The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1867-11-29
JOHN M. DANIELS LATCH.KEY.
A Memoir Of the late Editor of tho
Richmond Examiner.
TCoNcLUDED.l

He lived in a land where ducls
were common; in a city where the
editor of the Wing had been slain but a
few years before, and among people
who never entertained the first thought
of accepting damages at law as repara-
| ton for personal aff,ront; hence the
| course of the Examiner during its ear
licr years was attended with degree
of danger which none but n truly daring
or fool-hardy man would ever have
encountered. But Daniel was no fool;
and although hc lacked caution and
allowed the bitterness of his feelings to
carry him too tar, he was anything but
reckless. Apprecating fully his dam
ger, he willingly risked his life and his
reputation in order to secure the adj
vantages which lay beyond the point
he so coolly braved. TO carry his
point he accepted cheerfully the odium
of the community, and, indeed, of the
whole State in which he lived. For
the sake of power and a competency,
he became an outcast from society. At
one time he was literally hated or
feared by everybody. In the whole
world there was scarcely human be-
ing who really liked him for himself. -
All this he brought upon himself, delib-
erately and for purpose; He marked
out an arduous course, and lie followed
that course resolutely to the last day
of his life, accepting all the consequent
ces. Surely, neither weak nor a
timid man could have done this. AS
saulted suddenly in the streets, by a
| powerful man, of known courage, who
threatened then and there to cut his
ears off, it is not to be wondered that
the fragile man showed some agitation;
but his intrepid 'you shall have your
| duel" In the admirable correspondence
with Gilmore, and his calm bearing.on
the field in the very presence of.death,
| (tor his adversary was no trifler,)
proved beyond question that John M.
Daniel had that within him which men
in every age have recognized as genuine
courage:
To feturn from this depression: He
vas an editor in the best and fullest
meaning of the word. He could not
| 6nly write himself, and write we'll, but
he could make others write well. The
crudest articles, as l have shown, if
they had but the germ Of something
good in them, could be transformed by
him in few moments, with an ease
and an art peculiarly his own, into
powerful leaders. A touch or two of
his pen gave new coloring to contri-
| button and made it his own. He had
the power Of infusing his spirit into
every part of his paper, and of giving
it, thereby, an individuality which made
it as attractive as it was tntqae. He had
innumerable editorial contributors, but
they all caught, insensibly and quietly
his spirit, his very tone; and there was
about the Examiner, Whenever he was
at the head OF it, a honiogeneity which
under other managers it never attained.
1t was easy to tell when he left the pa
per, and when lie came back to it. His
precise articles could not always be
told, but there was u nameless some
thing about the paper, as a whole, which
| gave indubitable evidence of his pres
ence. The very arrangement of the
1 printed matter and the allocation of ar
ficIcs betrayed him behind Enc SCENES.