Year: 1873

Extracts from his Address at Pough- | keepsie.

 The following are some of the more interesting portions of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's address before the New York Editorial convention, at Pough- keepsie:

 count myself fortunate to be present again as an editor, and it carries me back to the earlier years of my life, when in 1886 I began my public life as editor, under the influence and example of that very valuable and erynoble man, Charles Hammond of the Cincinnati G0zette. It was while was in the The ological Seminary that it was necessary that some one should take the place on the Cincinnati Gazette of the editor, who had gone to the General Assembly in Philadelphia; not the General Assem- ply elsewhere, and took the place with no very great pride and no very great vanity, but with such peculiar expecta- tions that remember I launched out and bought 8 gold watch and a super lative overcoat. Laughter. For six months all things went well, at least in the office, however it may have fared with the readers, when the publishers broke, the paper was bought by law yer, and in the course of four or five weeks he informed me he thought he could run it himself. My salary stop ped, my watch went back. The coat they would not take, and I was left to pay for that as best I might. I have al- ways felt peculiar sympathy for poor editors from that time to this [applause and laughter and if as years go on l feel myself called less and less to the platform and more and more to the pen and the Editorial Convention, should not be ashamed to wind up my life as began 1t, for l think that among the professions there is none that ranks higher than that-which is yet to be profession that of journalism.

 Journalism, as yet is pursuit rather than a profession. It has no definite bounds; 1t has no common law or cus- toms 1t has principles, and vet they are held rather individually than by common consent. It is not shaped and drawn out into any form with acknowl- edged foundations and superstructure. That 1t is to be. a profession, and, like all other professions, to have it's laws and its precepts, it's maxims and it's methods, there can scarcely be any doubt. It never will be a profession in this same sense in which law is. It has In 1t so much of necessity that it is vol untary, that cannot be fixed, while the law spreads itself around about the diff ferent forms of civil society; it has a machinery fixed and bounded for it which professional journalism never can have.

 There are between 1000 and 5000 various journals published in the United States and Canadas, and for all moral and literary purposes the two great English speaking nations are one. Of daily journals there are about 700 in Canada and the United States. and about 6,0O0 weeklies and 700 monthlies. Now Tn so large a number as these, surely there is material enough to begin coalescing, taking counsel to make the outlines and framework of the future profession of journalism. At present the only bond that connect papers with papers are very feeble, operating at long distances, and for short periods of time The great secular press is held together in bonds by chiefly political influences, but party feeling runs high for brinf periods. Nor has it been found able to hold together even in the same side. journals ln such way as that they should be fraternal or brotherly, for so soon as such journals come into such relations with each other then their profits are affected, the one by the other, the power of party is not strong enough to hold them in affinity, and they go into antagonism.

 In religious journals sectarian feeling is Tn the main the great bond that holds them together, but the same diversive influences operate there. Our religious journals have been known to be quarrel some, and have been known to be envi- ous and jealous, and even among sects there are diversions of opinion, and sects don't love each other as Christians should. And the journals of religion for the most part have exempliGed the centrifugal forces of Christianity, and the time is yet to come, if it ever does come, when the centripetal forces will begin to act, and religious journals will be brought nearer and nearer together. But think both secular and religious journals, if there be any distinction, are coming to the common ground of amity andaof civilization, and of intel lectual and moral elevation much higher than they have had before.