USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Meantime "The Evening Record" had been founded. The "Adver- tiser" in 1884 bolted the nomination of James G. Blaine for the Presi- dency and during that campaign the "Record" was launched as an evening edition of the "Advertiser," whose editor at that time, Edwin M. Bacon, was the foremost advocate of the new venture. The first num- ber came out on September 3, from 248 Washington Street. The first editor was Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, now of the "Transcript." George H. Ellis served as publisher until January 4, 1886, when E. B. Hayes, of the "Advertiser," took over those duties. After two years of political independence the paper became a Republican organ in 1886.
Both papers passed into the hands of new owners on the last day of November, 1914, when the "Advertiser" had a circulation of only some- thing over 5,000, while the "Record" rejoiced in six times that total. The evening paper made all its news items as short and crisp as possible, and its editorials pert and concise. Great was its contrast with the staid old "Advertiser." If the one was too sedate, the other just avoided flippancy. The buyer was Frederick W. Bird, of New York, son of Charles Sumner Bird, the Massachusetts leader in the Progressive movement. Mr. George D. Dutton, son of the head of the book publishing house, became business manager. On December 1, 1917, the "Advertiser" became the property of William Randolph Hearst, and Mr. Bird continued the publication of the "Record". Only a few weeks later, in February, 1918, the evening paper was sold to a group which included Louis C. Page, of L. C. Page & Company, the Boston book publishers; Randolph C. Grew, Earl C. Deland, and Carl A. Barrett, a nephew of William E. Barrett. On the retirement of Mr. Page and Mr. Grew the ensuing August, Mr. M. Doug- las Flattery became the president of the company. In May, 1921, the paper also was sold to Mr. Hearst. In the preceding December an expe- riment was tried with the publication of the "Record" as a tabloid. The new owner continued it in that form until August, 1921, when it was merged with the "American."
512
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
Many eminent men were connected in one way or another with the old "Advertiser." Nathan Hale was not a printer. The fact is note- worthy because as a rule the editors of his time began as, and many con- tinued to be, practical printers. Franklin and Thomas had been printers, Buckingham, Thurlow Weed and the elder Bowles, William Lloyd Garri- son and Horace Greeley. Hale, however, was interested in mechanical matters and competent to supervise the production of his paper. He was a good deal of a scholar. He kept up his Latin and he read French and German with ease. All visitors to his sanctum carried away accounts of his files of foreign newspapers, not only of the leading English papers, but of several from France and Germany. Mrs. Hale, a sister of Edward Everett, the orator, and an accomplished scholar, contributed many translations from the German to the paper. Edward Everett Hale, edu- cated for the ministry, used to say that his father read Greek "as well as I do and has a better knowledge of Hebrew than most men in my pro- fession." To Nathan Hale usually is given the credit of the creation of what now is known as the editorial page. Perhaps it is not strictly true that "he was the first to assume the responsibility of expressing editorial opinions on events of public interest and importance," as one of his memorialists declares, but probably it is true that he was the first to introduce consecutive and systematic discussion of political topics and other subjects of current attention, thus assuming as an editorial function what had been done by correspondents who oftentimes concealed their identity. The editor insisted for the most part on writing the editorials for his own paper. It is of record that in 1833 Alexander H. Everett read to John Quincy Adams an article which he wanted to have inserted in the "Advertiser," and that Mr. Hale refused thus to use it. Nathan Hale had a way of going out himself after news. In 1834 he asked admission to a meeting of the Harvard Overseers. There lately had been some student disturbances. The newspaper man wanted to make notes of what was done. Nobody knew if these meetings were public or private. There were motions and counter-motions, votes, and reconsiderations, but the final decision was that the Harvard Overseers met in private. The "nice integ- rity and scrupulous conscientiousness" of Nathan Hale are vouched for by many of his contemporaries. He played a large part in the life of his time. Railroads and good water would have come to Boston in any event at some time, but he did much to expedite their coming. He was the first president of the Boston & Worcester Railroad and for nineteen years he was reelected annually. He was prominent among the founders of the "North American Review" and of the "Christian Examiner." He counted among his intimate associates Ticknor, Prescott, the Channings, Sparks, and others of the literary elite of the day. The fame of Edward Everett
COPLEY PLAZA HOTEL
513
THE PRESS
Hale doubtless was much more widespread than that of his father, but his connection with the "Advertiser" was relativesly of much less impor- tance. He learned to set type and at various times he did the work of a reporter ; before the end of the family connection with the press he had occupied almost every chair up to that of the editor-in-chief. In 1839, while a college student, he reported the legislative proceedings on Bea- con Hill. He wrote in his diary: "I like the plan very much. It will not be very hard work but will bring pretty good pay, about two dollars a day."
