Year by year, it must and
will go back; year by year, the tone of public feeling must sink
lower down; year by year, the Congress and the Senate must become
of less account before all decent men; and year by year, the memory
of the Great Fathers of the Revolution must be outraged more and
more, in the bad life of their degenerate child.
Among the herd of journals which are published in the States, there
are some, the reader scarcely need be told, of character and
credit. From personal intercourse with accomplished gentlemen
connected with publications of this class, I have derived both
pleasure and profit. But the name of these is Few, and of the
others Legion; and the influence of the good, is powerless to
counteract the moral poison of the bad.
Among the gentry of America; among the well-informed and moderate:
in the learned professions; at the bar and on the bench: there is,
as there can be, but one opinion, in reference to the vicious
character of these infamous journals. It is sometimes contended -
I will not say strangely, for it is natural to seek excuses for
such a disgrace - that their influence is not so great as a visitor
would suppose.
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