newspapers

"Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed."

"Newspapers are daily read by millions at their breakfast tables, in the railway cars, at the counting-room, and thrown aside as soon as read, without apparent thought of the medium through which the affairs of the world, the events of the day, the gossip of the hour are conveyed to their minds, forming their opinions, leading them to fame and fortune, saving them from disaster, and governing their actions. But as the polyp of the sea industriously and unceasingly works in building up the coral reefs and beds into islands and peninsulas, so does the journalist slowly and surely work on the minds of the world, producing heroes and statesmen, navigators and merchants, s and philosophers."

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."