# History of American Journalism/Chapter 15

CHAPTER XV
MEXICAN WAR TO CIVIL WAR PERIOD
1846–1860
Many of the Northern newspapers opposed the admission of Texas to the Union until all controversies with Mexico had been settled in an amicable way. Later, these papers "pointed with pride" to their editorial comment of previous years and declared that if their advice had been followed there would have been no war with Mexico and that possibly the great conflict with the South might have been avoided. The Tribune, of New York, was one of these papers hostile to the Mexican War, and excited the animosity not only of office-holders, but also of well-meaning patriots. Even President Polk made a very palpable allusion to The Tribune in one of his messages. At one of the war meetings held in City Hall Park there was some talk of mobbing the office of The Tribune, but the threat was not then carried out, but was reserved until during the War of the States. The Mexican War showed the value of news to get circulation, and it was this recognition that changed the character of the American press from a "feudal" to a purely democratic regime. Party papers during this transitional period became still more independent of political parties and were changed into journals of public opinion. The attitude of the Northern press was well summed up by James Russell Lowell in his contribution of "The Biglow Papers" to The Boston Courier. These consisted of a collection of poems in Yankee dialect, supposedly written by Hosea Biglow, and edited with pseudo-learned notes by Homer Wilbur, A.M., pastor of the First Church of Jalaam.
FAMOUS PONY EXPRESS
At the beginning of the war practically every paper received its news of the conflict through the exchanges from New Orleans. ​This meant that news had lost its flavor when it finally appeared in print: the news of the battle of Vera Cruz and the battle of Buena Vista, March 7 and 9, did not reach Boston until the last day of the month, and being published on April 1, was received by most of the readers of The Boston Journal as an April Fool's joke. Of the Southern papers which reported rather fully the various battles of the Mexican War, The Picayune, of New Orleans, took the lead. The reason for this may be found in the fact that George Wilkins Kendall, the founder of the paper, reported the war himself in a series of letters which were so important that they were forwarded to the Government at Washington.
The lateness in publishing accounts of the conflicts on Mexican battlefields led to the coöperation of a number of newspapers to gather war news. Already The Sun, of Baltimore, had established exclusively for its own services, "without consultation or previous arrangement or agreement with any other paper," an overland express from New Orleans. This pony express was often spoken of in the press as the "sixty horse-power," because sixty blooded horses were used in forwarding the news. To reduce the tremendous expense incurred by The Sun, a number of northern papers—notably The New York Herald and The Philadelphia Public Ledger—coöperated in the scheme. Later, The Crescent City, of New Orleans, joined the combination, whose overland express, making the trip from New Orleans to Baltimore in six days, so often beat the Southern mail from New Orleans to Washington that the Post-Office authorities started an investigation, but on finding that they were fairly beaten in the game to be first with the news, they then tried to throw all sorts of obstacles in the way of their rival news-carrier. But the news from Mexico continued to reach Washington, not through the mail-bags, but through the news-columns of the various newspapers which shared in the expense of the overland express. In fact, all through the war the pony express, rather than the Government mail, brought the story of the conflict.
It was The Sun, of Baltimore, which told the President and his Cabinet on April 10, 1847, of "the fall and surrender and unconditioned capitulation of the City of Vera Cruz." That ​paper, in telling how it got its news from the Halls of the Montezumas, paid this tribute to its faithful pony express in its issue of October 4, 1847: "Our pony team as if in anticipation of the great excitement prevailing in the City on Saturday evening (October 2nd), came flying up to the stopping-post with the most thrilling and important intelligence yet received from the seat of the war, full twenty-four hours ahead of steamboats, railroads, and even telegraphs. The news brought by them twenty-four hours in advance of the mail being of such exciting and thrilling interest, we put to press at a late hour on Saturday night an 'Extra Sun,' with full details, which were sought after by our citizens during yesterday morning."
These editions of The Sun came to be known, not only in Baltimore, but also elsewhere, as The Southern Daily Pony Express—and justly so.
MODERN WAR CORRESPONDENTS ARRIVE
The Mexican War not only put the news in newspapers, but it developed war correspondents who put the heart-throb into their stories. A typical illustration from The Louisville Courier must suffice for lack of space:—
While I was stationed with our left wing in one of the forts, on the evening of the 21st, I saw a Mexican woman busily engaged in carrying bread and water to the wounded men of both armies. I saw this ministering angel raise the head of a wounded man, give him water and food, and then carefully bind up his wound with a handkerchief which she took from her own head. After having exhausted her supplies, she went back to her own house to get more bread and water for others. As she was returning on her mission of mercy, to comfort other wounded persons, I heard the report of a gun, and saw the poor innocent creature fall dead! I think it was an accidental shot that struck her. I would not be willing to believe otherwise. It made me sick at heart, and, turning from the scene, I involuntarily raised my eyes toward heaven, and thought, great God! and is this war? Passing the spot next day, I saw her body still lying there with the bread by her side, and the broken gourd, with a few drops of water still in it emblems of her errand. We buried her, and while we were digging her grave cannon balls flew around us like hail.
From 1846, when this account appeared, newspapers became more human, not only in their subject-matter, but also in their ​
mode of treatment. "The feature story" began to make its appearance until it reached its highest development in the stories of the "sob sisters " of the present-day journalism.
Out of the war correspondence from Mexico grew the popu- larity of Jefferson Davis, who later became President of the Southern Confederacy. The correspondents of such New Or- leans papers as The Picayune, The Herald, and The Delta feat- ured in their reports the bravery of Colonel Davis, of the Mississippi Rifle Regiment, in repulsing the charge of the Mexi- cans in Buena Vista.
