NEWSPAPERS.
Side by side with the sinners of the rostrum, stand the sinners of the
newspaper press. The case is clear, and needs little remark or
illustration. The profligacy of newspapers, wherever they exist, is a
universal complaint; and, of all newspaper pressed I never heard any one
deny that the American is the worst. Of course, this depravity being so
general throughout the country, it must be occasioned by some
overpowering force of circumstances. The causes are various; and it is a
testimony to the strength and purity of the democratic sentiment in the
country, that the republic has not been overthrown by its newspapers.
While the population is so scattered as it now is, throughout the
greater part of the Union, nothing is easier than to make the people
know only one side of a question; few things are easier than to keep
from them altogether the knowledge of any particular affair; and, worse
than all, on them may easily be practised the discovery that lies may
work their intended effect, before the truth can overtake them.
It is hard to tell which is worst; the wide diffusion of things that are
not true, or the suppression of things that are true. It is no secret
that some able personage at Washington writes letters on the politics
and politicians of the general government, and sends them to the
remotest corners of the Union, to appear in their newspapers; after
which, they are collected in the administration newspaper at Washington,
as testimonies of public opinion in the respective districts where they
appear. It is no secret that the newspapers of the south keep out of
their columns all information which might enlighten their readers, near
and afar, as to the real state of society at home. I can testify to the
_remarkable events_ which occur in the southern States, unnoticed by any
press, and transpiring only through accident. Two men were burned alive,
without trial, by the gentlemen of Mobile, just before my arrival there;
and no newspaper even alluded to the circumstance, till, many months
after, a brief and obscure paragraph, in a northern journal, treated it
as a matter of hearsay.
It is no secret that the systematic abuse with which the newspapers of
one side assail every candidate coming forward on the other, is the
cause of many honourable men, who have a regard to their reputation,
being deterred from entering public life; and of the people being thus
deprived of some better servants than any they have. Though a faithful
public servant should be able to endure all the consequences of faithful
service, yet there are many cases where men, undecided as to their
choice of public and private life, are fixed in favour of the latter by
this one circumstance. It is the one obstacle too much. A public man in
New England gave me the history of an editor of a newspaper, who began
his professional course by making an avowed distinction between telling
lies in conversation and in a newspaper, where every body looks for
them. Of course, he has sunk deeper and deeper in falsehood; but
retribution has not yet overtaken him. My informant told me, that this
editor has made some thousands of dollars by his abuse of one man; and
jocosely proposed, that persons who are systematically railed at by any
newspaper, should lay claim to a proportion of the profits arising out
of the use of their names and characters.
The worst of it is, that the few exceptions to this depravity,--the few
newspapers conducted by men of truth and superior intelligence, are not
yet encouraged in proportion to their merits. It is easy to see how a
youth, going into the wilds, to set up a newspaper for the neighbouring
villages, should meet with support, however vicious or crude his
production maybe; but it is discouraging to perceive how little
preference is given, in the Atlantic cities, to the best journals over
the worst. Still, there is a preference; and it appears to be on the
increase; and that increase, again, is in proportion to the intrepidity
of the paper in discussing affairs as they arise.
There will be no great improvement in the literary character of the
American newspapers till the literature of the country has improved.
Their moral character depends upon the moral taste of the people. This
looks like a very severe censure. If it be so, the same censure applies
elsewhere, and English morals must be held accountable for the slanders
and captiousness displayed in the leading articles of British journals,
and for the disgustingly jocose tone of their police reports, where
crimes are treated as entertainments, and misery as a jest. Whatever may
be the exterior causes of the Americans having been hitherto ill-served
in their newspapers, it is now certain that there are none which may not
be overpowered by a sound moral taste. In their country, the demand lies
with the many. Whenever the many demand truth and justice in their
journals, and reject falsehood and calumny, they will be served
according to their desire.
This desire is beginning to awaken. Some months before I left the
United States, a man of colour was burned alive, without trial, at St.
