University of Virginia Library

EDITORIAL COURTESIES.

—Shakspeare.

If Socrates, or any other sensible ancient, could be
resuscitated, and have half-a-dozen flaming rhapsodies
on the benefits and blessings of the “press,”
put into his hands, what a glorious and mighty
change would he suppose had taken place in the
ordering of public affairs, since the time when the
Athenian rabble were led by the nose by every
noisy demagogue who chose to spout nonsense to
them in their market-places. How the good man's
heart would be filled with rejoicing as he read glowing
descriptions of the tremendous capabilities of
this mighty engine, wielded solely for the benefit
of mankind, and of its unwearied exertions to disseminate
useful information and correct knowledge
of political events to the meanest citizen of the
state! He would suppose, that with this almost

omnipotent power arrayed on the side of virtue, and
watching with untiring vigilance over the true interests
of all, that this wicked world must have been
transformed into a sort of Utopia since his time—a
place from which all prejudice, venality, corruption,
and sycophancy were swept away, and where the
governors and the governed would emulate each
other in their exertions for the common weal. But
if, after perusing the aforesaid rhapsodies, the said
Socrates could have a quantity of newspapers taken
indiscriminately from different parts of the country
placed before him, there is strong reason to believe
that an attentive perusal of their elegant contents
would materially change his opinion. He
would find the gentlemen presiding over one half
of the press stating that the other portion of their
editorial brethren were, without exception, the
greatest set of rascals, scoundrels, rogues, thieves,
and vagabonds that ever existed on the face of the
earth; and that they were the most vile, the most
degraded, the most contemptible miscreants that
could, by any possibility, disgrace humanity. On
the other hand, he would find the party accused in
these gentle terms, asserting that their assailants
were well known to be such infamous liars, so totally
destitute of every spark of honesty, so stained
with infamy, so branded with convicted falsehoods,
as to render any thing they might say unworthy
of the slightest notice. Poor Socrates would be
sadly puzzled, and think there was more in this
than he ever “dreamt of in his philosophy,” and
that truth still kept her ancient station at the bottom
of a well. He would find these virtuous vehicles
of knowledge and information made up of
quack advertisements, dreadful murders, dreadful
poetry, Joe-Miller jests, and editorial personalities;
in the latter of which he would see all the coarseness
of his old enemy Aristophanes ten times trebled,
without a single redeeming sprinkling of his
wit and humor; and he would be lost in utter
amazement to find that the very worst and most
ignorant portion of the people (according to their
own showing) had been, by some strange fatality,
elevated to instruct and amuse the rest.

There are some subjects which it is necessary to
aid by a slight stretch of the fancy, or a little exaggeration
of language, in order to give them point
and effect; but to describe, just as it is, the manner
in which editorial warfare is carried on in the country
papers of the United States, other words than
are to be found in Walker or Webster must be
sought for; they are too tame, too weak to convey
any idea of these Billingsgate personalities.

as the worthy conductors of the press think proper
to bestow upon each other. Wherein the utility—
the advantage of all this to the public, or what is
more, to themselves, consists, it is not easy to discover.
If they are what they say they are, would it
not be their policy to agree and keep it concealed,
and not blazon forth each other's infamy to the
world? And what has that world to do with their
disreputable quarrels and low abuse, farther than to
laugh at and despise them for it? the public of this
day, as of yore,
and after looking on for some time, and amusing
itself with the noise and sputter of the enraged belligerents,
come to the conclusion that they are both
contemptible creatures, and pay no further attention
to the matter. In fact, nine-tenths of the papers
have, by this degrading conduct, in a great measure
lost the power of affecting character either by
praise or censure: there are many who pay no sort
of attention either to what they say of public men
or of each other; and if there are still those who,
making a deduction of ninety-nine per cent., think
“there must be some truth in what the fellow says,”
their number is fast diminishing. A paper is at
present lying before us, from which better things
might have been expected, as it is published in a
decent neighborhood, and contains some good reading
matter, in which, amid two-thirds of a column
of abuse, one of the most moderate sentences is,
that his opponent is “a liar by nature and a thief
by profession.” After going on for some time with
unabated spirit in this strain of unmitigated abuse,
he winds up with the following magnificent piece
of composition. “If the river Amazon were made
to run through his (his opponent's) soul, more time
would be taken up in cleansing it of its depravity
and filthiness, than was required by the ancient
river to cleanse the celebrated stables, wherein a
thousand oxen had been stalled for almost as many
years!” This appears to be only one of a series of
articles on the subject! and the offence, as far as
we can make it out, for which all these hard words
are let loose, seems to have been the copying a paragraph
without due credit, or something of the
kind of equally vital importance to the community.
We have not seen the replication to this choice morceau,
but presume it will be in the same style of
impassioned and elegant invective.

Now is not this and such as this abominable?

and hundreds of instances could be pointed out of
still greater magnitude, in which the personal appearance
and family connexions of a man are ridiculed—charges
of not having paid his tailor's bill,
or any thing else, no matter what, that depravity
can invent or blackguardism utter, are put forth.
Opprobrious epithets from such sources, when applied
to those who have been long before the public,
and whose characters are well and favorably
known, can do but comparatively little harm; they
may exclaim with Brutus,

but suppose an honorable and sensitive man, just
commencing his career, attacked by one of those
literary scavengers, what exquisite pain must it
give him to find himself dragged forward and slandered
in this manner. And he has no redress; he
cannot reply, or at all events if he does, it will be a
most unequal match, for he will be temperate in
his language, and anxious not to assert any thing
but what is strictly true. It would be like a gentleman
neatly dressed in light-colored unmentionables
and white kid gloves, engaged in a combat
of throwing mud from a kennel with a ragged and
tattered miscreant; his adversary, from being well
practised at the game, throws ten handsfull of dirt
for his one, and quickly bespatters him all over,
while the few additional pieces that he could send,
would never be discerned on his opponent's already
soiled and filthy garments. The best way certainly
for those who are well enough known to afford
it, is to pass all such attacks over in absolute silence.
Blackwood's Magazine, whose personality has at
least always prostituted humor and ability to make
it go off, has never been so enraged by any of the
retorts of its adversaries as by the real or affected
contempt of the Edinburgh Review. Notwithstanding
the virulent abuse that has from time to
time been bestowed upon it, the Edinburgh has
never, since the commencement of Blackwood, let
it appear that it was conscious there was such a
journal in existence.

We are not very sanguine in anticipations of any
speedy and effectual change for the better in this
world of ours; but we do think the time is fast
coming when, with a few exceptions, this custom
of the present race of public journals in the United
States will be regarded with unqualified contempt.
There are already symptoms of better things. Most
of the city papers in New-York, and indeed in all
large towns, have lately amended their ways considerably

in this respect, though they were never
one quarter so bad as their rural brethren; and
there are several journals that are respectable and
entertaining repositories of news, knowledge, literature,
and fashion, while their trifling disputes are
conducted in a pleasant and gentlemanly spirit.
Clashing interests and party views will always preserve
some portion of personality in the world; but
it would be more agreeable to all concerned to settle
their little affairs of the pen by good-natured raillery,
light repartees, and polished sarcasms, such as
pass in decent society, in preference to vulgar slang
and porter-house figures of rhetoric. Let such contests
be carried on like two gentlemen engaged in
a bout at foils, in which both exert their utmost
skill and ingenuity, in a friendly temper; and
when a “palpable hit” is given on either side, let
it be courteously acknowledged, and then try it
again; and not like a couple of ragamuffins in the
street, who fight and tear themselves to pieces for
the amusement of the spectators.