AMERICAN ARMY ORGANS
During the Mexican War an army newspaper was found in practically every camp. The army under General Scott had its own organ known as The American Flag, which reported the doings of the troops under "Old Rough and Ready." The army under General Taylor also had its special newspaper. Of these special army organs mention might be made of The Sentinel, published in Tampico, The American Star at Jalapo, The Eagle at Vera Cruz, and The Picket Guard at Saltillo.
Polk, like the other Presidents, had to have a special organ. The Union at Nashville had been a strong supporter of the Polk wing of the Democracy and The Enquirer at Richmond had aided in the defeat of Van Buren. Polk therefore thought it a good piece of politics to bring a representative from each of these papers to Washington for a new organ, and The Union in making its appearance on May 1, 1845, under the editorship of John P. Heiss and Thomas Ritchie, supplanted The Globe as the official paper at Washington.
During the Mexican War The Union was brought prominently before the people through publishing an attack on Congress for not supporting the Administration in several military matters. The criticism was not allowed to pass unnoticed, for four days after its appearance in print a resolution was introduced into the Senate calling for the expulsion of the editor of The Union from the floor upon the ground of libel upon the Senate and for ​
the expulsion of the reporters of The Union from the press gallery on the ground of a colored report of the debate of the previous Monday. The debate which followed was important because it definitely established the rights of the press at Wash- ington. The resolution was lost by a vote of 27 to 21.
ORGAN OF TAYLOR'S ADMINISTRATION After the battle of Buena Vista several papers, led by The Sentinel, of Boston, suggested the nomination of Zachary Tay- lor. Other papers adopted the suggestion and strongly advo- cated his election. When he came to the White House he found that he was without an official newspaper at the Capital, as The National Intelligencer was the organ of Daniel Webster. Taylor immediately prepared to establish a newspaper which he called The Republic. For its editors he brought Alexander Bul- litt from The New Orleans Picayune and John O. Sargent from The New York Courier and Enquirer.
During Taylor's Administration The National Era, the recog- nized organ of the anti-slavery party at Washington, published "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as a serial. No romance ever printed in an American newspaper attracted so much attention in the press. Its influence was clearly recognized by Lincoln, for when he met its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, he remarked, "So you are the little woman who caused this great war." The great influence of this tale was due not only to its newspaper publication, but also to the book and to the play. The National Era should not be confused with The New Era later edited for the colored people by Frederick Douglass.
JOURNALISM OF THE PACIFIC COAST
The discovery of gold in California, strange to say, did not attract very much attention in the press of that State. Possibly The Californian published in its issue for March 5, 1848, the best account under the small caption, "Gold Mine Found": "In the newly made raceway of the Saw Mill recently erected by Captain Sutter, on the American Fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One person brought thirty dollars worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. Cali​
forma, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in almost every part of the country." The Californian gave practically the same amount of space to a local horse-race. The real news of the dis- covery of gold was made known through the columns of the papers published on the Atlantic Coast.
Among the newspapers which made a specialty of their special California editions were The Tribune and The Herald, of New York, The Journal and The Herald, of Boston, The Delta, of New Orleans, etc. These special editions, printed just before San Francisco boats sailed, were shipped to the Pacific Coast depots for the distribution of Atlantic papers where men, fre- quently in the employ of local express companies, relayed these papers in large baskets to the outlying mining camps. Miners were expected to throw a dollar into the basket in exchange for a newspaper, but if a man did not have "the dirt," he could still take a copy and pay for it later when he struck a " paying streak."
After gold had been discovered in California, many of the mining camps had what might be called a spoken newspaper. The man sent back for grub usually returned with an Eastern paper for which he had paid one to five dollars. Immediately upon his arrival he would mount a stump and then read the news to a group of miners and then the paper would be passed along to an adjoining camp, where it would again be read aloud: in this way did the California miner of the fifties get his news. Frequently these special California editions of the Atlantic papers were literally worn thumb-bare by frequent readings and handlings, for the greatest luxury in a mining camp was a late newspaper.
From the time that The Californian was founded at Monterey, on August 15, 1846, down to the completion of the transcon- tinental telegraph on October 24, 1861, three hundred and seventy-seven papers had been started in California. Many of these were printed at Marysville, Placerville, Sacramento, San Jose", Stockton, and Yerka, and the great majority, of course, at San Francisco. Of the daily papers located in San Francisco, mention may be made of The Daily Herald, started on June 1, 1850; The Evening Picayune, on Aug ​ust 3, 1850;
The Morning Post, on May 24, 1851; The San Francisco Dailf- Whig, on September 27, 1852; The Daily Sun, on May 19, 1853; The Evening News, on November 1, 1853; The Daily Globe, on March 13, 1856; The True Calif ornian, on May 26, 1856; and The Evening Telegram, on October 1, 1858.
JOURNALISM HISTORY REPEATED
Journalism history repeated itself on the Pacific Coast. In the East presses which printed early newspapers had often done previous service on religious tracts: especially was this true in New England and in Pennsylvania, where for the most part these tracts were put out in the interest of that earnest band seeking religious freedom in America by settling in New Eng- land, or by the Pennsylvania Quakers, who made William Bradford their official printer. On the Pacific Coast the print- ing-press was first brought either to promulgate the Catholic faith among the Spanish-speaking population, or to support the principles for which the Mormon Church stood. Later, these same presses were used to print the newspapers.
Just as the colonial newspaper never forgot the arrival and de- parture of ships, so the early press of the Pacific Coast featured marine intelligence. In its glowing accounts of achievements of clipper ships it furnished its best illustration of its news instinct. Again, just as Henry Ingraham Blake, the first star reporter in American journalism, knew the name of every vessel docking at the port of Boston, so the nautical reporter on the early San Francisco paper knew every clipper ship which passed through the Golden Gate, a still harder task, for in 1852 seventy-two clipper ships are said to have dropped anchor in that harbor. The arrival of these fast boats in San Francisco had another news value in that they brought news from home. These clippers were met in the harbor by rowboats which took off the news, just as it had been done at an earlier period in Boston and New York, and then hastened to the port. Their budget of news was promptly seized at the dock and rushed to the newspaper offices, where the more important facts in an abbreviated form were put into type at the earliest possible moment. The next day a longer account appeared in the papers. ​
The early American newspapers were filled with long extracts from English newspapers because the American colonists were especially interested in what England and the Continent were doing. In the same way the early papers on the Pacific Coast contained column after column of reprint from the Eastern papers for its settlers who wanted the news from home. A most distinctive characteristic of the early Pacific press was its catholicity of taste in printing cosmopolitan news.
