fishness, prejudice,
or a blind adoration of party, instead of the calm convictions of
educated reason and conscience, thereby dishonors himself, and abdicates
the right he possesses of acting for the best interests of himself and
all. Especially is this true under a democratic form of
government--where every citizen is a legislator, virtually,--where
opinion leads to political action, and is consequently responsible for
the course that action may take, and where each one helps to swell the
numbers of those great parties that in their plannings and
counterplannings make or mar the general good fortune. If this is true
of individual citizens, how much more is it true of those mighty engines
of the press and of party, that sweep such grand circles of influence,
and install, in grandeur or in gloom, such important national
conditions. That these are fruitful of evil as well as of good, every
great national struggle, every crisis in the affairs of nations and of
humanity, bears witness. Every national contest has seen the rise and
the fall of an anti-war party, and felt the influence of a press wielded
in the interest of that party. These have not, necessarily, always been
in the wrong. The contrary has been often true, though their fall, and
the opprobrium cast upon them have been none the less sure. It is only
when these have arisen during the progress of a war involving great
moral and humanitarian principles in its successful prosecution, that
the whole force of such an opposing influence is felt, the whole evil
apparent. No cause however just, no war however holy, no trust however
high and honorable, but has met the violence of this evil opposition,
and the danger of betrayal from this source. Not while men possess the
greed of power, place, and gold; not while reason is held in abeyance to
passion, is freedom safe without a guardian, or the liberties of mankind
able to abide without 'eternal vigilance.' Even our national war, the
grandest and holiest of time, both in its purposes and results, is only
the last most mournful illustration of this fact. When these
contemporaneous judgments, true or untrue, as they shall prove, now in
the heat of the time evolved in the thoughts of those who do think, and
becoming crystallized in the countless newspapers and periodicals which
deluge our land, and in the party records of the hour, come to be
thoroughly sifted, and the sure and impartial verdict made up to pass
into 'the gold