Louis, in Missouri; a large assemblage of the "respectable" inhabitants
of the city being present. No one supposed that anybody out of the State
of Missouri was any further implicated with this deed, than as men have
an interest in every outrage done to man. The interest which residents
in other States had in this deed, was like that which an Englishman has
in a man being racked in the Spanish Inquisition; or a Frenchman, in a
Turk being bastinadoed at Constantinople. He is not answerable for it,
or implicated in it, as a fellow-citizen; and he speaks his humane
reprobation as a fellow-man. Certain American citizens, out of Missouri,
contrived, however, to implicate themselves in the responsibility for
this awful outrage, which, one would have thought, any man would have
been thankful to avoid. The majority of newspaper editors made
themselves parties to the act, by refusing, from fear, to reprobate it.
The state of the case was this, as described to me by some inhabitants
of St. Louis. The gentlemen of the press in that city dared not
reprobate the outrage, for fear of the consequences from the murderers.
They merely announced the deed, as a thing to be regretted, and
recommended that the veil of oblivion should be drawn over the affair.
Their hope was widely different from their recommendation. They hoped
that the newspapers throughout the Union would raise such a chorus of
execration as would annihilate the power of the executioners. But the
newspapers of the Union were afraid to comment upon the affair, because
they saw that the St. Louis editors were afraid. The really respectable
inhabitants of that disgraced city were thrown almost into despair by
this dastardly silence, and believed all security of life and property
in their State to be at an end. A few journals were honest enough to
thunder the truth in the ears of the people; and the people awoke to
perceive how their editors had involved themselves in this crime, by a
virtual acquiescence,--like the unfaithful mastiff, if such a creature
there be, which slinks away from its master's door, to allow a passage
to a menacing thief. The influence of the will of the awakening people
is already seen in the improved vigour in the tone of the newspapers
against outrage. On occasion of the more recent riots at Cincinnati, the
editorial silence has been broken by many voices.
There is a spirited newspaper at Louisville which has done its duty
well, on occasions when it required some courage to do it; informing the
Cincinnati people of the meanness of their conduct in repressing the
expression of opinion, lest it should injure the commerce between Ohio
and Kentucky; and also, justifying Judge Shaw of Massachusetts, against
the outcries of the South, for a judgment he lately gave in favour of
the release of a slave, voluntarily carried into a free State. Two New
York papers, the New York American and the Evening Post, have gained
themselves honour by intrepidity of the same kind, and by the
comparative moderation and friendliness of their spirit. I hope that
there may be many more, and that their number may be perpetually on the
increase.
The very best newspaper that I saw in the United States was a single
number of the Cleveland Whig, which I picked up at an hotel in the
interior of Ohio. I had seen spirited extracts from it in various
newspapers. The whole of this particular number was valuable for the
excellence of its spirit, and for its good sense. It had very important,
and some very painful subject matter,--instances of overbearing the
law,--to treat of. It was so done as nearly to beguile me, hungry
traveller as I was, of my dinner, and of all thought of my journey.
One other remarkable paper lies before me: remarkable for its professing
to be conducted on principles of exact justice, and for its accordance
with its principles to a degree which has hardly been dreamed of in a
publication of its kind. There is something heroic in the enterprise,
which inspires a strong hope of its success. If the ability be but
sufficient to sustain it,--of which there seems no reason to
doubt,--there can be no question of its acceptableness. The just and
gentle construction of human actions, and the cheerful and trustful mood
in surveying natural events, are more congenial with the general mind,
than captiousness and distrust towards men, and despondency under the
government of God. Such men as the editor of the Boston Reformer are
sure to command the sympathies of men, however they may appear to run
counter to the supposed tastes of newspaper readers. The following
notice to correspondents is a novelty in its place,--more striking than
any announcements in the news columns.
"To correspondents.--Our paper is no vehicle of vulgar abuse, or
spiteful attacks on persons or institutions. Our design is to avoid
everything which appeals to or pleases any bad propensity in our nature.
Doubtless there are a thousand petty annoyances somewhat grievous to be
borne; but we cannot go about to redress them. The best way is to
forgive and forget them. We cannot waste our strength on little matters.
We know no way to do good to man, to make society really better, but to
suppress our anger, keep our temper, show an elevated mind and a good
heart. We must look for the good, not for the bad in men, and always
put the best construction we can on all their doings."--_Boston
Reformer._