New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-07-27
pEAru or .1nsnrs1 s.ALEs.

/ died at his country residence near Washington
City last Saturday night.
Mr.. Gales was probably the Oldest journalist, at
the time of his death, in the Union--we mean the
Oldest In rank his partner, Mr. Seaton being older
! in years than Mr.. Gales, For about half cen
tury he has been the leading editor aud publisher
4 OF the National Intelligencer. Journalism Is not
generally favorable to longevity-and particularly
when it Is devoted to the interests OF political
| narty But the Intelligencer never displayed any
political raneor or partisan heat. 1t was always
| calm moderate, just courteous and truthful. The
paper was reflex of the character of its editors
| and there never has been an editor of SO long
service and Of such prominence, who has not only
escaped the hostility, but even won the personal
regard and affection of his political opponents as
the venerable gentleman whose death the whole
American press is now called upon to deplore.
Mr.. Gales was not only an editor of great abili-
ties, but he was Statesman. He would have
filed with distinction any position in the Govern
ment not excepting the highest. The familiar and
confidential friend Of all the Presidents from Jefier
son to Adams the trusted counsellor and adviser OF
the great public Of all parties, for period of
half century; the daily witness and reporter of
/ the proceedings of Congress for so many years,
when high questions Of State we're under discus
sion by the ablest men the country has ever pro-
dueed lit was not strange that he intimately
familiar with our political history. He was, in
truth, living cyclopedia-a walking magazine of
facts-and his knowledge of events was surpassed
only by his ability to draw correct conclusions
from them. He could instruct the readers OF his
paper no less by his wonderful accuracy of MARIA
ton than by the sound deductions of his Judgment.
Many member of Congress, Of national reputa-
l GaIaz, 1.nf-~ tolr
ing position upon new question of public policy.
| He might have held high office under several
Administrations. but he preferred the useful,
| if not more honorable, profession of journalism.
1t was his aim and he succeeded in it, to make the
Intelligencer exponent of American politics, in
the largest and most catholic For the petty
| squabbles and wrangies of politicians, for the
small cat-and-thr,lst Of party disputation, he had
| no taste whatever All his controversies with his
| contemporaries were conducted with high and
| stately courtesy, which proceeded as much from
desire to maintain the dignity of the press, from
correct conviction that the weight of an argu-
| ment is destroyed when characterized by passion.
Such conduct disarmed resentment-andt the editor
who would have said or written anything person
ally offensive to Mr.. Gales would have been justly
guilty of outraging the prophecies of the profess
sion as well as the claims Of that high journalistic
| courtesy OF which no one was MORE marked rep
resentative.
4 The Intenigencer supported the Republican
party-the old Republican party Of Madison and
Monroe, not the Black Republicanism Of modern
tiayss-untiI the time of Gen. Jackson. Since then
has sustained the Wings. 1t has steadily refused
to believe that the Wing party was dead. When
Mr.. Fillmore was nominated by the American party
for President in 1856, spoke of him in the highest
\ ternns-but it did not come Internationally and
warmly into his support until he had been nomina-
ted and endorsed by the subsequent Wing Conven-
ton at Baltimore. And yet, notwithstanding its
politics. it read by all parties, and the chiefs of
all parties No President, no cabinet officer,
scarcely any member Of Congress, of whatever
political faith failed to receive and read daily the
old Intelligeneer. They knew that it never de-
ceiyed them-that its statements were always to be
| relied on.
| Mr.. Seaton, the surviving editor, is the broth
| erin-law of Mr.. Gales, and has been associated
with him for nearly the whole period of the publ
| cation Of the paper. They were the Brothers
Cheerybie y Of American journalism. We doubt
if they ever had difference, either in matters of
business Or politics. They grew old together in the
same ofiee-and not they alone, but others who
are there now, who have been in the Tntelligencer
for many long years. Assistant editors and re-
porters, clerks, printers and pressmen are still in
the Office, grey-headed men, who went there young
For years. it has been the custom in the Intelligent
Ger, when an employe grew too old for service,
matter how humble his position, to pension him
with weekly stipend. This was only one mode
of distributing the many unseen charities which
Mr. Gales practised throughout his whole life.
| Had he chosen, he might have become an i'm
mensely rich man-but he not only dispensed an
unbounded hospitality, But gave away to the poor
without stint or measure. His farm, near WASH
| ington, brought him in debtevery year. He would
pay largely for labor upon it, and then give away
to the poor, and even to the laborers he had paid
for working on it, all the crops he made. He had
no idea Of the value Of money. With the opportu-
mites he had modern Washington politician
would grow rich in a couple Of years. Mr.. Gales,
after fifty years of labor, has died poor, sus
pect though he has always lived in comfort and
affluence. Democratic Presidents and Congresses,
Notwithstanding the politics Of the Intelligeneer,
always gave more or less of the public patron
j age' to that paper.
IT seems to us that such a veteran of the press
as Joseph Gales ought not to have his obituary
written BIZ his surviving brethren, without some
determination On their part to follow, as far pos
Isible the good example he has set them. Mr..
Gales, IL journalistic life of half century, has
demonstrated the fact that political controversy
can be conducted without passion and without Of
fensiye personalities He has shown that it is not
4 necessary for an editor to be a common scold-not
essential that he should make up in abuse of his
opponents what be lacks in argument and reason.
He proceeded on the assumption that if his polit-
cal aiversaries could not be convinced in a cour-
teols way that they were wrong, it was useless to
/ attempt to convince them by personal detraction
/ and abuse. Firm as u rock in the maintenance OF
his opinions he never yet commenced personal
| controversy. If ali editors were to observe this
golden rule, the dignity, the responsibility, and the
usefulness Of the party press would be much pro
NOTED.
i PoLITIoAL ITEMS.
4 Hon. A. H. STEvENs.-The Augusta Consttu
tionalisti of Tuesday last. speaking of the attend
ance Of this gentle man on the Superior Court Of
Richmond county, says:
Mr.. Stephens has much improved in health, and
t,u., zA.-... I.1s