Pacific Coast journalism passed through the same vicious personal era as that found in the East. Quarrels between editors became frequent, and newspapers were not considered inter- esting unless they were lambasting some one. Often these edi- torial battles led to others on the field of honor, where the number of editors killed was undoubtedly larger because the Westerners shot straighter. The author of the "Annuals of San Francisco," in speaking of the editors of the era, remarked: "They were particularly exposed not merely to the literary rak- ing fire of antagonists, but to their literal fire as well." Demands for satisfaction continued to come not only from other editors, but also from subscribers, until "The Irrepressible Conflict" in which Seward forecast the War of the States turned the edi- torial page from a discussion of local personalities to a broader treatment of an approaching national crisis.
MEDILL AND HIS PAPER
While the people of the village of Chicago read their first newspaper on the morning of November 26, 1833, when John Calhoun brought out the first number of The Chicago Democrat, the journalism of that city really dates from the birth of The Tribune on June 10, 1847, when an edition of four hundred copies was worked off on a hand-press by Joseph Kelley and John Wheeler. The immediate source of The Tribune was an earlier paper published under the bucolic title of The Gem of the Prairie, and it later absorbed The Chicago Democrat. The Tribune, there- fore, is entitled to be considered the oldest paper in Chicago (though, strictly speaking, The Chicago Daily Journal has been published from 1844), and no one will deny it a first place, not only among the newspapers of that city, but also among the ​
newspapers of the country. During its early years there were various changes in ownership, and the paper was at times in dubious financial circumstances, until Joseph Medill, in 1855, purchased an interest and the paper became a member of the Associated Press. Even then, and after it had purchased The Democrat, The Tribune was occasionally in financial straits and had to refuse the payment of its obligations, not s only to the Associated Press, but also to others until it was financially forced into bankruptcy. The owners of the paper, however, had faith in their enterprise, and, undiscouraged by financial difficulties, they secured a three years' extension of their debts all of which were discharged in twenty-one months and began anew. The fullness with which the paper reported the Lincoln-Douglas debates brought not only an increased circu- lation, but also relief from financial embarrassment. Its great influence, however, came from the editorials of Medill edi- torials which were only surpassed by those of Horace Greeley. It was on The Tribune that Horace White first made a place for himself in American journalism.
EELIGIOUS DAILY NEWSPAPERS
In every period of American journalism there have been edi- tors who laid special emphasis upon the moral character of their newspapers. Some attempted to make their sheets distinctly religious organs. Out of ^the latter grew the religious weeklies of the various denominations. Occasionally an editor like Arthur Tappan, of The New York Journal of Commerce, positively refused to gather news on Sunday and excluded all advertisements of theaters, amusements, etc. No attempt, however, was made to found a distinctly religious daily newspaper until 1839.
FIRST IN PHILADELPHIA
In that year a number of wealthy Philadelphia gentlemen possessed of high moral and religious principles set about to pub- lish a daily commercial sheet that should be at least semi-reli- gious in character. After advancing the necessary capital they launched on March 29, 1839, the first number of The North Amer- ican. Religion was kept out of the news, but the editorials were ​
largely moral essays. No notices of the theaters were admitted in the news-columns. Rigidly excluded were all advertisements of the theaters; also under the ban were the advertisements of oyster-cellars, now commonly known as saloons. After sus- taining a heavy loss the promoters of the religious North Ameri- can sold the paper for practically the value of the type, press, etc., to George R. Graham and Alexander Cummings. These men, both able writers, succeeded in introducing new life into the newspaper because of their enterprise in getting the news first. After abandoning the original design of the paper they secured as its editor Robert T. Conrad, who had already won distinction as a jurist, a poet, a dramatist, and author.
