A "Blanket Sheet" on the Cheap Press. 425

in 1834. It was more directly the organ of the mechanics than any of its predecessors. They were simply local news reporters. Evans's aspirations were higher. He had published the Workingman's Advocate for several years, and was radically progressive in his ideas, but had not quite reached the point of perfection of Prudhomme. Both Lynde and Stanley, of the Transcript, had been connected with him as printers and publishers of the Advocate; and they had also published an evening paper, the New York Daily Sentinel, in 1830, '31, and '32, a paper which had previously been edited and published by James Gordon Brooks and Edward V. Sparhawk. Evans carried it on alone in 1833. In 1834 he started the Man, with the Working-man's Advocate as its weekly issue. It became a radical political paper, and was published a year or two.

Thus the Cheap Press sprung into existence, and since 1833 over a hundred one and two cent daily papers have been started in New York City alone. Where are they now? These cheap papers did not make any decided impression on the public mind, or excite the jealousy or attract the attention of the larger papers till 1835. The establishment of the Herald in that year began a new era in their career. On the 29th of June, 1835, one of the "blanket sheets," the Journal of Commerce, always the most liberal of that class of papers, with commendable fairness and honesty thus truthfully and philosophically described the Penny Press of that day:

PENNY PAPERS.

It is but three or four years since the first Penny Paper was established. Now there are half a dozen or more of them in this city, with an aggregate circulation of twenty or thirty thousand, and perhaps more. These issues exceed those of the large papers, and, for aught we see, they are conducted with as much talent, and in point of moral character we think candidly they are superior to their sixpenny contemporaries. By observing the course of these papers, we have been led to regard them as quite an accession to the moral and intellectual machinery among us. The number of newspaper readers is probably doubled by their influence, and they circulate as pioneers among those classes who have suffered greatly from want of general intelligence. Let all classes of the community but read, and they will think, and almost, of course, will become less entirely the dupes of designing individuals. There is hardly any thing which his Holiness of Rome has more reason to be afraid of than the Penny Papers. Those who have read them will, as a natural consequence, come more or less to the commission of the execrable offense of forming opinions for themselves. But for the subserviency which, from the nature of their circulation, they are compelled to exercise towards Trades Unions and such like humbug affairs, we see not why the effect of the little papers should not be almost wholly good. They are less partisan in politics than the large papers, and more decidedly American, with one or two exceptions. The manner in which their pecuniary affairs are conducted shows how much may come of small details. They are circulated on the London plan, the editors and publishers doing no more than to complete the manufacture of the papers, when they are sold to the newsmen or carriers at 67 cents per 100. The carriers distribute the papers, and on Saturday collect from each subscriber six cents, so that for each call their net income to the carriers is but one third of a cent. We wish our penny associates all success, hoping that they will grow wise, good, and great, until they make every sixpenny paper ashamed that tells a lie, or betrays its country for the sake of party, or does any other base thing.

There was only one paper, we think, that was ever regularly published in New York at a cheaper rate than these Penny Papers; that paper was the Citizen. It was the organ of the Citizens' Association, at the head of which is Peter Cooper. It was the object and purpose of this association to reform the abuses of the public authorities of the metropolis. Its members were rich and publicspirited, and what they had in view was commendable and praiseworthy. No doubt the city needed, and always will need, looking after, as the frightful exposures of the Times in 1871 fully proved. But none of the newspapers in existence at that time were of any use to these reformers. None of the editors would trust them. In order to enlighten the people under these circumstances, and show where the trouble was, they published the Citizen, and had it distributed gratuitously. When Hercules undertook his stupendous jobs, he had no newspaper to help him; but Hercules did not live in New York, and printing had not been discovered. Peter Cooper, the modern Hercules, and his associates, needed an organ. But Americans have an idea that if any thing is worth having, it is worth paying for; hence no one would read a paper that was regularly served to them for nothing. The Citizen was too cheap. It, therefore, had no influence. It was used for wrapping-paper. After a while, and after the war, Charles G. Halpine, so familiarly known as Miles O'Reilly, was induced to take hold of the concern and write for the paper. Speaking of the enterprise to a friend, he said it was a freepaper-given away-or rather thrown away. "What do you think