One of the first things Charles W. Eliot did on assuming the presi- dency of Harvard was to establish a professorship of political economy and to obtain Charles Franklin Dunbar for the incumbency of the new chair. In 1900 in a memorial address before the Massachusetts Historical Societ, Dr. Eliot cited many striking facts respecting the career of the political economist who earned his place at Harvard by his work on the "Advertiser." "During the Civil War," said Dr. Eliot, "Dunbar wrote
every editorial article in any way related to the war which appeared in the 'Advertiser.' The 'Advertiser' became by common consent the leading paper in Boston and no newspaper since has exercised the same influence in this community." Dunbar liked best to write on finance, the war loans, the banking acts, the suspension of specie payments, and on general economics. "In ten years," continued former President Eliot, "the amount and quality of his work was remarkable, considering that it began at 29 and ended at 39 years of age."
Delano A. Goddard, an indefatigable worker, who seemed to be always at his desk, tall and stooping, living in a world remote, acquired an excellent editorial reputation, and was known all over the Nation as one of the best friends the Indians ever had. William E. Barrett served sixteen years in the Massachusetts Legislature, much of the time as Speaker of the House, and two terms in the House of Representatives at Washington. Edward M. Stanwood left the "Advertiser" to become managing editor of the "Youth's Companion" and an authority on our Presidential elections. Henry A. Clapp made the dramatic department of the "Advertiser" famous. When the prestige of the paper began to decline many of its old subscribers continued to buy it solely to read his theatrical criticisms. He was gifted with a taste for letters and he wrought assiduously at a calling which he lifted to a new dignity by the care and thoroughness with which he did his work. Often the brilliant precocity of George Bryant Woods was alluded to a half century ago. He died in 1871 at the age of twenty-seven. But already he had achieved reputation as a critic and correspondent, a writer of leaders and a teller of short stories. For some time he filled a column headed "In General"
Met. Bos .- 33
514
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
with quips and light-running comment, in which he was permitted full freedom for the expression of his opinions. This was an early exempli- fication of the idea of the modern "Column."
"The Weekly Messenger," to which Nathan Hale had devoted him- self before he bought the newly-founded "Advertiser," was an experi- ment with a newspaper which should not be dependent on advertising. It admitted no such matter. But the "Advertiser" confessedly was a business paper. The first number had a page of five-column width com- pletely filled with "ads." The carefully compiled Marine Journals were a feature almost from the start. By 1830 the Prices Current was an established weekly feature and by the mid-30's it had become a daily fea- ture. Joseph A. Ballard emulated the example of Harry Blake as a ship- ping news reporter. Faithful and industrious, he made many friends among the merchants of the city, who not only told him news, but per- mitted him to open their mail at the post office in advance of themselves. James Russell Lowell, in 1841, referred to "the ship news of our inde- fatigable friend Ballard of the 'Daily'."
At the outset a Federalist paper the "Advertiser" in due time became a Whig organ. It supported Clay in 1832, Webster in 1836, Harrison in 1840, Taylor in 1848. As a means of reconciliation and to prevent the dis- ruption of the Union it squarely affirmed the views of Webster in his seventh of March speech. It opposed the measures of the Abolitionists and favored "gradual and moderate measures" in dealing with slavery. It denounced the annexation of Texas. It opposed the Missouri Com- promise, but once that measure had become an actual compact the paper favored the fulfillment of its terms. In 1853 at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall it fell to Edward Everett Hale to introduce his father and Senator Henry Wilson to each other, an incident illustrative of the way the agitation over the Kansas-Nebraska bill was uniting the opposition to slavery. The "Advertiser" is a valuable source of information respect- ing the efforts and failures of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Dan- iel Webster to organize their campaigns for the Presidency. In 1839 the paper printed a series of articles in opposition to the Sub-Treasury plan. In 1853, during the discussion of the Massachusetts Constitution, the Letters of Phocion, written by George William Curtis, were printed in the "Advertiser" and also in the "Courier." No paper reviewed more carefully and comprehensively the Presidential messages. As late as 1876 the "Springfield Republican" was saying that the "Advertiser," "the most extreme of Republican party papers," was "very gravely question- ing the rightfulness of the action of the Louisiana Board" in the Hayes- Tilden contest. Two years before the Springfield daily had said that the "New York Times," the "Boston Advertiser," and the "Chicago Tribune"
515
THE PRESS
were the leading Republican papers, respectively, of the country, of New England, and of the West.