. From August, 1860, to December, 1861, The Sun, of New York, was made over into a daily religious newspaper. As the story of this experiment has never been told, it might be well to record this interesting experiment in the present chapter. An able, but fanatical, newspaper man, laboring under the delusion that he acted under the direction and guidance of the Lord in answer to prayer, conceived the idea that he should publish a daily religious newspaper. Having no funds himself, he inserted in one of the daily papers an advertisement in which he sought the assistance of some one of means to assist in such a religious enterprise. The advertisement attracted the attention of the Reverend Archibald M. Morrisson, a clergyman living in Phila- delphia. The latter was the son of a Reverend Dr. Stone, of the Episcopal Church, Brookline, Massachusetts. His mother before her marriage had been courted by a wealthy gentleman who lived and died a bachelor, but who later willed all his property, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars, to the son of Dr. Stone on the condition that he adopt the name of the testator. Morrisson was a man of fine quality, but thought that the rather peculiar character in which he had received his good fortune imposed upon him an obligation to use it in some reli- gious way. The advertisement just mentioned suggested such a religious use. He answered the advertisement and the two men after a prayer meeting decided that the Lord needed a news​
paper of his own in New York City. They accordingly pur- chased The New York Sun from Moses S. Beach for one hun- dred thousand dollars, with the option of taking the machinery at an additional payment of twenty-five thousand. In pur- chasing the paper, Morrisson paid fifty thousand dollars in cash and gave notes for the other fifty thousand secured by a mortgage on The Sun. They secured as editor of their religious paper William Conant Church, the brother of the writer of the famous Sun editorial, "Is There a Santa Glaus?" Church, being a practical newspaper man, was never thoroughly in accord with the idea of making The Sun a religious paper, but thought that he could persuade its owners to be content with the pub- lishing of a high-grade moral newspaper. He was unsuccessful in bringing the real owners to his point of view, for they insisted that they were directed by the Lord to conduct the paper ac- cording to plans they had outlined. Finding that he could not convince the " Vice-regents of the Lord " that their plan if carried out would speedily ruin The Sun, he accepted a compromise proposition. He was paid a salary in full for the term of his con- tract and was allowed to spend the remainder of the time in trav- eling in Europe. While he was abroad, his prophecy about the paper came true. Morrisson practically lost every cent he had in trying to make The Sun "a daily lay preacher to the poorer classes of New York." Fortunately, before embarking upon the publishing of a religious daily, Morrisson had settled a con- siderable portion of his estate upon his wife, and she had re- ligiously and wisely refused to yield her money to be jeopardized in the publishing of a religious sheet. In throwing out the liquor, cigar, theatrical, and other irreligious advertisements, Morris- son had greatly reduced the income from the paper; he had also increased the expenses to such an extent that the time arrived when he was unable to meet his notes. Beach still had his lien on The Sun, and when the notes were not paid, he sold the prop- erty at the Merchants' Exchange and " knocked it down "to himself at his own price. The Sun then ceased to begin the day's work with a prayer meeting in the editorial rooms. The experi- ment, interesting as it was, almost caused the total eclipse of The Sun. ​
RELIGIOUS BIRTH OF "THE NEW YORK WORLD"
Alexander Cummings was one of those who had purchased The North American in Philadelphia after its failure as a reli- gious newspaper. Evidently he had faith in such an enterprise, for he made a second attempt to establish a newspaper of that kind, but in another city. Getting together a number of men, chiefly from Philadelphia, who held a similar view, he started in New York on June 1, 1860, The World as a two-cent religious daily newspaper not a one-cent sheet as has been so commonly asserted. It was advertised extensively in the religious press and in the back part of church hymnals. Backed by sufficient capital and possessed of experience dearly bought in Philadelphia, Cum- mings made a heroic struggle to give the people of New York an ideal newspaper. Church notices appeared on the first page of the first issue. Supplies for Sabbath school and sermon paper at wholesale and at retail, etc., were advertised in its columns. A special rate of four dollars a year was quoted to clergymen. It refused to print the theatrical news and rigidly excluded all theatrical advertising from its columns. Whatever might be true of its editorial policy, it was not consistent in its advertising, for early issues of The World saw any number of quack patent medicines, such as soothing syrup, etc., extensively advertised. After being published at a heavy loss and failing to secure suf- ficient popular support in its religious intelligence, it merged with The Courier and Enquirer on July 1, 1861, and its religious aspect was dropped. Though The Courier and Enquirer was the more important of the two journals, The World by some mere co- incidence was placed first in the title. For this reason the paper after the years went by came to be known as The World, and after a while The Courier and Enquirer was dropped completely from the heading. Two hundred thousand dollars were spent in this second attempt to give New York a religious daily news- paper. The paper then became a worldly World.
RAYMOND AND HIS PAPER
The founding of The New York Times really grew out of the financial success of The New York Tribune. A remark by Henry Jarvis Raymond that the latter paper was clearing over seventy​
five thousand dollars a year, and that a new daily in New York ought to do equally as well, aroused the interest of George Jones, a banker of Albany, New York. It must be confessed, however, that the starting of a new paper in New York had often been the subject of conversation and the chief topic of a long correspondence between the two gentlemen. In 1848 Thur- low Weed, who had founded The Albany Evening Journal and made it one of the most influential political sheets of the Empire State, was seriously thinking of retiring from journalism. Through George Jones the editorship of the paper was offered to Raymond, whose work on The New York Courier and Enquirer had attracted attention even in Albany. Negotiations failed to materialize, but the establishment of a new "Whig vehicle of intelligence in New York" was repeatedly mapped out. Nothing definite was done until Raymond, leaving journalism temporarily to go into politics, had been made Speaker of the Assembly at Albany. The remark about the success of The Tribune was ut- tered as Raymond and Jones were crossing the Hudson in the winter of 1850-51. Action, which spoke louder than words, brought about the firm of Raymond, Jones & Company to start The New York Daily Times on September 18, 1851.
Raymond had been well trained for the task he was about to assume. While still a student at the University of Vermont he had written for Greeley's New Yorker. Later, he became a paid contributor to its columns, and after The Tribune was estab- lished he was made one of the assistant editors and the chief reporter at the magnificent salary of ten dollars per week. In the field of reporting he achieved distinct success. Even The Boston Post, a Democratic daily started on November 9, 1831, and The Boston Atlas, a Whig organ started on July 2, 1832, ad- mitted that Raymond was about the only journalist who could faithfully reproduce the speeches of Webster whose Latin phrases were too much for the ordinary reporter. Leaving The Tribune in 1843, Raymond joined the editorial staff of The Courier and Enquirer, with which he was connected until 1850, and in which he disputed the supremacy of James Watson Webb as a writer on political topics. In addition to his regular duties he also wrote New York letters for Western papers. ​
When The Tribune learned that Raymond was going to start The Times to dispute the Whig field in New York, it promptly gave notice to its carriers that if any of them should get up routes for the new paper, they would forfeit all rights to carry The Tribune. The large blanket sheets likewise opposed a new rival, and did what they could to insinuate that the new paper was going to be a rabid abolition sheet. When Raymond wrote his prospectus he took care to outline somewhat at length just what The Times hoped to become. It was going to print the local news of the day, insert correspondence from European countries, give full reports of Congressional and legislative proceedings, review books, and contain criticism of music, drama, painting, and any form of art which might merit atten- tion. His statement about the editorial policy was of course the most important. The Times would inculcate devotion to the Union, the Constitution, obedience to law, and a generous love of that personal and civil liberty which the Constitution and laws are made to preserve: while it would exert and exercise the right freely to discuss every subject of public interest, it would not countenance, however, any improper interference on the part of the people of one locality with the institutions, or even the prejudices, of any other; it would seek to allay, rather than to excite, agitation; it would substitute reason for preju- dice and make cool and intelligent judgment take the place of passion in all discussions of public affairs.