of the plan? What shall I do with it?" asked Miles. "Don't give away another copy. Don't throw away your brains, my dear boy. Sell your paper, if you only sell three copies, and you will have three readers at any rate," was the reply. Two cents per copy were afterwards charged for the Citizen, and Miles O'Reilly's contributions made it known and read. Thomas M'Elrath, formerly of the Tribune, managed its business affairs for a while for the brilliant Halpine, who was as innocent and as ignorant as a babe in such matters. It was afterwards, with the Round Table, owned by Robert B. Roosevelt, M. C. from New York.

Many of the papers issued after the Sun, such as the Herald, Tribune, Times, and World in New York, began at one cent; but as they expanded and increased in circulation, enterprise, and ability, they advanced their price and their value. These journals thus passed the transition state, and became permanent and powerful institutions. They have educated the present race of journalists, and as these modern men of the Press increase in number and ability the old party papers cease to exist, and more able, more independent, and more influential journals take their place. This process, which

really commenced in 1829 and '30, is still going on in all parts of the country.

In the origin of the Cheap Press its owners were mostly printers. They were practical men. They had worked in the old party newspaper offices, and had had their joke and their moral over the articles they had put in type. This was their journalistic experience. They had no very comprehensive ideas of newspapers. New ideas did not often appear where they worked. They knew that local news was always interesting. Village gossip had taught them this. They saw in the coffee-houses, bar-rooms, theatres, hotels, boardinghouses, and streets that politics and local affairs were the staples of conversation. Politics had sustained the old Party Press and had become a tyranny. It was not, therefore, considered safe, in a business point of view, to meddle with the exciting element. So the Cheap Press commenced with local matters, with small-talk, with items from exchange papers, and with advertisements. Beyond these, in their early life, they had no enterprise. Want of money, too, made all things difficult. But journalists with brains and boldness were making their appearance, and meanwhile the small papers were performing their part in the revolution. Young writers and reporters, with active minds, educated as newspaper politicians and statesmen, began to get restive on the old party papers and under selfish dictation. They were seeking a change and a chance for expansion, and we have seen the result in the establishment of the Independent Press in 1835, and, with enlarged views and more comprehensive ideas, becoming, in the future, the great palladium of the people.

The Penny Paper, therefore, marks an important epoch in journalism; and thus the News-Letter as the pioneer of newspapers in America, the Sun as the pioneer of the Penny Press, and the Herald as the pioneer of the Independent Press, form remarkable eras in the intellectual development of the United States, and are a study for the philosopher and historian.

THE SIXTH EPOCH.

1835-1872.

THE INDEPENDENT PRESS.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE NEW YORK HERALD.

-

JAMES GORDON BENNETT, SENIOR. HOW HE STARTED THE HERALD. — IT CAME WITH STEAM-BOATS AND RAILROADS.-ORIGIN OF THE MONEY ARTICLES.-NEWS AGENCIES AND NEWS COMPANIES.-OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. THE EXTRADITION TREATY.-THE CASH SYSTEM.-SAM. HOUSTON AND TEXAS. AMOS KENDALL AND NICHOLAS BIDDLE. PERSONAL ASSAULTS.-ILLUSTRATIONS AND WAR MAPS.-THE RELIGIOUS ANNIVERSARY MEETINGS.-OPPOSITION OF THE CLERGY.-HARBOR NEWS ARRANGEMENTS. VISIT TO EUROPE.-EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.-THE HARRISON HARD-CIDER CAMPAIGN.

"Is it true that five hundred dollars started the New York Herald?"

