I must be pardoned for saying that there is no
warrant for this plea, and that every fact and circumstance tends
directly to the opposite conclusion.
When any man, of any grade of desert in intellect or character, can
climb to any public distinction, no matter what, in America,
without first grovelling down upon the earth, and bending the knee
before this monster of depravity; when any private excellence is
safe from its attacks; when any social confidence is left unbroken
by it, or any tie of social decency and honour is held in the least
regard; when any man in that free country has freedom of opinion,
and presumes to think for himself, and speak for himself, without
humble reference to a censorship which, for its rampant ignorance
and base dishonesty, he utterly loathes and despises in his heart;
when those who most acutely feel its infamy and the reproach it
casts upon the nation, and who most denounce it to each other, dare
to set their heels upon, and crush it openly, in the sight of all
men: then, I will believe that its influence is lessening, and men
are returning to their manly senses. But while that Press has its
evil eye in every house, and its black hand in every appointment in
the state, from a president to a postman; while, with ribald
slander for its only stock in trade, it is the standard literature
of an enormous class, who must find their reading in a newspaper,
or they will not read at all; so long must its odium be upon the
country's head, and so long must the evil it works, be plainly
visible in the Republic.
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