Always a blanket sheet, the "Advertiser," after the great fire in 1872, added a column to its broad pages and became the largest folio in New England. On July 5, 1881, however, the Monday after President Garfield was shot, the paper came out as a quarto, printed from "an improved Bullock press." Two "Advertiser" buildings have stood on historic ground, one on the site of the office where Franklin learned his trade, the other the "marble-front building," as it was called, on the site of the dwelling and shop of John Campbell of "News Letter" fame. A terrible calamity befel the paper on the evening of March 15, 1901, when a fire started in the press room, leaped upwards through the elevator well, and filled the composing room on the top floor with dense smoke. The stair- way could not be used on account of this blinding blanket, a skylight to the roof was found to be jammed, and it was quite by chance that the trapped printers happened on a window opening to a fire escape, which led to an adjoining roof. Three compositors were burned to death. All the papers of the city offered their aid and the offer of the "Globe" was accepted. The paper removed its plant from 246 Washington Street across to No. 309, and there it remained until its acquisition by the Hearst interests.
Last, but not least, let there be noted the thrill with which one who looks over the old files stumbles on the poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, which saved the frigate "Constitution" from destruction. "Old Iron- sides" was printed in the "Advertiser" of September 16, 1830, two days after the simple paragraph had announced the intention of the govern- ment to scrap the famous vessel.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar ;- The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more !
When Parson Wilbur, the supposititious editor of the Biglow papers, in August, 1847, forwarded "a letter from Mr. Birdofredom Sawin, a pri- vate in the Massachusetts Regiment," to the editor of the "Boston Courier," he thus expressed his opinion of the Hon. Joseph Tinker Buckingham :
send It to mister Buckinum, ses he, i don't ollers agree with him, ses he, but by Time, ses he, I du like a feller that ain't aFeared.
Presumably this dictum represents the opinion of James Russell Lowell. It serves, in any event, to introduce us to a strong personality,
516
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
of whom mention already has been made in connection with the "Galaxy." His first independent venture was a little monthly with the pretentious title of "The Polyanthos," each number containing about seventy pages of "literary" productions. The "Galaxy" followed in 1817. Bucking- ham's real contribution to the history of Boston journalism was the founding of the "Courier," a daily with which he was connected for twenty-four years. Like Nathan Hale he mixed in many public matters. He served for a decade in the Legislature. He rendered the student a distinct service by the compilation of two works of value on the news- papers and editors of his day. Not infrequently he wielded the pen of a common scold. But he was quite capable of magnanimity. For instance, John Quincy Adams, in 1839, "had an afternoon visit from Mr. Bucking- ham. . ... He was for many years one of the bitterest political enemies and opponents that I ever had in the world. . ... He came to me in per- son [at Adams's desk in the House of Representatives at Washington, in 1837], offered me his friendship, and assured me I should never more see in his paper anything personally offensive to me. He has kept his word and with more than uniform kindness."
For eleven years after the founding of the "Advertiser" there was but one daily newspaper of any consequence in Boston. Then Bucking- ham made his bid for public support with the "Courier" on March I, 1824. It began with a subscription list of 200 and a subscription price of $8. The majority of the people considered the establishment of another daily "a reckless experiment." But its proprietor was both plucky and audacious. He kept going and finally attained a degree of security, which, however, he was not able to retain to the end. His sons helped him. One died at an early age, after having served for two years as Washington correspondent. The other, also Joseph, acted as assistant and sometimes as sole editor for almost a score of years. The father resigned his editorship in 1848, largely on account of his loyalty to Web- ster in those time of fierce political strife. The "Courier" was a Whig paper and the Whigs had nominated Taylor for the Presidency. The paper ran Buckingham's valedictory on June 24.