This question has often been asked. It is evident that this capital alone could not have accomplished such a result. But five hundred dollars, in the condition of the Press at that time, with the tact, experience, ability, and vigor of previous years of persistent industry and application, achieved this important work. With all these mental and physical elements in full strength, however, it would now require a cash capital of five hundred thousand dollars to establish a newspaper that could successfully compete with the leading journals which are published to-day in the metropolis. Indeed, without any extra effort in the expenditure of money in newspaper enterprise, such a capital as that even would hardly suffice for the purpose of fairly and hopefully entering the lists in New York City against the wealthy and well-organized journals in full prosperity there. One paper of that city, which ranks as the fourth or fifth in circulation and advertisements, sunk over two hundred thousand dollars in reaching a permanent position; and in regard to the value of a leading newspaper, several offers have been made for the purchase of the Herald, ranging from one to two millions of dollars.

The question, therefore, at the beginning of this chapter was a pertinent one.

The Initial Number of the Herald.

429

With a nominal cash capital of five hundred dollars the New York Herald was established, and the Independent Press inaugurated. But the real capital of the concern was in the brains of its founder. With twelve or fifteen years of active application and close observation in manners, politics, and society in New York, Albany, and Washington, and in the newspaper offices of the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, the National Advocate, the Sunday Courier, the New York Enquirer, the Morning Courier and Enquirer, the New York Globe, and the Pennsylvanian, as reporter, correspondent, assistant editor, editor, and owner, he was prepared for such a paper as the New York Herald. Journalism had become a science with him, and this science he applied in building up the greatest newspaper establishment in the world.

On Wednesday morning, the 6th of May, 1835, the initial number of the Morning Herald was issued by James Gordon Bennett & Co. from the basement room of No. 20 Wall Street, New York. Autobiographically the editor, in 1845, thus described the process through which he passed in reaching this point in his career. This sketch was brought out by the publication of the Mackenzie pamphlet containing the famous Jesse Hoyt correspondence:

I commenced my connection with the newspaper press of New York in the year 1824. From that period to 1827 or 1828 I had no particular predilection or fancy for political matters. I wrote, and reported, and furnished articles for several papers with which I was connected, but it was not till 1828 or 1829 that I became intimately associated with the movements of the Van Buren or Jackson Party of that day, and that connection was effected without any violation of principle-without any improper conduct-without any thing disreputable to myself as a man of independence and honorable feeling. The letters published by Mackenzie refer to two periods of my life-the first embracing my connection with the Van Buren Party in 1829, when I was negotiating an arrangement with Webb in relation to a position with the Courier and Enquirer. I consulted and compared notes, and looked on all these matters with Hoyt and his associates, nor was there any thing improper or unbecoming in any of these sayings and doings. I became connected with the Courier during that year, 1829, and my connection with it continued till 1832, when I abandoned it in consequence of its abandonment of General Jackson and his administration. I then removed to Philadelphia, purchased an interest in the Pennsylvanian there, and commenced a movement for the purpose of elevating Mr. Van Buren to the succession after General Jackson's second term. In all these movements and matters I was open, aboveboard, frank, without any reservation or equivocation. In my newspaper operations in Philadelphia I wanted a loan of some money, and I very naturally turned my attention to the friends I had left in New York, whose cause I was advocating, and who sympathized with my movements. Hence the correspondence that took place between Jesse Hoyt and myself, and hence, after a time, the issue of it as there seen, which ended without effecting any thing at all. My own personal friends, however, supplied me with the funds, which were repaid at the proper time, and I still went on supporting Mr. Van Buren and his cause in Pennsylvania. It is, of course, very easily explained why Mr. Van Buren and his friends, knowing that they had treated me very badly, could not conceive how I could entertain any feeling of friendship for them, and they very meanly and seeretly went to work to create a difficulty with me in Philadelphia, and ultimately to produce an explosion between my partners and myself, which ended my connection with that paper, and also my connection with the Van Buren Party.