After the first issue of The Times appeared on September 18, 1851, subscriptions came in rapidly and advertising soon fol- lowed. It was not so easy to start a paper, however, in 1851 as it had been in the early thirties when Bennett started The Herald. The Hoe press and the mechanical outfit necessary for a daily paper cost, at a low estimate, at least fifty thousand dollars. To compete with the papers already in existence Raymond was forced to hire competent editorial assistants at a much larger salary than he received when he started to work on The Tribune. Over one hundred thousand dollars was sunk in the enterprise before it made a profit, and it was a long time before the paper made the amount which Raymond mentioned to Jones when they crossed the frozen Hudson in 1850. In September, 1861, ​
The Times shaved its pocket-book as follows: "Our cash re- ceipts have been $50,000 more this year than they were last up to the same time. All through the dullest of the summer months we have had a balance of from $15,000 to $20,000 in the bank. We have no notes afloat which we are not prepared to cash on presentation."
One thing which helped The Times, however, was its selection by the State Banking Department at Albany as the official paper in which the metropolitan banks should publish their <veekly statements as required by law. These statements, )ften containing the very best of financial news and often occu- pying two or three columns, had to be paid for by the banks at the regular advertising rate of The Times. As a matter of fact, practically every New York paper was glad to publish these statements, but The Times was the only one to receive compen- sation for their notice. The Times had secured this concession because one of its leading stockholders, D. B. St. John, was the State Superintendent of Banks, and he naturally favored the newspaper in which he had a financial interest. By withholding these bank statements from other New York papers until they had first appeared in The Times, Raymond was able to square matters with Greeley, who had refused to allow Tribune carriers to distribute copies of The Times. Greeley promptly took the matter up with St. John, but was unable to secure any satisfac- tion: in one of his letters of protest he said: "All this insolence of this little villain is founded on your injustice," and the New York press, whenever it saw fit to attack The Times, spoke of its editor as "the little villain."
EXPOSURE OF LAND GRAB
On January 6, 1857, The Times published what it called a magnificent land-stealing scheme. Among the men who left The Courier and Enquirer in 1851 to become connected with The Times was James W. Simonton, who later became connected with the Associated Press. At the beginning of 1857 he was the Wash- ington correspondent for The Times. He it was who exposed the scheme of land-robbery which, under the guise of granting cer- tain public lands to the Territory of Minneso ​ta to help build
railroads, practically gave away the larger part of that Terri- tory. When the edition of The Times reached Washington, it created almost as much of a stir as the edition which startled New York by the exposure of the Tweed Ring. The House promptly ordered an investigation, and on February 19 its com- mittee reported that the charges of corruption as published in The Times had been proved and recommended that four mem- bers of the House be promptly expelled. This exposure was one of the most distinct services for the public good performed by the press so far in the history of American journalism.
RAYMOND VS. GREELEY
Like Greeley, Raymond was vitally interested in politics. Unlike Greeley, Raymond conceived the idea that the first busi- ness of a newspaper was to publish the news rather than to print the political views of its editor. In politics Raymond was the more successful as he held several offices under the Whigs. In a certain sense he was the Father of the Republican Party: at any rate, it was he who announced its birth in an address "To the People of the United States," delivered before the Republican Convention at Pittsburgh, February 22, 1856. The Times, how- ever, reached its greatest influence under his editorship when he retired from politics and devoted all his energy to the newspaper which he had founded. Then it widened its influence through a larger circulation, while its stock rose in value from one thousand dollars to eleven thousand dollars a share, until an offer of one million dollars for the paper was refused by its owners. Unfor- tunately, Raymond could not make a decision "never again to be a politician" until a short time before his death. Greeley thought himself and was greater than The Tribune. Ray- mond thought The Times was greater than himself greater than all the men then associated with him on the paper: he was the first great editor to place his newspaper before himself.
TELEGRAPH OF MORSE
The man who brought about the greatest transformation in American journalism, not only in this period, but even in any other before or after, was not a practical newspaper man, but, ​
strange as it may seem, a college professor, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, of New York University. During 1832-36 Morse, when not busy with his academic duties, had been experimenting with an electric device to send messages over wires he had stretched in and out of the classrooms of the old University Building on Washington Square.
To many, including several of his colleagues, the instrument was only an interesting mechanical toy of no practical value. But when Horace Greeley was given a private demonstration of the magnetic telegraph, he was most enthusiastic about its possibilities, and said to Morse, " You are going to turn the news- paper office upside down with your invention." In spite of this remark and the fact that he later wrote a magazine article about the instrument, Greeley allowed his rival, Bennett, of The Herald, to excel in using the telegraph to supplement the news that came by mail. The telegraph did not completely supplant the mail as a carrier of news till a much later period.
New York papers, however, were not the first to use the tele- graph: this honor belongs to those of Baltimore. The cities of Baltimore and Washington had no sooner been connected in 1844 by wire largely through Government aid than both morning and afternoon papers of the former city began to print items headed "By Morse's Magnetic Telegraph." Later, when the telegraph line reached the Jersey coast opposite New York, the proceedings of Congress and important news of Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were sent by wire and relayed by boat to New York newspapers, where they were published under a head similar to that used by the Baltimore papers.
