New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-01-09
THURSDAY. JANUARY ., 1873.
1 Modern KUN.

The ,isat o. C,i.cn grcAtnr-. = always u
melancholy one. H. Il that Of fallen empires,
fallen nations, Or fallen individuals Even
the most Indifferent cannot e-,i!c thc I'M
pres,ion produced by the ruins oi ancient
R,ne. Athcn.. O., Thche., nor the much
more painful one, because lacking the great
mass that those remnants display even IN
thor present dilapiJatci conditional an
originally noble specimen Of humanity, Who'
endowed with all qualities AMI talents 10
make him an ornament Of society, has sunk
frou, his height into degradation and de-
p-ayitv, and regret will be none The less
sincere. though he may have been the
!us, une4t of his own ruin. An INSTITUTION
an est .blishment intended FOR high and no.
DO purpose, diverted from it, and made
promoter Of wrong and dish 'esty Is apt to
produce similar feelings, and such II IS
IL, I,ol. ., the New Yo. ne, of
to-day, when we remember The e lal
which for more than quarter OF -Enry
had been on this continent, Of all on &C. .es,
the advocate and defender Of liberty, justice,
aud almost everything that is great and
good, a. well as the unrc!cnting, irreconcIl-
able enemy Of oppression, dishonesty, n.y.
pocri.v, aud meauncss 10 whichever shape
they might present themselves. Now, that
the marty struggle Is settled for the present
by the election, aud quiet reigns where
passion and excitement reached the Gil
max only few months ago, no one Will
DENY that whatever Horace Grceley's
Inconsistencies and eccentricites may
have been, how glazing his sel!-contradic-
tons, how unreliable and erriDg his JudS-
mont. and how little 1T he was consequently
for a position which, OF all Other9, requires
clear.headcd man, in principle he ana the
Tribune were iniallibly on the side o! liberty,
Of humanity and progress in every dIFcction'
notwithstanding the pecvcrsencSs oil the
means which he proposed. This feature, OF
all others, was soon perceived by the people,
and won the TilJms It's marvellous ropular-
ty among the best Of tho nation. Ger
tanly, it was lust az remarkable for It's style,
for the cOmprehensiyencss and ability Oh its
articles about foreign affairs, art, and i!tera-
ture, f.: its correspondence from all parts Of
the world, though in these respects other pa
Iers might have We'd With it, whose influence
could never compare with tho power
welded BIZ the Titt1s: II power that Was
chiefly derived from the absolute confidence
which was placed on the honesty Of conyic-
ton, the purity and incoruptibility OF its
chief editor and It's STAG.
In this way il had become IN enormous
moral rs well ~ intellectual power
and it is therefore quite natural that
from the moment that Mr.. Greeley for
se..ed this moral power by renoumcing his
lifelong principles, and placing the manage
mept of the TJiJpae in the hands of 4 man
who seems To be siuCularly deficient in his
rorceptions of journalistic honesty, truthful
ness, and deccncy, the doom Of the paper
should be sealed. Ii still has its able cor
respondents. lis brilliant literary writers and
critics, vet it is but the ruin Of lis former self;
Iobody-cither Republican or Democrat
to-day believes in It's poliLica! honesty, in its
devotion to principle, ANY more than in that
OF the Jolly old EIoM7St. 70 one thinks Of
looking into it for advice and information, or
for a fair and Just Interpretation Of any mat
ter involving party questions. The recent
disclosures about the financial condition OF
the Tribune, tho falling oil OF lis circulation,
are evidence that the majority of its former
readers, among whom the very best elements
Of the American people were represented,
view tho matter in the same light, that they
yalue conviction and devotion to princi-
pie too highly to forgive their surren-
der, and have pronounced sentence over
the paper, which, through the fatal mistake
OF its founder, was reduced from its lofty
station to play the part Of a mere tool for the
realization of the object OF bis ambition.
We have no means to ascertain whether
there is any foundation in the rumor that tie
funds with which the present chief editor CT
the TryLune has bought his shares have been
furnished by Jay Gould. II 80, its fate would
be sealed, but at all events, unless a CON-
plsts change @! hands, and particularly Of
spirit, takes place before long, VIC can look
on tho New York Tribune as the melancholy
remnant OF its former glory, just as on 80
many ruins OF earlier and later times, with
the difference, however, that its destruction
was not tie work oc M outside enemy, bat
that Of its own founder.
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