Thursday, June 23, 2016

Press vs. Press: A Few Period Thoughts on the Charleston Mercury

This brief untitled story is from the Covington Journal of March 9, 1861. 

The Charleston Mercury is frequently quoted in the North as a representative of Southern opinion. The following, from the Mobile Register, will remove ths false impression.

"No man who has more than the merest superficial knowledge of current politics, or, who does not deliberately intend to mislead, will quote the Charleston Mercury as the leader or even the organ of the prevailing sentiment of South Carolina, much less the Cotton States at large."

"Always discontented and grumbling, arrogant in tone, flippant in judgment, intolerant in any opinion but its own, intensely self-sufficient and supercilious, I should, indeed, regret to be compelled to accept it as the exponent or type of South Carolina character. So far from the Mercury representing the policy of its State, the South Carolina deputation here has taken an active and prominent part in the very action of the Congress with which it finds fault. It may be added that at no steps which this Congress had taken has the influence of South Carolina failed to the side of moderation, prudence and wise statesmanship."


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