When the telegraph came to be used in newspaper offices out- side the cities on the Atlantic Coast, it was employed, strange to say, not so much to give the news as to indicate where it might be found in the exchanges coming by mail. Murat Halstead has told how, when working on a Cincinnati paper in the early fifties, he would go down to the dep6t at one o'clock in the morning, wait for the train, ride on the mail wagon to the post-office, snatch the copies of the newspapers from New York, Philadel- phia, and Baltimore, and then rush to his newspaper office where he would slash out with the scissors the items to which his atten​
tion had been called by telegrams. As fast as he cut them out he handed them to printers, who possibly had been standing around idle for more than an hour. In those days printers were paid for the amount of copy they set and not for the amount of time they put in at the plant. Competition, however, soon forced the publishers of newspapers to pay the telegraph charges for brief bulletins of important but late news.
TAX ON VIRGINIA NEWSPAPERS
In Virginia during most of the decade from 1840 to 1850 it was the practice of the General Assembly of that State to pass annu- ally an act " imposing taxes for the support of the Government." From 1843 to 1848, inclusive, this act contained the following provision: "Upon every printing press of newspapers taxed the amount charged per annum for a subscription to the highest priced paper that may issue from such press : Provided, however, That no press shall pay a higher tax than ten dollars." The revenue thus derived by the State from its tax on newspapers ranged from three hundred and eleven dollars for the year end- ing September 30, 1843, to three hundred and fifty-five dollars for the year ending September 30, 1848. The Act of 1849 did not impose any newspaper tax. So far as can be learned, Virginia was the only State to levy a tax on newspapers during the nineteenth century. In fact, the only other direct tax, either Federal or State, was that levied by the Government during the War of the States, and this exempted many newspapers and applied only to the gross receipts from advertising and was de- signed to provide internal revenue to "support the Government and pay interest on the public debt."
PRESS ASSOCIATIONS OF PERIOD
During the middle of the fourth decade of the eighteenth cen- tury, there were three cooperative associations to gather the marine news of New York. The first and most important of these was the one composed of the blanket sheets, The Courier and Enquirer and The Journal of Commerce; the second was com- posed of The Express, The Mercantile Advertiser, and The Ga- zette; the third, of The Commercial Advertiser, The Evening Star, and The American. ​
Ten years later, in October, 1856, the General News Associa- tion of the City of New York was organized with Gerard Hal- lock, of The Journal of Commerce, as its president, and Moses S. Beech, of The New York Sun, as secretary. The other newspapers which were charter members of the Association were The Ex- press, The Herald, The Tribune, The Courier and Enquirer, and The Times. The purpose of this Association was to reduce the cost in collecting and receiving the news. Hallock remained presi- dent of the Association until 1861, when he was succeeded by D. H. Craig, who had already achieved distinction with his press pigeons first at Baltimore and then at Boston. Designed at first to gather news for its New York members, the Associa- tion gradually extended its service to take hi papers in other cities. It came to be known as the Associated Press of New York, though it never organized or incorporated under any such title.
EDITORIAL GIANTS
During the decade of 1850-60 the editorial policy reached its highest development hi the matter of influence. True, this period was one of the most pivotal in the history of the American Republic. In it the Democratic Party began to organize. The Whig Party was wiped out, and the Republican Party was born. The newspaper, both in the North and the South, had an opportunity to discuss a question which was destined later al- most to split the Republic into two Governments. In the North especially, the editorial influence was felt where there was almost universal opposition to the spread of slavery. Such a great moral issue naturally brought out editorials of unusual strength. Of these, possibly special mention should be made of those of Greeley in The New York Tribune; those of Webb in The New York Courier and Enquirer; those of Forney in The Philadelphia Press; those of Bowles in The Springfield Republican; those of Medill in The Chicago Tribune; those of Raymond in The New York Times; those of Schouler in The Cincinnati Gazette; those of Bryant in The Evening Post; and those of Weed in The Albany Evening Journal. In this connection a remark of Horace White, while editor of The New York Evening Post, should be quoted on the value of the editorial page: he once asserted that "a news​
paper which merely inked over a certain amount of white paper each day might be a good collector of news, it might be suc- cessful as a business venture, but that it could leave no mark upon its tune and could have no history."
LABOK CONDITIONS IN BACK OFFICE
From the time of the first strike in the office of Rivington's Gazette during the Revolution, down to as late as 1850, labor jonditions in newspaper offices were far from satisfactory. Most of the trouble between the newspaper and its employees came from the fact that the men who put the items into type were paid for the amount of work they did and not for the amount of time they spent in the composing-room. The men who worked on the morning newspapers especially complained, with con- siderable justification, about the irregularity of their time. Local news and items clipped from the exchanges were usually in type by midnight. There was always the possibility, however, in the case of seaboard cities that some ship bringing important intelligence from abroad might dock at a wharf late in the evening and the newspapers must be prepared to meet just such an emergency. Printers could either hang around the office or they could go home only to be aroused from their slumbers by the office devil, who came with orders to hasten to the office in order that the latest intelligence be put in the morning issue. There was no uniformity in the price which individual papers paid their print- ers, although the morning papers, because of night work, were compelled to pay more on the average to their printers than the evening journals. In order to remedy these conditions, unions were organized, and by the middle of the nineteenth century they did much to improve the conditions of the printers em- ployed on city papers. Editors at the start were not debarred from membership in these unions. Horace Greeley, for ex- ample, was the first president of the New York Printers' Union, which was established in January, 1850. Greeley, in fact, used his trenchant pen in numerous editorials to improve working conditions among New York printers. When The Journal of Commerce and other New York papers criticized the attempt to establish a uniform scale of wages throughout the city, it was ​
Greeley who took up the cudgels for the printers and defended their course to obtain a "fair day's pay for a fair day's work." Newspapers which did not accept the established scale for the employment of men were called "rat papers," a term that is still applied to newspapers which have open shops.
