The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-02-21
SeAndalous Journalism.

The degradation and meanness of political
paper press Of this country seem to have no
limit and no bottom in the present day.
A specimen of this DEGRADATION recently APP
peared in certain jour ais, which deserves
particular notice. Horace Greeley, of the 7Si-
bune; Henry Raymond, of the Times, and Thur
story simultaneously, that the wife and eldest
son of the editor of this journal (the HERALD)
were expected at Washington in day
or two; and these fastidious editors coupled
the statement with as much insult as they dared
without revolving the ordinary instincts Of hui
man nature 1t was gross, mean and cowardly
fabrication all through, coined by the associates
Of those men, merely for the purpose Of wounding
the domestic feelings of the proprietor of this
journal through bis wife and children
We have been connected with the American
press for over thirty years; but during the whole
of that time, although our criticisms on pub
lie men and public affairs may have
been sharp and acute, yet no one has ever
charged US, or can charge us, with ever
having in the slightest degree lacerated the feel
ings of females or children because we might
have been publicly opposed to the principles and
policy of the husband or father. We have been
long time newspaper contemporaries with
Greeley Raymond, Weed, and their dastardly
collaborateurs, without having dragged into
brutal newspaper paragraphs, or insulted in the
royrotoef daoraa tho marginal oboroctor IF Mrs.
Greeley and her children the social reputation of
Mrs. Raymond and her children, or the domestic
standing of Mrs. Weed and her family. None
but men lost not only to all the feelings of gentle
men, but to the common feelings of humanity and
decency, would perpetrate such an outrage as this.
Mrs. Bennett, at the time of her marriage, was a
mere girl from school, about seventeen years
old, and has never concerned herself about pub
lie affairs or the business of other people, but
has always, when she was not travelling, at
tended to the duties of her household and the edu
cation of her children, either in Europe or Anne
RIGA. The eldest boy, yet q youth of seventeen
years, returned from his education in Europe
two years ago, and is still engaged at his studies,
and will be for some years to come. He has &C.
casionally, during the summer vacation, availed
himself Of yacht excursions, but never could
provoke the rivalry or touch the sensibility of
Greeley, Raymond and Weed, who have again
and again, in the most dastardly and contempti-
BILE manner-unworthy of men and fathers-as-
sailed him in way that will recoil on them with
tenfold retribution one of these days. Courses,
like Chickens say the Arabs, sever come home
to roost;' wanton insults to women have the
same destination, and sooner or later these cow
ardly poltroons- Weed, Greeley and Raymond
will find out that "even handed justice COM
mends the poisoned chalice to their own lips"
On this subject one of the Washington jour-
nails Star-has the following opposite re-
marks:--
From the Washington Star.1
FEATURE OF NEW YORK JOURNALISM
We regret to see the New York Times and 75.i.
bune compromise their respectability and the dig
nifty of the press by introducing into their columns
the names of private ladies in manner to annoy if
not disparage them. The Times, IN order to have
fling at Mr.. Buchanan, makes an unjustifiabe use
Of the name of the wife of Sir William Gore Ouse-
ley; and the Tribune to crafty its hostility to the
NEW YORK HERALD, attempts to cast ridicule on
the wife Of its editor. We protest against such
delinquency, as being not only unmanly, but I'm.
American. The worst enemies of our country and
its institutions have invariably admitted that our
Difference to woman was the redeeming feature of
an otherwise (alleged) semicivilized people; and
we put it to the journals in question to say whether
they mean to rob US of the reputation for that Chi
valric trait, which has extorted the admiration of
our bitterest foreign detractors.
Has the administration of Mr.. Buchanan become
so nvulnerabe or the editor of the HERALD so for.
midabe. that the Times and Tribune are obliged
to turn their shafts upon defenceless women whose
orroh rlin
saults is in the polite usages of society and in the
taste of our public writers? Have we really de.
generated to such point as that journalists shower
their pitless gbes upon shrinking, sensitive
women, who are in no manner legtimately subject
to newspaper criticism? No, happily, our national
press has not yet descended to such depths as to
make us wish, in behalf of decency, for another
Louis Napoleon to put it under wholesome restraint,
IN this particular at least The comments we have
heard on every side go conclusivey to prove that
these discreditabe attacks, no matter how in
geniously disguised excite no other sentiment than
disgust, if not actual adherence. The question is,
not the position or merits of the ladies alluded to,
but rather the taste and manness of the Times and
tribune journalists, as well as the refinement and
civilization of our country.
Neither Lady Gore Ousely nor Mrs. j. G. Bennett
have in any way obtruded themselves on public
notice, or exposed themselves in any manner to
newspaper comment. Lady Ouseley moved last
winter in the society of Washington with that
noiseless, unassuming grace characteristic of
she has so long lived. She was only known here
for her liberal hospitalities and only appreciated
for her undispued excellence of character and dis
position.
OF Mrs. Bennett we know less: but if rumor
is to be credited, she is woman of highly cul-
tlvated mind, refined and courteous manners
and extreme kindness of heart. Though enjoy
ing large income, and able to command
through the influence of her husband the
fiattering attention of the best society yet she
is said to content herself with the quiet attractions
OF her country home, and studiously avoids even
the harmless publicity of sitting within sight when
at the Opera Butwere these ladies the opposite to
what they are-were they as eager for adulation
as fashionable leader of the hdm ton, or as am
bilious OF notorety as our strong-minded females
yet are they for this to be rudey dragged into print
and their sensibilities coarsely wounded because
the New York Times has political spite against
Mr. Buchanan, and the editor of the Tribune seeks
to indulge apersonal grudge against the editor of
the HERALDy
1t may be that the conductors of these prints have
not reflected with sufficient on the gravity of