The press and the Government.
The Yankee journals declare that ‘"a military despotion which suffers, or is not able to check, such outspoken freedom on the part of public writers is in a fair way to succumb." ’ The allusion is to the frank and untrammeled manner in which the
Southern press comments on public affairs.--The statement is its own refutation.
‘"A military despotism"’ and a press of ‘"outspoken freedom"’ can no more exist together than fire and water — It is a proof of the strength instead of the weakness of the
Southern Government that it permits the press to discuss public affairs with the most ‘ "outspoken freedom."’ If it were a military despotism, and one which doubted its own solidity and permanence, it would do precisely what
Lincoln is doing in the
North, --silence every press that dared to say its soul was its own, and send its editors to a dungeon or bastille.
Nothing can be more preposterous than the assertion of the New York
Herald that the
Southern came is declining in popular favor because some Southern newspapers criticise the acts of the
Government.
The
Yankees cannot understand that the cause and the
Government are two distinct things, and that were the
Government ever so unpopular — which it is not — or were there no Government at all, the cause would be as dear as ever to Southern hearts.
The Southern Government, in the judgment of the whole civilized world, and even according to the admissions of its enemies, has accomplished wonders.
It will bear comparison at any rate with the
Northern Government, which, with five times its resources of men and means, it has driven back and defeated for more than a bear and a half.
It is impossible to claim for it infallibility; there have been errors and abuses doubtless, which the press has denounced boldly, proving, at all events, that the
Government does not interfere with the press, and therefore, that it is not a military despotism.
But whatever the merits of the
Government, the people are fighting not for them, but for themselves, and unless they can prove traitors to their own lives, fortunes, and honor, would never desert their cause even if their Government were weaker and more contemptible than its worst enemies pretend.
It is natural however, that men who are slaves themselves, and slaves to the meanest and most ignoble of tyrants, should look upon freedom in any form as dangerous to the
State.
There is scarcely a press in the
North which dares to dispute the infallibility of
Lincoln, although in their secret hearts they believe him to be thoroughly imbecile and corrupt.
Is this a proof of the strength of their Government?
Is it a proof of anything but the strength of a military despotism, which is strong because those who submit to it are only fit to be slaves?
