The Portland daily press., 1880-03-23
New YORK, Mar. 20, 1880.


The dispute between the shareholders Of the
Evening Express as to which party shall have
the executive control of the concern, recalls a
newspaper history which has some points of
interest to many of the old citizens of Port
land The Express was long the property of
the brothers Brooks-James and Erastus-
both natives of Maine. James was the editor
Of the Portland Advertiser, somewhere about
1886 or 1887 when it was the leading daily of
the State. j. and w. E. Edwards were the
proprietors. He showed marked signs of prom
Use in his profession. He made the tour of
Europe and wrote letters thence which at
tracted good deal of notice. The
reviewers were not always friendly
but it is proof of writer's power and
q help to his reputation if he is made the sub
ject of discussion even though the critics may
abuse him. 1 recollect one sentence of his that
was ridiculed rather severely. 1t ran thus:
Nineteen days have elapsed since landed in
Liverpool. During that time have seen Eng
land and Scotland thoroughly, and Ireland
some" This would be considered pretty fast
travelling even in these days of steam, but it
was little short ofa miracle to have done the
United Kingdom within so short period
when nearly all of it had to be traversed by
coach. 1t was an instance of careless, oifhand
writing merely, and if it did furnish topic for
good natured raillery it had the effect at all
events of giving wider publicity to the letters
and their author. He had no reason to feel
grieved at the results of that slip of the pen.
Not long after his return home he formed a
connection with newspaper here, and after
wards bought out his associates and changed
the name of the sheet-whatever it may have
been, 1 don't know what-to the Express"
Under that title it has been published for
about forty years, more or less, with varying
fortunes, but on the whole, successfully.
James Brooks was originally Whig When
the slavery question began to interfuse itself
into the arena of political debate, he leaned
towards the South Finally he became a "sil-
yer gray" or pro slavery Whg-was elected to
Congress as such, beating Greeley in the con-
test for the nomination. When the Whig
party "wallowed in the mire'' in 1852, hum
bling itself in the dust before the lords of the
lash and sowing the seeds of its speedy and ig-
nominious dissolution, Mr.. Brooks was gravi-
tating toward the Democratic camp, and when
the remnant of the Whig party cast its lot
with the Republicans, he chose to identify
himself with the then dominant party. When
ever New Englander had reached the point
of moral obliquity that he could defend the
enslaving and selling of men and women he
had no further descent to make, and Mr..
Brooks was thenceforward the ready champion
of all the exactions and encroachments of
Ill
war broke out, he was very much disposed to
take sides with the rebels, but public feeling
in this city developed so strong a Union senti-
ment that he succumbed to it, and threw out
the National ensign, when a multitude Of
fellow citizens called at his office and some
what urgently insisted that he shou Id give that
evidence of his loyalty. His subsequent course
during the war was in keeping with his pre-
vious career. He made show of fidelity to
the Federal cause, but never was satisfied with
any thing the authorities did. He opposed
every measure that was brought forward dur
ing the struggle, from the call for volunteers
at the outset to the emancipation proclamation
in 1868; joined in the declaration Of the Demo-
cratic National Convention of 1864 that "the
war was failure" and opposed the constitu-
tional amendments that were passed after
the war was over.
Politically, therefore, the career of Mr.
Brooks could not by any stretch of charity be
pronounced creditable one. But he played
for success and he achieved it. He lived in
city inhabited largely by foreigners, and who
voted the Democratic ticket by an instructive
preference, and he kept in the popular current
He held his seat in Congress so long that it
grew to be an accepted theory that it belonged
to him by prescriptive right, and after while
nobody entered the lists to contest it with him.
He was appointed a government director of
the Union Pacific Railway. That brought him
into the Credit Mobilier and he accumulated
wealth through that profitable connection. He
died shortly after the great hue and cry that
was raised against the members of Congress who
were shareholders in that notable enterprise.
And among the effects of his estate was his
stock in the Express, which he owned in con-
junction with his brother Erastus. The prop
erty was chiefly valuable because it carried
with it the privileges Of the Associated Press
The Tammany Chiefs afterwards bought into
the concern. but it seems they did not get
enough to give them the balance of power. To
obviate this difficulty they got possession of %
shares which James w. Brooks, son and heir
of the deceased proprietor, had hypothecated
with paper dealer as security for loan Mr.
Brooks complains that the stock was transferred
| to his creditor without his knowledge and in a
secret and underhand way-that if he had had
notice of the proceeding he would have
| thwarted it by paying the loan-and he pro.
poses to contest the right of the holder of the
shares to vote upon them in the selection of
trustees. All which opens up the prospect of
| a lawsuit which can by no possibility fail to
infiict injury upon all parties concerned, ex-
] cept the lawyers.