At this hour, what is
really known by the mass of the American people of the true
characters of their public men? No nation that has any claim to
civilization and publicity knows less, and for several very obvious
reasons. The want of a capital in which the intelligence of the
nation periodically assembles and whence a corrected public opinion
on all such matters ought constantly to flow, as truth emanates from
the collisions of minds, is one of these reasons. The extent of the
country, which separates men by distances that no fact can travel
over without incurring the dangers of being perverted on the road,
is another. But the most fatal of al he influences that tend to
mislead the judgment of the American citizen, is to be found in the
abuse of a machinery that was intended to produce an exactly
contrary effect. If the tongue was given to man to communicate ideas
to his fellows, so has philosophy described it as "a gift to conceal
his thoughts." If the press was devised to circulate truth, so has
it been changed into a means of circulating lies. One is easily,
nay, more easily, sent abroad on the four winds of the heavens than
the other.
Pages:
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315