Year: 1872

tion-The Dangerous Growth OF Fed


eral Patronage.


The Presidential contest in which the coun-
try is now engaged will leave behind it one
beneficial result, even though it should fail to
produce any of the desirable political reforms
promised alike by those who are anxious to
change the national administration and those
who are dismayed at the prospect of losing
their hold upon the federal spos. Owing to
its peculiar character, distinct from that of
any previous Presidential struggle, it has
involuntarily done good service in the emanci-
patton of the press from party thraldom, and
when the smoke of the battle rolls away, whether
Greeley and the reformers or Grant and the
offce-holders remain in possession of the field,
a goodly number Of the hitherto prominent
partisan papers of the country will be dis
covered arrayed under the banner of inde-
pendent journalism. The HERALD has recently
had occasion to trace the progress of the
independent press of the United States
during the past thirty-eight years, and to show
how, under its influence. even strictly partisan
journals have within that period acquired a
more honorable position than they previously
enjoyed. We may attribute this general elevation
of the press in great measure to the fact that
since the establishment of independent jour
nalism it has become necessary that daily
paper, in order to be successful, must be
newspaper as well as a political organ, and
must lay early and good intelligence before
general class of readers, as well as provide
highly-colored partisan food for the relish of
its political patrons. The expense of publish
ing a daily metropolitan journal is now so
heavy that no party patronage would be suf-
fcient to meet it. Occasionally we see news
paper ventures attempted for the advancement
of some particular party object or the gratif-
cation of some individual political ambition,
but while kept alive longer or shorter time,
according to the means of their supporters,
such papers never become permanently estab-
lished.


The leading political organs of this city have
achieved success because they are we'll con-
Quoted newspapers, availing themselves iber-
ally of all the means Of collecting intelligence
within the reach Of the modern journalist, and
not because they ore the mouthpieces Of this
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their proprietors have acquired and the for
tunes they have secured through their journal
istic enterprise and ability have raised them
above dependence upon party, and have given
them an influence over the politicians not en-
! joyed by their predecessors twenty-five or
thirty years ago. The same is true of the bet
ter portion of the political press all over the
| arf7, al hoe RI hoe
garded as on honorable obligation on the part
of journal attached to political organization
to respect its regularly constituted authorities
to yield fealty to its conventions and to sup
port its nominees, however Objectionable they
may be. Thus, although q party organ
may have strongly denounced this con-
templated action or that foreshadowed
candidate in the preliminary stages of political
campaign, it has seldom carried its objections
beyond the final determination of regular con-
vention. But the present contest, as we have
said, is exceptional in it's character There
have been former divisions in the great politi-
cal households changes in organizations and
independent tickets in the field; but party
lines have never before been so completely
obliterated or party obligations so entirely
ignored. The subversion of all recognized
political rules has driven many journalists into
open warfare against the organizations to which
they belong, and the result has been declara-
ton of independence by some Of the leading
party organs on broader scale than that with
which they have heretofore been satisfied. All
the once formidable power of regularity has
| = L.
to advocate candidate who they believe
to be unworthy of their support, while others
have been unusually rebellious in their opposi-
ton to the evident sentiment of their political
associates. Thus self-emancipated they have
avowed their determination to exercise here
after the full right of individual Judgment and
conviction regardless of the action of the party
to which they belong; and after having once
enjoyed the advantage of entire political free.
dom they will not be likely to relinquish it in
the future.


We hail this accession to independent jour.
nalism with satisfaction, because we believe O
truly Independent press to be the best and
surest safeguard of republican institutions
But the action of the emancipated journals and
the heated personal character of the campaign
prompt the inquiry why so much earnest and
angry feeling should be called forth by Presi


Dental election? What is it that causes
this great commotion the country through
whenever the chief executive officer Of tho
nation is to be chosen by the electors There
is too much reason to fear that the solution
may be found in the enormous amount o.
patronage attached to the position. In the
present contest there is nothing to excite party
enthusiasm on either side, and no great issues
divide the people into distinctly defined oppo-