Samuel Kettell, whose humorous articles under such names as "Peep- ing Tom" and "Timothy Titterwell" had been popular, succeeded to the editorship. Meantime, in 1836, Buckingham had sold a third interest in the paper to Eben B. Foster, and in 1840 he had parted with a larger frac- tion and thus had relinquished control. After his retirement E. B. Foster & Company managed the business until 1859. Kettell died in 1855 and Isaac W. Frye followed him in the sanctum. When Foster & Company sold the property the paper was published in succession by John Clark & Company, Clark, Fellows & Company, and George Lunt & Company. Among the part owners were : E. W. Foster, a son of the former publisher,
517
THE PRESS
and George S. Hillard, Edward H. House, and Thomas Gill. Hillard was a law partner of Charles Sumner, and he had edited the "Christian Regis- ter" and the "Jurist." He is remembered as an orator and lover of books, and as a member of that group of friends, including Longfellow and Fel- ton, which the disrespectful called the "Mutual Admiration Society." He did the editorial work from early 1857 to April 23, 1861 ; his friend Palfrey stated that it "brought him little but disappointment and annoy- ance." George S. Lunt having for some time been associated with Hil- lard now conducted the paper alone for several years. He was a lawyer and public speaker with some knack for writing verses who had served as district attorney by appointment of President Taylor. His associa- tions had been with the political group known as the "Old Whigs" to whom the members of the new Republican party referred as "gentlemen who take their bitters regularly and vote the Democratic ticket occa- sionally." The patronage and influence of the paper declined rapidly in war time. The "Courier" adored McClellan. It incurred the wrath of John A. Andrew when he was a candidate for Governor in 1860. At one time it parodied a speech by Andrew in his home town of Hingham by an effusion entitled "At Hingham on the Brine." In 1861 William Lloyd Gar- rison pronounced George Lunt "the most virulent and disloyal journalist in New England." This may have been a Garrisonian extravagance, but in 1860 the "Courier" was the organ of the Bell and Everett party and thus increased its constituency to the South, and its general policy of opposition to the Government during the war made it obnoxious to the majority and hastened its fall. It was twice reduced in size. In January, 1865, it came out as the "Evening Courier," published by the Evening Courier Association, with Joseph B. Morse as its chief owner. In Janu- ary, 1866, it assumed another name, "The Daily Evening Commercial," with Mr. Morse as editor and Libby & Dennison as publishers. With the end of the year 1866 the daily came to an end, and a stock company was organized for its publication as a Sunday newspaper of the old- fashioned literary type.
For years it now was maintained chiefly by contributions from Ald- rich, Nathan Appleton and Theodore Child, Trowbridge and Shillaber, Lillian Whiting, Lucretia P. Hale, and Louise Chandler Moulton. The editors through this period were John W. Ryan and Warren L. Brigham. After them followed George Parsons Lathrop, son-in-law of Hawthorne, who was in office from 1877 to 1879; Arlo Bates, the poet, who was editor from 1880 to 1893, and Joseph R. Travers, who had been with the paper when it was a daily, then became publisher and principal owner.
Buckingham had founded the "Courier" on his faith in the tariff and the policy of internal improvements. For the development of the natural resources of the United States there were needed not only courage and
518
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
initiative, but protection against foreign competition. Especially should textile industries thus be shielded. At the outset his was a lonely voice. In time his tariff principles won. Webster helped him. Buckingham's loyalty to all the public acts of the Massachusetts Senator and his sup- port of all Webster's candidacies caused the "Courier" to be regarded generally as Webster's organ. The paper was firm in its approval of the seventh of March speech, expressing a willingness to endure slavery for the sake of National unity. But the "Courier" never was only a Webster- ian mouthpiece. Buckingham could not be a tractable party man. The "Courier's" tendency towards independence was largely responsible for the election of Edward Everett to Congress. It warmly advocated a new charter for the United States bank, while censuring the conduct of Nich- olas Biddle, yet the Biddle group of politicians were identified with the Whig party and the bank with its policies, and Webster was one of Bid- dle's friends. Garrison, in the early years of the paper, expressed his admiration for its "liberal conduct," but as we have seen he later changed his opinion.
