are now offering
with great freedom is not new, nor is it
human. It is divine counsel. 1t breathes
in the words of the Sermon on the Mount.
The great Teacher laid down these prin-
ciples, and babe US remember that with
what judgment we judge we shall be
judged. The law of love- the golden rule
of doing as we should be done by, the
command to judge not lest we be judged,
all combine to enforce the truth for
which we now are pleading. And no man
can tell how soon he may be called to
defend himself against the accusation of
enemies, or interested, or perhaps hired,
assassins of character. The best of men
are not safe from the tongue and the
pen of the slanderer. We have fearful
illustrations every day of this sad truth.
The brightness of ones character invites
assault. Reckless men throw mud at the
cleanest surface. No one may safely
rely upon his integrity as insurance
against the attacks of the wicked. The
innocent and upright will eventually be
delivered from the serpent and the bear,
but they will suffer in the fight. The
injury done to truth and righteousness
by the temporary blackening of a good
mans character is incalculable, and can
never be wholly repaired. A pure
preacher of the gospel publicly charged
with crime suffers by the charge, because
human nature is so greedy of evil that
some will believe the story which is af-
terwards proved to be lie. And so we
say that the tongue and the pen ought
to be under the law of charity. Words
once spoken, once published, can never
be recalled. They go on forever. Swift
to hear, slow to speak, is a good rule, and
yet hard one to observe, when every
man who makes a newspaper wishes to
speak first.