The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-01-03

Joseph Gales, pursued the even, dignl-
fed tenor Of its way.
OPPOSED JAcKsoN's POLICY.
When jackson came into power in
1929, bringing with him horde OF
political expectants that swarmed upon
Washington in search of spoils, MIR.
Gales had his first lesson in political
anita gonism, and he proved to be one
of the most effective of all the assail-
ants of the policy of jackson that cul-
minated in the overthrow of Van Buren
in 1910. The criticisms of Jackson S
policy were as fearless and able as they
were dignifed, and they searchingly
exposed the political faults of the ad-
ministration while sustaining it in
great trials when jackson was right.
such as was presented in the South
Carolina notification episode. Mr..
Gales was heartily for the majesty OF
the national authority, but he pro-
foundly and incisively deplored the
new political policy that came with
Jackson openly proclaiming that ''to
the victor belong the spoils.'
Until jackson became President
every thing relating to the government
was conducted Oh the hig ighest plane of
convcntionality. and the Inauguration
of Jackson's methods, illustrated at
times by the president smoking corn
cob pipe while informally receiving
visitors and officials in the White
House, was a rude shock alike to the
social and political methods which had
so uniformly prevailed in Washington.
The first of all the humorous and sa-
tirical political writers to attain fame
was the author OF the Jack Downing
Is ba Smith) letters in the National
ln,eIligencer. They were relatively
quite as widely read and commented
on at Il AT time as were the letters of
Petrol, um v. Nasty during the war
and reconstruction periods. The fact
that these letters appeared in the most
dignilied and respected journal of the
country was conclusive evidence that
they exhibited the highest type of the
satirist, and it is known that the keen
invective of Jack Downing was more
irritating thorn in the side of Jackson
and his political followers than were
the assaults of any of the able journals
of the country which were then in op-
position.
DECLINE OF THE INTELLlGENCER.
| Or course, the high and successful
standard Oh journalism established by
Joseph Gales would fall far short Of
the requirements of journalism in the
present age, but it is only just to say
that for period of half a century he
conducted public journal of national
reputation and maintained a pre-emi-
nent position in American journalism
even when brought into competition
with the pioneers of progressive news
papers issued by Greeley and Bennett.
The old-time journalism required little
energy in gathering all the news; the
most successful journals of early times
became so largely because of their
ability and dignified conservatism.
There were many violent partisan
newspapers in those days which as
sailed opposing parties and candidates
with measure of defamation that
would not he tolerated in the present
age, but it is creditable to the integrity
OF the olden time that the National
Intelligencer, which represented the
absolute mastery Of dignity and con-
servatism in journalism, was the most
respected and potent of the great news
papers of that period.
Mr. Gales followed the policy OF
w, bstcr as proclaimed in his great
speech in reply to Hayne, and sup
ported Harrison, Clay, Taylor, and
Scott as Wing candidates tor the
Presidency. He ardentIy approved
and defended the compromise measures
of 1850 which wrecked the Whig party
and in 1856, when the great sectional
issue became paramount, he had refuge
under the banner of Fillmore. whose
admins ration he had earnt silly COM
mended 1t was evident, however,
that the power of this great newspaper
and its great editor was sadly en-
feeblcd, as it stood on the narrow mid
die ground between the ticrccly con-
tending parties organized on sectional
lines The leaders of the slave inter-
"s,s had gone far beyond the bounds
q conservatism, and their devotion to
the Union was secondary to their devo-
tion to slavery, while the Republicans
of the North, infiamed by the aggres-
sive exactions OF the slave power,
offered no field for the conservative
and always patriotic appeals of Joseph
Gales.
The great issue that absorbed the
nation had passed beyond conservative
restraint, and the National Intelligent
Ger, at whose utterances in former
times the l. aders of all parties took
pause, languished in patronage, in in
fluence and in every attribute OF sue
cessful journalism, save the dignity
and elegance which always embelished
its columns. Fortunately in the mid