Charles H. Levermore

“ So they passed him by on the other side, and thereby assisted to revolutionize our newspaper world. Bennett had discovered that a paper which is universally de- nounced will be universally read. He had perceived that a demo- cratic revival demanded a more democratic press, and his tough Scotch fibre was elastic enough to endure either pull or pressure. Stung by what he termed Van Buren's heartlessness, he determined to make a paper which should be the master of politicians, not their tool. ”

“ The expansion of democracy in the United States has found a constant index and gauge in the evolution of the newspaper. As democratic sentiment among us took form and produced the organs of political party life, the journals changed from mere bill-boards to party-organs, and from party-organs to newspapers, obedient finally to the demands of Publicity rather than to those of Party. ”

“ The freedom with which the Herald related the annals of police courts and the particularity with which it recited scandals caused the greatest offense. The elder generation regarded Bennett as one who feared not God nor regarded man. Clergymen denounced him from the pulpit. Good men shook their heads over the prosperity of the Herald as an ominous sign of the times, and then read it to see what new iniquity it had been guilty of. ”

“ The Journal enjoyed the advantage of the unique and powerful personality of its editor, Thurlow Weed, who was under no man's thumb and who wielded a far greater individual influence than Croswell of the Argus could ever claim. Thurlow Weed and Edwin Croswell were together from 1830 to 1848 the foremost journalist-politicians in the state of New York. Side by side upon that Albany hill they patrolled the picket lines of their opposing hosts or sounded the reveille for the retainers of Seward or Van Buren. ”

“ All this running to and fro increased an appetite for knowledge, and the men were already in existence who would re-organize the press to meet the new demands. In the political world the crowd was newly emancipated from colonial and aristocratic traditions and laws, newly vocal with en- thusiasm for a democratic hero, Old Hickory, and willing to pose before the rest of the world. A new conception of journalistic functions began to take shape. The newspaper must adapt itself to meet the crowd. ”

“ They call attention to the moral which adorns the tale. "There's nothing," says the rattle-pated city editor in a recent story, "there's nothing like original news to show the influence of journalism. One morning, after the cakes had been bad for a week, I said to my landlady that I believed the fault must be in the buckwheat. She said 'No, she didn't think so, for the flour looked very nice indeed.' That day I put a line in the 'Local Glimpses' columns saying that unfortunately the buckwheat this year was of inferior quality. ”

“ In fact, the newspapers, scattered throughout the body politic, act as lungs through which our system of representative party government draws most easily its vital breath.
To the mass of people the controllers of influential journals are the real managers of the great world's stage. ”

“ There was seldom a young man in any part of the state, who gave prom- ise of becoming a person of influence, that was not kindly and flat- teringly mentioned in that column, no matter to what party he be- longed." To the young and aspiring Whig politician, that kindly allusion in the most prominent newspaper of his party often seemed like a glowing promise that his humble merit should not lose its reward. ”

“ Association, night and day, in sickness and in health, in war and in peace, with a woman of this highest order of excellence must produce some curious results in my heart and feelings, and these results the future will develop in due time in the columns of the Herald. Meantime I return my heartfelt thanks for the enthusias- tic patronage of the public, both of Europe and of America. The holy estate of wedlock will only increase my desire to be still more useful. God Almighty bless you all. James Gordon Bennett. ”

“ To the various fields of special journalism Professor Lee has given less attention than did Mr. North. He chronicles the efforts to issue a daily newspaper with a religious motive but makes no study of denominational or religious journalism. Neither does he consider the literary and critical weeklies, or professional and occupational journals, or the Socialist press, or sporting and juvenile periodicals.
The great field of journalism representing the later immigrant races in America is left untouched. ”

“ The question in dispute is whether or not a man can do anything towards saving his own soul." At another time he referred to "the holy Roman Catholic Church," adding in a parenthesis "all of us Cath- olics are devilish holy." In 1840 when Bishop Hughes and Gov- ernor Seward tried to get public money for Catholic schools and thereby caused the formation of the Native American party, Ben- nett and the Herald were violent opponents of the Bishop's schemes, and Bennett said that his Reverence was trying to organize his church into a political club. ”

“ It was natural that these changes should be most significant and interesting in the field of New York City journalism. Thanks to Martin Van Buren and Thurlow Weed, New York contained the best organized and most eager democracy in the Union. Thanks to the enterprise of its own business men, and subsequently to the policy of DeWitt Clinton, New York City had become the metrop- olis of the country, wherein the new journalism could find its best and largest audience. The leading political papers in New York City in 1829 were the Courier and Enquirer, a Democratic sheet of the old-fashioned sort ”