PUTTING THE TYPE ON THE CYLINDER
The penny papers with their large editions demanded fast presses. To meet this increased requirement Robert M. Hoe, who followed his father as the head of the firm of R. Hoe & Company tried numerous schemes, but finally found that the way to print rapidly was to take the type from the flat bed and put it on the cylinder. This was done by making beds in the cylinder one for each page of type. The column rules, which held the type in place, were shaped like the letter V, and thus acted as a wedge when the thin edge was pushed toward the axis of the cylinder. "Projecting tongues sliding in rebated grooves cut in the cylinder" held the rules in place. The type did not fall out when the page forms were locked or fastened with usual care. Around the large type cylinder were grouped four impression cylinders at which sheets were supplied to the press usually by boys. The first press with type on its cylinder was made for The Philadelphia Ledger in 1846. Its capacity per hour was about eight thousand papers printed on one side only.
As newspapers increased their demands, Hoe simply added more impression cylinders until as many as ten were grouped about the type cylinder. The hourly output of the ten-cylinder rotary type-revolving press was in the neighborhood of twenty thousand copies half-printed. America had now taken the lead in the manufacture of fast presses a lead which it has never lost. To show how far England was behind, The London Times, two years after a rotary press had been in successful operation in Philadelphia, said, in an article in December, 1848, "no art of packing could make the type adhere to a cylinder revolving around a horizontal axis and thereby aggravating centrifugal impulse by the intrinsic weight of the metal." Nevertheless, Hoe had already accomplished this very thing. Subsequently The London Times ordered from Hoe two of his ​
ten-cylinder rotary presses. The Lords of the Privy Council, extending the patent of this press, spoke of it as one of "the greatest steps ever made in the printing art."
LOSS OF CUTS IN ADVERTISEMENTS
When Hoe took the type from a flat bed and put it on a re- volving cylinder, he changed completely the appearance of the advertising columns. Making the type secure in the column- wide " turtles" which curved around the cylinder had presented mechanical difficulties which were overcome. To make large cuts adhere to the cylinder during revolution was so intricate that publishers of newspapers charged prohibitive prices for such advertising. Advertisements wider than one column necessitated the breaking of the rule and when this was done an extra charge was made. The use of large type was discour- aged the same as that of cuts. Advertisers, however, were allowed to use large letters made up of smaller letters of the regular type. The letters were of course identical save for the size: the large "A" consisted only of smaller "A's"; the large "B" only of smaller " B's," etc. So common did this practice become that even after forms were stereotyped and solid letters of any size could be used, manufacturers of type continued to cast the "logotypes." With the practical abolition of cuts and heavy block-face type the newspapers became much neater in typo- graphical appearance. Occasionally advertisers using space wider than a column would allow the rules to show rather than to pay the extra charge much to the annoyance of readers. Adver- tising copy received late was frequently set up in this way.
SLAVERY DISCUSSION STARTED
Editorial discussion of slavery first began to appear during the Administration of Andrew Jackson, but most papers, even in the North, were inclined to leave the matter alone until dis- cussion of some compromise at Washington brought the matter before the people. Attention has already been called to the fact that newspapers like The New York Times were not disposed to interfere with the peculiar institutions of other States. The few abolition journals which appeared attracted little attention ​
until their contents were reprinted in other papers in connection with the discussion of legislative halls. A paper, however, which carried a torch was The Telegraph published at Washington. This journal in some way secured the reports of the Abolition Society of New York, so small at the time that it had at- tracted but little attention from the New York press, and then by publishing the most offensive passages persuaded what papers it could that the North was seeking to deprive the planters of then- slaves without remuneration. It seemed to take special pride in setting fire to secession papers.
When Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, which provided that the inhabitants of these States should decide whether slavery should be permitted within their bound- aries, he aroused again a press discussion which to a certain extent had been quieted by the compromise of Clay and the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. The bill was denounced by the press, not only in the South, but also in the North. The Eve- ning Post, for example, asserted at the time that out of some hundred newspapers which reached the editor's desk almost all were in condemnation of the bill. After it had become a law its sponsor, Stephen A. Douglas, became the target of editorial pens all over the country: papers, regardless of party affiliations, de- nounced him everywhere; even in his own State of Illinois, his personal friends found it necessary to establish, at Chicago, in 1854, The Times as a political organ to defend the attacks brought against him.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, repudiating as it did the Missouri Compromise, had a national effect upon the press of the period. Its most immediate effect, however, was felt in Kansas. The Free-Soilers started bands of immigrants from New England to Kansas. Border Ruffians, determined to make it a slave State, camped temporarily in the Territory. Both sections had their papers which did much to promote trouble and to cause Kansas to lose some of its best blood.
This chapter of Kansas history may almost be read in the titles of the papers established there during the second half of the decade 1850-60. (See "Beginnings in Kansas.") At Atchi- son, The Squatter Sovereign was started on February 3, 1855; at ​
Topeka, The Kansas Freeman, on July 4, 1855; at Le Compton, The New Era, on September 26, 1855; at Prairie City, The Freeman's Champion, on June 25, 1857; at Sumner, The Sumner Gazette, on September 12, 1857. At Lawrence, settled for the most part by Free-Soilers from Massachusetts, four papers, every one of which had its office destroyed by Border Ruffians, were established during these fateful years. Of these papers the most important was The Herald of Freedom, the first issue of which, though dated at Wakarusa, Kansas, October 21, 1854, was printed in Pennsylvania: the second was published at Lawrence on January 6, 1855. Second was The Kansas Free State, begun in January, 1855. On May 21, 1856, when Border Ruffians attacked Lawrence, they dumped the press, type, books, papers, etc., of The Free State into the street and did practi- cally the same thing for The Herald of Freedom, but in addition set the building on fire. This act of the Border Ruffians stirred up the press of the North so that a subscription for money with which to purchase new types and press for the owners of The Herald was started by the Chicago press, headed by The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Journal, and The Staats-Zeitung. Horace Greeley, of The New York Tribune, also helped to raise money for the enterprise.
