This Can Never Be Long Excluded From Any Party
Consideration, And, Though Politicians Strive To Evade It, The Question
Still Recurs, And Will Force Itself Into Notice.
Little more than a year
after the Know-nothings were first heard of, they came into collision with
the
Subject, in the summer of 1855, and, after stormy dissensions at their
great convention, broke up into several branches, some of which totally
altered or abandoned the original objects of their association.
Their triumph was brief: some of the States in which they were the most
successful have witnessed their signal overthrow, [Footnote: At several of
the state elections at the close of 1855 the Know-nothings succeeded in
placing their nominees in public offices, partly by an abandonment of some
of their original aims.] and it is to be feared that no practical good
will result from their future operations. But the good cause of
constitutional government in America is not lost with their failure -
public opinion, whenever it shall be fairly appealed to, will declare
itself in favour of truth and order; the conservative principle, though
dormant, is yet powerful; and, though we may smile at republican
inconsistencies, and regret the state into which republican government has
fallen, it is likely that America contains the elements of renovation
within herself, and will yet present to the world the sublime spectacle of
a free people governing itself by just laws, and rejoicing in the purity
of its original republican institutions.
The newspaper press is one of the most extraordinary features in the
United States. Its influence is omnipresent. Every party in religion,
politics, or morals, speaks, not by one, but by fifty organs; and every
nicely defined shade of opinion has its voices also. Every town of large
size has from ten to twenty daily papers; every village has its three or
four; and even a collection of huts produces its one "daily," or two or
three "weeklies." These prints start into existence without any fiscal
restrictions: there is neither stamp nor paper duty. Newspapers are not a
luxury, as with us, but a necessary of life. They vary in price from one
halfpenny to threepence, and no workman who could afford his daily bread
would think of being without his paper. Hundreds of them are sold in the
hotels at breakfast-time; and in every steamer and railway car, from the
Atlantic ocean to the western prairies, the traveller is assailed by
newsboys with dozens of them for sale. They are bought in hundreds
everywhere, and are greedily devoured by men, women, and children. Almost
as soon as the locality of a town is chosen, a paper starts into life,
which always has the effect of creating an antagonist.
The newspapers in the large cities spare no expense in obtaining, either
by telegraph or otherwise, the earliest intelligence of all that goes on
in the world. Every item of English news appears in the journals, from the
movements of the court to those of the literati; and a weekly summary of
parliamentary intelligence is always given. Any remarkable law proceedings
are also succinctly detailed. It follows, that a dweller at Cincinnati or
New Orleans is nearly as well versed in English affairs as a resident of
Birmingham, and English politics and movements in general are very
frequent subjects of conversation. Since the commencement of the Russian
war the anxiety for English intelligence has increased, and every item of
Crimean or Baltic news, as recorded in the letters of the "special
correspondents," is reprinted in the American papers without abridgment,
and is devoured by all classes of readers. The great fault of most of
these journals is their gross personality; even the privacy of domestic
life is invaded by their Argus-eyed scrutiny. The papers discern
everything, and, as everybody reads, no current events, whether in
politics, religion, or the world at large, are unknown to the masses. The
contents of an American paper are very miscellaneous. Besides the news of
the day, it contains congressional and legal reports, exciting fiction,
and reports of sermons, religious discussions, and religious
anniversaries. It prys into every department of society, and informs its
readers as to the doings and condition of all.
Thus every party and sect has a daily register of the most minute sayings
and doings, and proceedings and progress of every other sect; and as truth
and error are continually brought before the masses, they have the
opportunity to know and compare. There are political parties under the
names of Whigs, Democrats, Know-nothings, Freesoilers, Fusionists,
Hunkers, Woolly-heads, Dough-faces, Hard-shells, Soft-shells, Silver-
greys, and I know not what besides; all of them extremely puzzling to the
stranger, but of great local significance. There are about a hundred so-
called religious denominations, from the orthodox bodies and their
subdivisions to those professing the lawless fanaticism of Mormonism, or
the chilling dogmas of Atheism. All these parties have their papers, and
each "movement" has its organ. The "Woman's Right Movement" and the
"Spiritual Manifestation Movement" have several.
There is a continual multiplication of papers, corresponding, not only to
the increase of population, but to that of parties and vagaries. The
increasing call for editors and writers brings persons into their ranks
who have neither the education nor the intelligence to fit them for so
important an office as the irresponsible guidance of the people. They
make up for their deficiencies in knowledge and talent by fiery and
unprincipled partisanship, and augment the passions and prejudices of
their readers instead of placing the truth before them. The war carried on
between papers of opposite principles is something perfectly terrific. The
existence of many of these prints depends on the violent passions which
they may excite in their supporters, and frequently the editors are men of
the most unprincipled character. The papers advocating the opinions of the
different religious denominations are not exempt from the charge of
personalities and abusive writing. No discord is so dread as that carried
on under the cloak of religion, and religious journalism in the States is
on a superlatively bitter footing.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 116 of 128
Words from 117572 to 118595
of 129941
