The New York herald., 1872-06-04
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
The American Press on the Founder Of
the New York Herald.
from the New York Sun, June 81


in 1895 and came TO the United States in 1919 and
TO New York in 1892. He was employed in subordl-
nate posts in the press here, in Charleston, in
washington and in Philadelphia, and he undertook
commercial school in Ann street in this city, but
il was not successful. He commenced the HERALD
on May g. 1855. From that time forward his career
has been one OF unqualified professional success.
Under his control the HERALD has attained an
enormous circulation and an advertising business
almost without precedent its annual profits
ranging. we suppose between hall a million
and three-quaTters OF a million Of dollars.
No man has ever been more steadily and earnestly
devoted TO any object than Mr.. Bennett to the
HERALD. No other interest, no other passion, has
disputed its place in his attention or his labors.
For these thirtyseven years his mind has been
stantly engaged in this one absorbing pursuit. His
country, Lis church, his friends his life, lie has
found in his newspaper alone, and his one constant
aim has been 70 increase is prestige and extend Its
power.
Ii is commonly said that the great success OF the
HERALD Is primarily due TO the enterprise and
talent IL has displayed in the collection OF news.
This remark contains some TRUTH but il is not the
essential truth by any means. The chief ee-
meuts which have given to the HERALD such
popularity are o a more intellectual and more
personal character. These elements are Mr.. Ben.
nett's genius his wit his extraordinary iudepend-
ence Of mind. his orginality-amounting often 70 4
fascinating kind OF eccentriclty, and his moral
an4 these its industry and its expenditures as
newspaper, however remarkable, have been sub
sldary.
An invaluable service which Mr.. Bennett has rem
dered TO the press has been TO emancipae II from
the domination OF sects, parties, cllques, and OF
pendent newspaper was unknown and now there
i number OF them and they are lncfeas-
and moral courage were alike absolute
and uhcompromising. There was nothing which
ne SO much mated as the idea OF belng owned, man
aged, or dictated to by anybody Before everything
else 1t was his rule his policy, his religion to follow
the conclusions and promptings OF his own mind;
TO do and TO say what he himself thought proper.
He revoted at every scheme to shape and influence
his action. llattery, however cunningly admins
tered, he despised; and those who imagined they
could use him for their own purposes to
be convinced OF their mistake In way as sur
Thls fidelity to his own ideas and his own ends was
not qualified by any necessity for much social in
tercourse, or for cooperation with other men, or
Dy any regard for conventional assumptions.
The greatest magnate was more to him than any
common man, and he castigated the one just as
friends, and of those still fewer intellectually
his equals Even in his early life before he had be-
gun the HERALD, ne does not appear to have cared
much for companonship, and yet he was never
misanthroplc. His manners were courtly and ele-
CANT, without pretenslon and without a1ectation,
and no man could be more charming to those ad-
mitted 10 his society. He was always liked by his
employees aud assistants, but he never sought for
advice, and those who pressed their counSelS upon
him never gained much from their efforts.
or all Mr. BENEFITS qualities that which was most
universally appreciated was his wit. This was pc
culiar and incessant Though unlike the wit OF any
other man, everybody understood it. 1t was never
labored far-ietcned and its jolity and apparent
good nature even when employed in the destruc-
ton OF an adversary, made 1t delightful. For years
ts VII constituted one OF the principal attractions
oi the HERALD, and when everything else failed IL
could always be relied upon Mr.. Bennett's moral
courage was also equal TO every test The HERALD
was never afraid and never cowed before the most
formidable adversary. One of the most striking
Instances OF this was It's adherence to Ere
Up to that time Mr. Bennett had rather
supported the democracy, and had advocated the
law; but when the republican party entered upon
that surprising canvass they found to their aston
enlisted on their side Everybody supposed that
the prosperity OF the paper would be Impaired by
this new departure but il was not SO. Its right to
liberty and to its own course OF action had been
maintained in too many deadly fights to be disputed
now The democrats continued to read it as much
as ever, and doubtless many OF them were induced
by It's fresh, brilliant and often noble articles against
the extension OF slavery, TO give their suf
fragcs TO the candidate OF the new party.
Mr. Benefits mind intuitiye rather than
logical; but it was SO shrewd suggestive and so
fruitful of ideas that it is not too much to say that
he was man Of genius His culture was that OF
experience observation and reflection rather than
OF much study or reading. He was not learned, in
the usual sense OF that word, but he possessed an
extraordinary stock OF general and often OF recon-
dte information. He had a strong tendency to
paradox, and his delight in whimsical views of men
and things made his conversation as entertaining
as his writings; He was essentially skeptical: He
The bad ones; and S he was rarely
the merely commonplace was nauseous to him;
sham excited his scorn; fools were his aythngs;
and solemn, respectable humbugs he loved to pounce
upon and tear to pieces. And so he lived his life
and fought his battle, misunderstood, feared, as
sailed, hated and courted as few men have ever
been; and yet through the whole OF 1t walking
in his own path and acting according to his own
uninnuenced will and opinions as few have ever
1t is easy now to say that Mr.. Bennett would have
been a greater or better man II he had possessed
more conndng heart and more delicate moral
ad
than skeptca; and II he had been the follower OF
party or creed rather than their gay and laughing
critic, using parties and creeds for his own pleasure
even when he seemed to favor or to serve them
But those who dwell upon these defects shonld
remember that in his domestic relations he was
most anectionate and generous, and that in his
relations to Others he was always honest aud truth
ful, never defrauding or deceiv1ng any one And
who can affirm that If he had been constituted 9TH
crwise than he was lie would have suited his day
and generation so well as he has done, or that he
could have played so large or so useful part upon
the stage OF the world The peculiar instruments
OF Providence are not always selected or fashioned
10 meet with our conventional approbation and 80
let us leave the last Judgment upon this man who
has now gone to his account with that dread tribu-
nal whose love and wisdom are alike infinite and
whose sentence Is beyond the possibility OF error
From the New York Tribune, June 81
Toward sundown of Saturday night, when mil
hons OF aborcrs were closing the work of the week,
one OF the most untiring workingmen Of the age
nhisnea MS lie and his LABOR together. The great
ihaohihe he ou4lt through SO many tollsome years
works on without changing pulsation at his de-
parture AT the head ofits columns stlll stands the
familiar announcement, James Gordon Bennett
proprietor" though the first of the name is in his
coffin and the second is at sea, not aware of the
altered meaning in the standing types. Ills heirs
VIII give to his grave all the dignity ana respect
which may lie in massive and costly marble: but
his journal Is his true monument
1t Is easy to build q sepulchre OF any form. with
any meaning you please. Even the epitaph is 4
matter depending on your own taste or fancy or
that of clever friend But nothing can change or
falslfy the record Of public life, nor make the
monument reared by mans lifelong labor any
thing but true criterion of his character ana test
OF his value. Mr.. Bennett will not be judged in
future by what he was but by what he accom-
plished. The passions the hates, the controver-
sizes of the past will all fade away from memory in
another generation; but the HERALD Will remain
the permanent and Visible proof OF what there WAS