“ The socialistic seed sown in Europe by Saint-Simon, Cabet and Fourier took root upon our soil and finally produced a harvest of enthusiastic communities and phalanxes, harbingers of a new heaven and new earth wherein should dwell righteousness. ”

“ An editorial is only a man speaking to men ; but the news is Providence speaking to men." For good or for ill, the victory of Bennett's Herald came to mean this exaltation of fact over opinion ; it meant the recognition of journalism as a profession, as a profession with an end and aim in it- self alone, utterly separate from merely political or religious pur- poses. That victory of Bennett's Herald helped to introduce into the world an ideal of devotion to journalism, i. ”

“ The Sun was the pioneer. It was first issued, September 3, 1833, by Benjamin H. Day, an intelligent workingman, and a job printer by occupation. There had been several similar experiments during the preceding year, but they had all come to a speedy and untimely end. The Sun was the first penny newspaper that endured and it remained a penny sheet until 1861. It started with a circulation of 300. Its first issue contained twelve columns of matter, each column ten inches long. ”

“ The paper passed in 1829 from the hands of the dying Coleman into the control of William Leggett and William Cullen Bryant. These two editors, both young and ardent, and both poets, were happily described in the columns of the Courier and Enquirer as " the chanting cherubs of the Post" a title which clung to them for years. Under Mr. Bryant, who became the responsible editor in 1836, the Post naturally perfected that literary flavor which it had ac- quired from the doctrinaire Coleman and the brilliant Leggett. Mr. Bryant was neither a great journalist nor a politician. ”

“ A hundred persons may have conceived the design of marching to the ocean but the genius of the general lay in foreseeing the possible moves of his adversary, in guarding against them and in his estimate of the physical and moral result of cutting the Confederacy in twain. ”

“ They selected as its editor a moderate and discreet man named Jesse Buel, who could be depended upon to obey orders. Any important proclamations were contributed directly by some member of the Regency, Marcy, Wright, Dix, or even by Van Buren himself. The country editors of the Bucktail faith scanned the Argus for the materials of leading articles in their weekly issues, and they accepted its opinions as inspired revelations. And they were. No man could become editor of the Argus unless he was acceptable to the Regency. ”

“ Not under- rating the venture, wise in precaution, Sherman showed the same boldness and tenacity as Grant in his Vicksburg campaign in stick- ing to his purpose when others shook their heads. No general, who lacked qualities of daring and resolution, would have persisted in his determination to advance through Georgia after Hood had crossed the Tennessee river, especially when Grant for a time doubted the wisdom of the movement. ”

“ These were Mordecai Manasseh Noah and James Gordon Bennett. Major Noah's personaUty is more interesting to the psy- chologist than important to the historian. He was an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was much guile. Since 1 8 1 6 he had been editor of the city organ of Tammany Hall, and an aspirant for various political offices, some of which he obtained. When he was a candidate for the shrievalty of New York City it was objected that a Jew ought not to be permitted to hang a Christian. " Pretty Christians," said Noah, "to require hanging at all !" ”

“ Nevertheless the historical student will be disappointed if he turns to this volume for an explanation of the fact that, for years in the first half of the last century, Albany newspapers were more influential in New York state politics than the metropolitan journals. ”

“ They were the father confessors to the democracy of the country." For the second or Whig Albany Regency Thurlow Weed's Al- bany Evening Journal was the accredited organ. The Evening Journal was never however the prompter of the Whig newspaper chorus as the Argus had been for their Democratic contemporaries. Neither did the machine of Seward and Weed ever obey the word of command so readily as Van Buren's. The Whig leaders di- rected a more intelligent, and consequently a less pliant party. ”

“ But not even Bennett needed to point out the ludi- crousness of men like Webb and Noah in the garb of moral censors and guardians of virtue. There was a revulsion of sentiment in favor of the paper which seemed to have no friends. Three well-known politicians and merchants called one morning upon Mr. E. K. Collins, afterwards the owner of the famous Collins 464 C. H. Levermore line of steamers, and, adverting to the bad character of the Herald, began to allude to Mr. Collins's advertisements in that paper "Yes, yes," replied Mr. ”

“ Charles," calling to a clerk in another room " how many advertisements have we in the Herald this morning? ' "Three, sir," answered the polite Charles. "Three, yes, yes Well, Charles, put in three more to-morrow morning." Then, turn ing to the committee, he said: "That is my answer, gentlemen good morning." ”