When Horace Greeley was starting the _Tribune_ the _Herald_ was five or
six years old, and its success assured. Mr. Greeley started his as an
uncompromising party paper; Mr. Bennett presented the _Herald_ to the
people as an independent paper, the first ever published that was simply
an indicator of public opinion bound and gagged by no party.
To Scotland shall we as a nation ever be indebted for one of the
greatest journalists of the nineteenth century. When about fifteen years
old he entered a Catholic school at Aberdeen expecting to enter the
clergy, but after an academic life of two or three years he abandoned
the idea. This sudden change was in no small degree influenced by an
edition of "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography" which was published in
Edinburgh about this time. He was greatly taken with the spirit of this
volume which found sympathy in his thrifty Scotch nature. From the
moment he finished this life of Franklin he determined to come to
America, and after a short stay in Halifax, and Boston, his stay in each
place being attended with great privation, we find him in the year 1822
in the city of New York, and still later he is employed on the
_Charleston Courier_, of Charleston, South Carolina. There his knowledge
of Spanish was a benefit, enabling him to translate the Cuban exchanges,
and to decipher the advertisements which were sent in that language.
After a few months he returned to New York where he attempted to open a
Commercial School. This scheme came to naught, however, and he then
tried lecturing on political economy with but moderate success to say
the least. He soon saw that these undertakings were not in his sphere,
and once more he returned to journalism. He first connected himself with
the _New York Courier_ and when that journal became merged into the
_Enquirer_ he was chosen associate editor. After this the senior
editor, J. Watson Webb, turned square around and began to support the
United States Bank which he had so bitterly opposed and fought so
vehemently. Young Bennett now withdrew and started a small paper, _The
Globe_, but it was short-lived. He next went to Philadelphia and assumed
the principal editorship of the _Pennsylvanian_. At that time all papers
allied themselves to one party or the other.
Mr. Bennett conceived the idea of an independent paper; one which would
be bound to no party or ring. He accordingly returned to New York for
this purpose. He was very short of funds, and this fact alone would have
discouraged most young men; not so with this man. He hired a cellar; two
barrels with a board across served as desk on which was an ink-stand and
goose quill. The proprietor of these apartments was not only editor and
manager, but reporter, cashier, book-keeper, salesman, messenger and
office boy. One hour he was writing biting editorials or spicy
paragraphs; the next rushing out to report a fire or some other
catastrophe, working sixteen to twenty hours per day. He persuaded a
young firm to print his paper, and he was thus tided over that
difficulty. Most young men would never have undertaken such a task, but
what would they have done had they, after embarking in it, been twice
burned out and once robbed within the first fifteen months? Such was the
experience of Bennett, but as expressed by himself, he raked the
_Herald_ from the fire by almost superhuman efforts, and a few months
later, when the great fire occurred in Wall street, he went to the scene
himself and picked up all kinds of information about the firms burnt
out, the daring deeds of the firemen, and anything sensational he did
not fail to print. He also went to the unheard of expense of printing a
map of the burnt district and a picture of the Produce Exchange on fire.
This enterprise cost, but it gave the _Herald_ a boom over all
competitors, which it well maintains. It was the first paper that
published a daily money article and stock list, and as soon as possible
Bennett set up a Ship News establishment consisting of a row-boat manned
by three men to intercept all incoming vessels and ascertain their list
of passengers and the particulars of the voyage.
Mr. Calhoun's speech on the Mexican war, the first ever sent to any
paper by telegraph, was published in the _Herald_. At one time when his
paper wished to precede all rivals in publishing a speech delivered at
Washington, for the purpose of holding the wire, Mr. Bennett ordered the
telegraph operator to begin and transmit the whole Bible if necessary,
but not to take any other message until the speech came. Such enterprise
cost, but it paid; and so it has ever been. Seemingly regardless of
expense, bureaus of information for the _Herald_ were established in
every clime. 'Always ahead' seemed to be the motto of James Gordon
Bennett, and surely enterprise was no small factor in the phenomenal
success of the _Herald_. The tone, it has been said, was not always so
edifying as that of its contemporaries, the _Post_ and _Commercial_,
still every article was piercing as a Damascus blade. To buy one paper
meant to become afterwards one of its customers. It was indeed
astonishing what a variety of reading was contained in one of those
penny sheets; every thing was fresh and piquant, so different from the
old party papers. As originally intended, the _Herald_ has always been
independent in politics, although inclined to be Democratic. It
supported Fremont and the Republican party, and was one of the staunch
war papers.
Mr. Bennett has been described as being stern and disagreeable in his
manners. In this we do not fully concur, and in view of the large number
of employes who have grown old in his service, we cannot but feel
justified in this belief. Horace Greeley and James Gordon Bennett, the
two leading New York journalists, but how different. Mr. Greeley had a
larger personal following than the _Tribune_; the _Herald_ had a larger
friendship than did Bennett who was the power behind the throne.
Journalism lost no lesser light when the great _Herald_ editor passed
away June 1st, 1872, than it did six months later when Horace Greeley
passed from darkness into light. As Mr. Bennett was a life-long
Catholic, he received the last sacrament from the hands of the renowned
Cardinal McClosky.