Year: 1872

tion Epoch OF American Journalism.


Know ye not that great man has iallen this day
In Israeli


1t is seldom, indeed, that the loss of man,
however great or distinguished, has SO pro-
foundly affected the public mind of this COM
munity and this country as the death OF Hor
ace Greeley. From his conspicuous position
as metropolitan journalist for forty years;
from the extended and familiar knowledge of
the man possessed by all classes and races of
our people; from the universal faith in his
benevolent character and honesty of purpose;
from the general recognition of his great SER
vices in behalf of s'equal rights to all" from
the extraordinary position in which he SO re-
Gently stood before the country for the Presi-
dency as the standard-bearer of the democratic
party; from the incessant excitements and
painful domestic Affections, resulting in the
terrible malady which SO rapidly consumed
his life, and from the mysterious surround
ings Of the dying man, every mind in the least
conversant with these circumstances is most
painfully affected by his death. The melan-
choly event. as in the case of Abraham
Lincoln, though in more subdued form, has
thus impressed itself upon the whole commu-
nifty; for this general feeling of sadness and
sorrow is as that over some cherished friend
suddenly, unexpectedly and strangely taken
away.


Our city contemporaries, sharing in this
universal sympathy and gratefully recognizing
it, have given it their various forms of express
sion; but upon the essential conclusions, they
are harmonious in their testimony. The World,
for example, says:-"It has never been our lot
to record death whose surroundings and
antecedents impressed us with such sense Of
mournful and even tragic pathos )" that more
than the tragical death Of Lincoln this sap
peals to the deepest sympathies Of our COM
mon nature The staff of the Tribune say
that sit is not for us, in the first hour of our
loss, to dwell long here upon his character or
to catalogue his virtues. To his associates and
disciples the bereavement is grief too per-
sonal to leave them heart for making eloquent
phrases" The Sun says that "Mr. Greeley
was the warm, the jealous friend Of humanity,
and that s'his own early struggles with
poverty made him the champion Of the poor. }"
The Commercial Advertiser, in its tribute of
respect, says that 'Mr Greeley had actually
no enemies" and that although the great
editor is gone ''his memory will be forever
green in the recollections of his countrymen."
The EUeniny Mal thinks it is too soon yet to
form comprehensive verdict upon the char
acter of the deceased, but that ''when we re-
member how that stalwart and active spirit
entered the daily life and thought Of conti-
nent Of newspaper readers how it was felt as q
constant power in politics and in all the dis
cussions of the day how in tens Of thousands
Of families it was ever present as a teacher
and guide how in all circles and among all
conditions Of men it was q living influence,
and how every marked individuality Of its
character was known to all, we may begin to
realize what has been given to us and what we
have lost"


From these suggestions the whole broad
field of American journalism rises before us,
past and present, and with its probabilities
and possibilities of the future. In this gen.
eral view of the subject we may say that
Francis P. Blair, ST., Of the Washington Globe,
represented an epoch Of American journalism
which is among the things of the past that
Mr.. Greeley, in the Tribune, represented ON
epoch that is rapidly passing away, and that
the new journalistic era which is now dawn
ing upon us will mark still another advance
with the advancing spirit Of the age. The
journalism represented by the old Washington
Globe, the Albany Argus and the Richmond
Enquirer was that of kitchen eabi-
nets, party regencies and juntas. The
Globe, from Washington, gave the
cue to the whole democratic press
Of the country, while the Albany argus and
Richmond Enquirer each regulated the party
of its section, the one in the North the other
in the South. The Globe, however, was but
the organ Of the Kitchen Cabinet, and the
Argus and Enquirer were the mere mouth
pieces Of controlling regency or junta. This
was the dominating American journalism of
the political period represented by Jackson
and Van Buren.


The Independent press came next upon the
stage, in the modest but popular form of
penny paper or two, in most of our great cities,
and from the pressure of these enterprising
newspapers those previously omnipotent GEN.
trail party organs were driven from the field
or stripped Of their influence over public
opinion. But at the same time, personal
journalism under this new dispensation, in
the New York Tribune, for example, was
more broadly developed than under the
old party dominion Of Blair, Richie
and Crosswell The Tribune became the
organ Of Mr.. Greeley. He was the
Tribune and the Tribune was Greeley. He
possessed those strong intellectual qualities
that marked individuality of character, those
distinguishing and popular eccentricities
which made the Tribune, and which, whatever
the notifications are indispensable to the sue
cess OF a personal journal. To similar causes