CHAPTER IV.

MORAL INFLUENCE AND DUTIES OF MEN OF LETTERS.

MEN of letters, that is, men whose chief pursuit and profession is literature and the sciences, including the presidents and professors of our universities and colleges, and other instructers; authors of every description, editors of reviews and other periodical works, are considerable in point of numbers, and still more so in respect to the influence which they exercise on society. M. Arago, the celebrated French astronomer, was right in saying, at the great dinner of the literati at Edinburgh in 1834,"It is the men of study and thought, who in the long run govern the world. The grandest moral truths spring from their discoveries; it is their writings which render these truths fruitful, which popularize them, which make them penetrate the minds of the people." It is this class of men, who chiefly employ, and consequently control and direct, the press, the mightiest instrument of evil or of good ever known, and the power of which is continually increasing. And in proportion to the power which they wield, is the moral obligation which rests upon them, to use it for beneficial purposes, and for such purposes only. Like all other blessings, too, with which Providence has favored us, the evil, which may be done by its perversion and abuse, is in proportion to the good, which it may accomplish when used with skill, integrity, and wisdom. Men of letters are chiefly responsible to God, to their country, to their own consciences and to mankind, for the good or evil use which is made of this mighty instrument.

In general terms, the duties of men of letters, in respect to their writings, of whatever kind, may be stated thus ;- they are to avoid the perversion and abuse of the press, while they are to use it for all the beneficial purposes which it is capable of ac

complishing. The duty of that portion of men of letters, who are devoted to the instruction of youth, is important; the duty of all of them in respect to the intercourse which they hold with general society is important; but their duty in respect to the use which they make of the press, is so much more important, that I may well be justified in insisting on it somewhat particularly, and to the neglect of noticing any other branch of their duty.

1. A distinction must be taken between the freedom of the press and its licentiousness; that is, the freedom of the press must be restrained within just limits.

The freedom of the press is often misunderstood. It means the right to publish without previous permission, not the right to publish without responsibility. If it meant the latter, the liberty of the press would be the greatest curse, which could be inflicted on a nation. Where a man has a right to publish what he pleases, but is responsible to the law for the nature and tendency of his publication, the press is free. If he has the right to publish without such responsibility the press is licentious. Our National and State constitutions of government guard the freedom of the press with the most jealous care; but still no man has a right to make a licentious use of the press on this ground, any more than he has a right to use arms for violence and bloodshed, because the same constitutions guaranty to him the right to keep and carry them for his defence. Accordingly, our courts have uniformly decided, that every person may, without previous supervision, print and publish what he pleases, on his own responsibility; but they hold him to be answerable for the abuse of this liberty, as for any other voluntary act; and that this responsibility necessarily arises from the nature of the social relations. By the liberty of the press, as their decisions teach us, is intended the right to print, and publish among the citizens, the truth respecting men and things, on all fitting occasions, where it will be useful to be known; and therefore, it ought not to be restrained, because such right is essential to freedom. * Every man may publish what he pleases, respecting government,

* The Hon. P. O. Thacher's opinion, in Commonwealth v. Whitmarsh, July Term, 1836.

magistracy, or individuals, with good motives and for justifiable ends; and the nature of his motives and ends must, on trial, be submitted to a jury.

*

Nor is there any just reason for the complaint, often made by men of ardent temperament and heated by passion, that the press is laid under the restraint of truth and decorum. This restraint, in the case of the press, is one of a numerous class of cases, in which the good seems to be inseparable from the restraint imposed. Perhaps no good does exist or can exist unless guarded. by restraint. The best things that we enjoy, the noblest qualities that we possess, become vicious by excess. Mercy degenerates into weakness, generosity into waste, economy into penury, justice into cruelty, ambition into crime. The principle of restraint has the sanction of Almighty wisdom itself, for it is impressed on every part of the physical as well as the moral world. The planets are kept in their orbits by the restraint of attraction; but for this law, the whole system would run into inextricable confusion and ruin. It does not detract from the simplicity, the beauty, the grandeur of this system, to say, that one of the laws, which uphold it, is the law of restraint. It is to the restrained position of the earth, that we owe the revolution of the seasons, with all their appropriate and successive enjoyments; and to its restrained revolution towards the sun, that we owe the relief of day and night, the alternate seasons of labor and repose. What hinders the vine from wasting its juices in wild and fruitless luxuriance, but the restraint of the pruning-hook, and the discipline of the training hand? What hinders the product of the vine from becoming a universal curse, but the restraint of temperance? What gives to civilized society its finest charm, but the restraints of decorum, of mutual respect, of honor, confidence, kindness, hospitality? Wherever we look, above us, around us, below us, we see, that the great conservative principle is restraint, that same restraint which holds human society itself together. It does not, then, detract from the value of the liberty of the press, to say, that, like all other human blessings, it requires the purifying and conservative principle of restraint. †

* Kent's Commentaries on American Law, Vol. II. pp. 12-22.