Of several interesting features introduced in the paper by Bucking- ham the most important was the Department of Geoponics, devoted to the interests of the farmer and published once a week. But the founder of the "Courier" was not what would be called a good business man. He failed to collect his bills. In his reminiscences he estimates that for eighteen years there never was a time when the total sum due him was less than $10,000. Meantime he himself was compelled to borrow money, frequently at high interest rates. These facts account for the financial difficulties which necessitated the sale of the paper in part. At one time he placed his entire property in the hands of trustees and continued on a small salary as editor. With all his faults Buckingham was a capable journalist and fearless in the expression of his personality. Lowell's ver- dict is just. He was "a feller that ain't aFeared." It may be that the "Courier" is best remembered today for its publication of the Biglow Papers. In June, 1846, Lowell said in a letter to a friend : "You will find a squib of mine in this week's 'Courier.' I wish it to continue anonymous, for I wish Slavery to think it has as many enemies as possible. If I may judge from the number of persons who have asked me if I wrote it, I have struck the old bulk of the public between wind and water." That "squib" was the first of the Biglow Papers, published on June 17, 1846. One wonders why Lowell waited more than a year before Parson Wilbur forwarded a second article of the same kind. There then followed three more. Lowell, meantime, had begun his connection with the "Standard," and the other four of the nine papers were given to the public through that journal. The dates of publication were : In the "Courier", June 17,
519
THE PRESS
1846, August 18, November 2, December 28, 1847, May 3, 1848; in the "Standard," May 4, June I, July 6, September 28, 1848.
"Before the war" there were among the "Courier's" distinguished contributors Robert C. Winthrop, Rufus Choate, Caleb Cushing, William H. Prescott, George Ticknor, T. W. Parsons, and Benjamin R. Curtis, besides Webster and Everett. Lydia Maria Child printed her once famous "Letters from New York" in the "Courier." In 1853 Hillard printed therein his "Letters from Silas Standfast to his friend Jotham," dealing with the Constitution of Massachusetts.
Of all the newspapers which have been published in Boston none ever has fought more fiercely the political battles of its time than the old "Boston Atlas." "The lying 'Atlas'" it was dubbed by a rival sheet. It opposed and it abused every Democratic candidate for office. Alexander Everett, brother of the Governor, goes over from the Whig party to the Democracy ; he is "an unscrupulous renegade." Both he and George Bancroft are running for Congress; they are the "political Siamese-twin Benedict Arnolds." Every episode in the campaign of 1840 was distorted for the advantage of the Whigs. "True democracy" meant coon skins, log cabins, hard cider, and not much else. Morton and Henshaw were "trying bribery" in 1843. In 1852 Robert C. Winthrop said: "The 'Atlas' is a thorough-going Whig paper, energetic and impulsive, not always cautious but always courageous. Many things in it have at times displeased many of its friends, but on the whole no paper has been more devoted to the Whig cause."
The "Atlas" was designed from the beginning to stand for "the good principles and sound and sober Republicanism of the old Massachusetts School." It announced its intention "to be above all a political paper." It "could not boast much friendship for the present Chief Magistrate of the Nation." Examination of its pages fails to find any friendship at all for Andrew Jackson. In its third issue there was placed at the top of the editorial column: "For President-Henry Clay of Kentucky; for Vice- President-John Sergeant of Pennsylvania." "To Mr. Clay are the eyes of the wise, the good, and the patriotic now turned as their political Saviour." In the summer of 1834 Caleb Cushing, with the help of Rufus Choate, pulled enough strings to induce the "Atlas" to become a fervent advocate of the Presidential aspirations of Webster. Some years after the paper found itself in a painful dilemma respecting Cushing. From the outset it had stood for the "American system" as to the tariff. But when President Tyler vetoed the tariff bills and Cushing strove to justify the vetoes the "Atlas" finally said: "He [Cushing] began by vascillation [sic.] and has ended in apostasy." For years the paper was almost ven- omous in its tirades against John Quincy Adams. It really set the tone
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.