The Press and exemptions
The Confederate Senate committed, Tuesday, the extraordinary inconsistency of exempting from military service the journey men printers of newspapers, and refusing to exempt editors, even voting down an amendment that was offered exempting one editor of every paper. If the freedom and influence of the press are of as much importance as the majority conceded, they have taken a very singular way of proving their appreciation of it. What is a newspaper without an editor? It is the business of journeymen printers merely to put in type what editors put in their hands, and to refuse exemption to editors is simply to suppress all newspapers. We venture to say that the press of the South has given an impetus to this Revolution, in the beginning and a power in its progress, second only to that achieved by our arms. It has been the very light and life of the Southern cause, and now the Senate proposes to put out this light, extinguish this life, and leave the people in the darkness and silence of the tomb. We hope the House of Representatives will put a veto on this oppressive action of the Senate, and secure to the people, by the exemption of editors, that powerful palladium of liberty and irresistible incentive to patriotism, a Free Press.