+ See Mr. Wirt's Speech at the trial of Judge Peck in the U. S. Senate, p. 481.

2. The press is abused, when it is employed to circulate slander, misrepresentation, calumny, and falsehood, in any of its forms, modifications, or degrees. These offences are more or less flagrant, according to their degree and their accompanying circumstances; but they all impair, and their tendency is to destroy, the usefulness of the press. The great object of the press is, the dissemination of truth; truth in history, in morals, in politics, in literature, in science, in philosophy, and in religion; and the glory of the press consists in its love of truth, its impartiality, its candor, its fairness, its purity, its sense of justice and rectitude, the manliness of its spirit, the healthfulness of its moral tone, the useful knowledge it conveys, and the value of the productions which it brings forth.

The conductors of the daily periodical press, have a duty to perform, of special importance, difficulty, and delicacy. Newspapers are the principal channel by which the sentiments and wants of the community are made known; they present a living and moving picture of the business, the habits, the customs, the amusements, and even the vices of the community. They are, too, the chief arena of political party warfare. In them, party politicians and their retainers assail each other's conduct, motives, and intentions; and in them is all the animation and excitement, and much of the passion and violence, of actual combat. Amidst the contest for party ascendency, and the strife and bitterness of party controversy, the temptation of the editor is very strong, himself to abandon, and to permit his correspondents to abandon,' a reliance on truth, clear statement, and manly argument, and to resort for success to the empoisoned weapons of slander, calumny, misrepresentation, and even falsehood. Our newspapers, moreover, by way of ministering to the most corrupt taste, and to the vilest passions, too often contain offensive and disgusting details of vice and crime, enough to nauseate every one, and to demoralize the entire youth of the country.*

3. Men of letters criminally abuse their power, when they

The offensive details of the trial of the late Queen of England (consort of George IV.) are a specimen of what is here alluded to, and must be within the recollection of every person of mature age in this country. Our newspapers were flooded with them.

make their writings the vehicle of immoral sentiments, or employ them to rouse and influence the licentious passions. Examples of this abuse might be cited from our own literature; but, in imitation of the great Roman moralist,* I prefer, when any thing of an evil nature and tendency is to be exposed, to bring to my aid foreign rather than domestic illustrations. Sir Walter Scott says of the French writers, who aided in preparing the way for the French revolution by undermining the morals of society, "There was a strain of voluptuous and seducing immorality which pervaded not only the lighter and gayer compositions of the French, but tinged the writings of those who called the world to admire them as poets of the highest mood, or to listen as to philosophers of the most lofty pretensions. Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, were so guilty in this particular, that the young and virtuous must either altogether abstain from works, the which are everywhere the topic of ordinary discussion and admiration, or must peruse much that is hurtful to delicacy, and dangerous to morals, in the formation of their future character. The latter alternative was universally adopted; for the curious will read as the thirsty will drink, though the cup and the page be polluted." Many of the English comedies, and of the English and French novels and romances, are extremely immoral in their tone and tendency. Lord Kames says of Congreve, "If his comedies did not rack him with remorse in his last moments, he must have been lost to all sense of virtue." ‡

4. The press is still more criminally abused, when it is turned to the disparagement, misrepresentation, and vilification of the Christian religion.

As a part of the freedom of the press, the truth and value of Christianity, in respect to its doctrines, morals, tendency, general character, and whatever else pertains to it, is open to fair and decorous discussion; and he would miserably defend his religion, who should wish it to shrink from any the most severe examination of this kind. It is the highest interest of Christianity to invite examination, and not to repel it. It has suffered

* Cicero de Officiis, Lib. II. c. 8. † Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Vol. I. p. 35. + Elements of Criticism, Vol. I. p. 59. — Blair's Lectures, No. XLVII.