Public Ledger

The proprietor of the Daily and Weekly Memphis Public Ledger announces with pleasure and confidence that this paper enters upon the Centennial year of our National existence with brighter prospects as a live Democratic and Conservative Family Newspaper than at any former period.

We are supplied with the best modern facilities for publishing a newspaper and reach a larger number of readers than ever before.

The people are aroused to the importance of the events now transpiring, as those that happened a hundred years ago. The unusual spectacle is presented to the country of the upper and lower Houses in Congress being controlled respectively by opposite political parties. For the first time since 1860 the Democrats and Conservatives control one branch of Congress, and the ablest modern statesmen are playing a bold and desperate game for the political control of the Government. Within the year two candidates will be nominated for the Presidency, and the people, in their sovereign capacity, will elect a President and Vice President, and in many of the States, as in Tennessee, elect a Governor, Congressmen, members of the General Assembly and important local officers. The ablest talent of the nation will be arrayed on both sides. Every intelligent citizen, white and colored, will desire to be informed from day to day and week to week of what is going on. The Centennial of our Independence will be inaugurated with imposing ceremonies at Philadelphia, on the Fourth of July, in the presence of thousands of people from every State in the Union and representatives of the principal nations on earth. It will be a year full of stirring events, an upheaval and commingling of the masses not to be witnessed again for a lifetime.

The Ledger will keep abreast of the times, and its readers will see the daily history of the world "held up to the mirror." The latest news from all quarters will be presented in a condensed form and such comment thereon as an intelligent view of the subject may suggest. The Ledger is of the people and for the people, and in full sympathy with the laboring and tax-paying masses. Their judgment and their instinctive conclusions when ascertained will be accepted in preference to the dictum of politicians or the wisdom of statesmen. We hold to the old-fashioned theory—that the people are the sovereigns, and all office-holders public servants, to be rewarded only for a faithful performance of duty within prescribed limits, and condemned for breach of trust or abuse of delegated powers. In future, as in the past, the Ledger will be a bold, independent Democratic journal, standing by its party when right, but ever ready to condemn unworthy men or measures. An earnest endeavor will be made during the present year to correct abuses in public places, to bring about as strict and careful management of the people's money as in a successful private business. To this end we shall continue to labor, urging economy and reform at every possible point without positive injury to the public service.

Issues of grave importance will be decided this year. Men and parties will be made and unmade, and precedents set up that will have a great bearing upon the future political history of the country. As a nation of United States we have made great progress, but whether we have preserved intact the principles of our ancient Constitution, is a question yet to be decided at the ballot-box. Whether we really govern ourselves or are governed by party, will be better known when the voice of the people is heard next November. It will avail us little that we had a Washington, a Jefferson and a Jackson in the past, if the Government passes once more into the hands of a purely partisan and sectional administration.

In our columns will always be found a choice variety of original and selected matter adapted to the general reader and the family circle, and it is needless to say that nothing will appear to offend the taste of the most cultivated and refined. The several departments of the paper will be conducted by experienced journalists who follow the profession because they are in love with it, and who appreciate public tastes and public sensibilities. The Ledger is Democratic, but eminently conservative, and is ever ready to give all sides and shades of opinion a fair hearing. The editorials will be live and pointed, but carefully considerate.

Much space will be devoted to local news and topics. Full and accurate river and market reports will be given each day. And it will be our constant aim to give the latest and most accurate news on all subjects, and to be considered a reliable and safe adviser rather than a flashy, sensational journal. The confidence in our ability to redeem promises has been evinced by the public in a substantial and growing patronage, which is at once satisfactory and assuring. Our list of subscribers will compare favorably with any in the South, and the support of merchants and business men has been all that could be asked or expected.

Hoping to greatly increase our circle of readers during the year by making the Ledger, if possible, a better paper than ever before, we wish each and all a happy New Year, and shall enter upon the duties before us with renewed energy and high hopes of continued usefulness and increasing success as a public journal.

January, 1876.