The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-07-25
The Late Joseph Gales.


gencer, pays fit.ing tribute to its recently de
ceased editor. 1t says:
"On entering the door, you find yourself In
low browed, smoke stained room, with dis
colored desks and counters. All the ap end
ages seem old fashioned, even to the aged cler X
who receives you with politeness--alas! old
fashioned, too. 1fyou come on business with
the principal, you will fnd yourself ascend.
ing narrow and rather gloomy flight ol
stairs. Having accomplished the ascent to
the first landing, you pause and enter door
which you are told is the editor's rsom. Be.
fore table covered with papers, pamphle lets
and manuscripts, sits q venerable LOOKING
man with pencil in his left hand-his righi
has been paralyZed for some time-in a
thoughtful mood as if deliberating q leader, of
which but single lire is written. No one car
glance at that face and not perceive at once
that IL Is that of remarkable man. The
strong features ard firm mouth express benev.
oience, energy, decision, will-in short, it Is
face more noticeable for character than
beauty.
'With the name of the gentleman, this ides
OF the National Inteiligencer is inseparabIy
connected. For long series Of years he has
been Its conductor; and though backed by 9
host OF varied talent, he may truly be called ia
life and soul. breathing his spirit a refining
and uniting principle over that able Journal
HIS editorials are considered by our leadn ne
politicians to be close In arsunaeht, profound
IN insight, finished in execution, pure ia style
and IS refined in thinking they are exc uisit ts
In diction. As specimens of pure and perfec
English, they might stand as models He op.
poses with his pen quietly but INTERESTINGLY
every measure whicn might lead to a disrup.
ton of the Union. In the defeats of his party
OF which his journal Is the acknowledged ex
ponent, he never admits himself discouraged
depressed, or dismayed, bat from every faI
seems TO rise, like Anteus, with renewed
yigor.
''And yet, good reader, he has still higher
honor in the hearts OF the people about him.
The poor and unfortunate are more peculiar
| ly his friends. He arrives in Seventh stree,
from his residence in the country in the sam,
| cosy, close carriage, which has made it's Jour
| ney thither daily for the last thirty years, so
punctual to it's hour, that were its driver anC
| occupant nting, the horse would doubtless
convey the vehicle in safety, and STOP from
the force of habit, at the precise hour beforf
the rooted building. As he passes tron
his carriage to the office, the passing beggar fol
| once ceases to be Vociterons, SO certain is hi
| of receiving spontaneous gratuity from hinl
] Within he is quite likely to be met with ths
| appeal of a widow, with one of those large
families OF orphans, who feels certain of as
istance from nm. For it is Well known il
| our city, that this venerable man is troubled
| with melancholy cavity in his brain-a fata
| cerebral cell, where acq qnisitiveness-is NOT
| Narrow hearted and parsimonious people
| shake their heads ominously and say that tc
| see man wasting his means on every body in
| this way, is enough to make the very stones
cry out, Doing such useless things and sc
| much, for other people, he ought to remembel
| the rainy day."
| In the war of 1912 Mr.. Gales was an active
| supporter of the Presidents policy, and tn,
| attack of the British under Cockburn canno
be omitted from any history of the press of this
| country. Col. John S. Williams gives the fol-
| lowing account in his "History of the Inya
| sion and Capture of Washington :"
1.-The British forces entered Washington
4 a. md bod
| Hill. The next day, admiral Cockburn in nj.
progress through the city, by the way of Penn.
| sylvanla avenue, which was then the only
regular or used street or road from one par
OF the city TO the other halted in front of Iht
| office OF the National Intelligencer, attended
| by a body of sailors and soldiers. The Ma
| tional 1ntelligencer, then the confident tia
| journal of Mr.. Madison's Admins tration, anC
| a warm advocate of the war, was conducted
| by TWO gentlemen, one OF whom, the senior
| editor, Mr.. Gales, was native of England
| though removed to the United States with hi.
| parents in childhood.
| THE zeal OF the IntelIigencer in support o
the war. coupled with the fact that one of Il,
| editors was by birth an EDglishman, had ex
| asperated Admiral Cockburn violently agains
| the journal and its proprietor, and, being un
| able to capture the obnoxious editor, (Wh(
| Was still in North Carolina with his family
| he determined to burn down The printing Of
| flee and its contents, which purpose, however
| he was prevented from executing by the en-
|
| houses, which would have been cons umed will
| the office building, (the men of the tamilie
| being absent with the trOops) But the Ad
| mIral vented his spleen on the printing mate
| rials and other property in the building. III
| had the library, of several hundred volumes
| removed TO the street assisting himself in tn
| work) and burned, threw all the types an,
| printing material out of the upper windows
| aud broke and destroyed AL the presses
| thereby infiicung a loss on the proprietor
| OF some thousands of dollars, and then de
| parted"
| Ingersoll. in his Second War, gives US ano
| ther gliml - of this "darlequin Of Havoc" pa
| radlhg the streets, laughing at the terrific
women who were impioring him not TO de
| stroy their homes. "Never fear /" he said "ye
| shall be much safer under my admi mis- tratio
| than Madison's. Be sure" said he to thos
| who were destroying the types of the Nations
| Iuteiligencer, " that all the Cs are demolished
| 80 that the rascals can no longer abuse m
| name as they have done"
| Mr.. Gales was formerly q Democrat an
| supported Jefferson, Madison aud Monroe
| enjoying in high degree the confiden ce of tn
| two last. On several accounts, be had t
| differ with jackson. He became a warm ad
| vocate of Henry Clay, and ever after was al
| unde ,iating adherent of the Whig cause, sup
| porting all its Presidential nominees.