Like many other privileges that were calculated to surround the majesty of the State with an awe-inspiring halo, also the right, arbitrarily, to punish the "betrayal of State secrets" has been passed on to the Congress...In exercising this right the Federal Senate has imprisoned two New York journalists for indefinite periods...The whole procedure is in bad taste...In Europe Bismarck has accustomed the nations to the boldest sincerity, and in America Seward as Secretary of State, has done more than once the same thing...The American press has to answer for many sins. The snooping into private affairs, the publication of which can have no other effect than to satisfy a morbid curiosity at the price of peace and happiness of families is an outrage not to be justified by the petty ward"enterprise". But the cleverness with which the American press brings remarkable events, facts of public interest, and important acts to public knowledge is not one of its sins but a virtue..In December 1867 President Johnson's message to Congress was translated and printed complete in the Illinois Staats-Zeitung four hours before it was read in Congress. Maybe, that was also a "nefarious betrayal of State Se crets" - however, we have never heard that the public regarded it as a crime, and wouldn't mind repeating at the next good occasion......