In the next period Lawrence had a practical repetition of this act of violence. The Kansas Tribune, which had been started at Lawrence on January 5, 1855, in removing to Topeka in Novem- ber of that year, escaped the violence of the Border Ruffians. The Tribune, however, again returned to Lawrence on January 1, 1863. After the offices of The Herald of Freedom and The Kansas Free State had been mobbed, and their printing-plants destroyed, their place was taken by The Lawrence Republican, established on May 28, 1857. Both The Tribune and The Republican suffered a like fate on August 21, 1863, when their offices were destroyed, and the papers suspended. The Tribune was revived in Novem- ber, 1863, and The Republican in February, 1868, but these re- vivals belong to another period. ​
The press of the South, save a few "bitter-enders," was unusu- ally conservative, in spite of the commonly accepted opinion, in the matter of secession. About three hundred journals were received in exchange from below the Mason and Dixon Line by The National Intelligencer, of Washington: of these, only fifty were for the Nashville Convention. The New York Herald, in commenting on this fact, remarked that some of these fifty were "backing down." Both the Whig and the Democratic press of the South were continually urging their readers to await the results of compromising measures. The Whig journals of the South, with The Richmond Whig as a leader, were strongly op- posed to secession. The Texas Advertiser once recommended that the introduction of the slavery question into Congress be pun- ished with expulsion. The Louisiana Gazette frequently scouted the idea of dissolution. The Raleigh Press begged that "if we have to fight for liberty, let us fight with the Stars and Stripes." The New Orleans Crescent opposed violence. The Memphis Eagle even went so far as to characterize the peaceful secession of a State as a most absurd vagary. The Memphis Inquirer urged every one " to put his foot on disunion." Such newspapers as The Mobile Advertiser, The New Orleans Bulletin, The Nashville Banner, The Natchez Courier, etc., warned the South of its dependence upon the North, and suggested that before any dras- tic action be taken the South should be made independent of "Yankee" factories for the manufacture of finished products.
On the other hand, a few papers of the South thought they saw the approaching conflict. The Savannah Republican again and again prophesied that civil war between the free and the slave States was inevitable. The Abbeville Banner asked the South to rebuke the North by refusing to read the papers of the latter even if they were cheaper. The Natchez Free Trader boldly re- commended secession as a constitutional and safe remedy for the wrongs of the South. The Charleston Mercury asserted that "the tea has been thrown overboard" and that "the Revolution of 1860 has been initiated." From The Hornet's Nest of Charlotte, North Carolina, came many "stings" for the North. That paper ​
iiititnsioy
MERCURY
EXTRA:
I'a**f<l unanimously at 1.1.1 o'clock, P. JH. December 201ft, 1860.
AN ORDINANCE
To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled " The Constitution of the United States of America."
We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained,
That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of {he United States of America was. ratified, and also, all Acta and parts of Acts of the Qenenl Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of "The United States of America," is hereby dissolved.
THE
UNION
DISSOLVED!
THE EXTRA IN CHARLESTON WHICH ANNOUNCED THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION
(Reduced)
went so far as to publish a list of the business houses in the North which did not rally to the support of the South and asked editors to keep this list standing in their newspapers. The suggestion was warmly seconded in Atlanta by The Southern Confederacy, one of the most violent secessionist papers of the South. The secession press was strongest in South Carolina and next in Mississippi.
SEWARD AND GREELEY AGAIN
In the earlier part of another chapter mention was made of the dissension ​which arose between Greeley and Seward, partners in several newspaper enterprises. Greeley had another grievance against Seward : when the Whig Party was out of control Greeley was nominated as State Printer, but when at the next election the Whigs were successful the office went to his rival, Henry J. Ray- mond, of The Times. Greeley took this very much to heart, as it enabled to quote his own words "St. John to show his Times as the organ of the Whig State Administration." Later, Raymond was nominated on the Whig ticket for Lieutenant- Governor and the fight for his election was left by Seward to Greeley. There were numerous other instances where Greeley thought he was treated unjustly by Seward. The story has al- ready been told how Seward pardoned Webb, the editor of The Courier and Enquirer a paper which had continually abused Greeley.
But Greeley waited his time as he said he would. His day came when the Republican Party met at Chicago in 1860. How Greeley defeated Seward and nominated Lincoln in that Con- vention has been told so often that no repetition is necessary. Vanity Fair, the cartoon weekly of the period, told it in wordless journalism with a picture entitled "Et Tu, Greeley?" with Seward portrayed as Caesar, Greeley, of The New York Tribune, as Brutus, Raymond, of The New York Times, as Marc Antony, and Blair, of The Washington Globe, as Casca. By way of repe- tition, Vanity Fair told the same story in verse (Brutus Greeley speaking) :
I have nipped him at Chicago, I have made my Seward wail,
I've ordained that Uncle Abram Shall be ridden ​on the rail.
Did he think that I forgave him?
Did he think I was an ass? Did he think I'd love my enemies,
And let the occasion pass?
If he did he was mistaken,
And I guess he knows it now, For I nipped him at Chicago,
And I made a precious row.
I was slow to wrath against him,
When I bore defeat and pain, But I've waited for him patiently,
And I did n't wait in vain.
Now they swear at me, the vipers,
But they swear a good way off, For they know the gallant Greeley,
At the best of them will scoff.
And they know he's used to swearing,
(Tho' it's very wrong to swear) So they curse his seedy garments,
And they blast his yellow hair.
But little cares the Greeley
What his enemies may say, When he knows the grayhound Seward,
Is a dog that's had his day.
With the nomination of Lincoln came the close of this period,