HOW IT WAS STARTED.-ITS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.-TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS LOST IN THE ENTERPRISE. ITS CHANGE OF BASE. - ITS UNION WITH THE COURIER AND ENQUIRER. THE BOGUS PROCLAMATION. -SUSPENSION OF THE WORLD BY THE GOVERNMENT.-ITS REAPPEARANCE AND MANIFESTO. - REPUDIATION OF SEYMOUR AND BLAIR.-THE LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE PAPER. - ITS ENTERPRISE.-MANTON MARBLE, ITS EDITOR.

THE New York World appeared in June, 1860. Why was it started? What has it accomplished?

The Herald, Tribune, and Times were active and had large circulations. The Journal of Commerce, the Courier and Enquirer, the News, the Sun, and the Express were published every morning; the Commercial Advertiser, Evening Post, and Express appeared every evening. They represented all classes apparently; where was the place for the World?

It was at this period that the Times, Herald, and Tribune had become representative papers. The Herald had its own community of readers, and the Tribune its peculiar class; the Times represented the juste milieu. It was thought that these famous journals met the wants of the community; and if not, the remaining papers, the staid Journal of Commerce, the impulsive Courier, the semi-religious Commercial, the poetic and free-trade Post, the plebeian Sun, and the democratic News would meet any deficiency. But all the journalists of that day were in error. What was wanted was a daily religious paper-a daily moral paper-to give all the news, to shut out the wretched criminal police reports, to ignore the slander-suits and prurient divorce cases; not to shock the public with the horrid details of murders, but to give the news, such as ought to satisfy any reasonable being-indeed, it was to publish a paper conducted on high moral principles, excluding advertisements of theatres, as the Tribune for a time had done; excluding all improper matter, as the Times for a time had done; and giving all the news, as the Herald always had done.

With this high purpose in view, a large sum of money was subscribed by some of the best men in the metropolis. Alexander Cummings, formerly of the North American, and afterwards of the

Evening Bulletin, of Philadelphia, was selected as its manager. He had evidently full powers. He was editor plenipotentiary and journalist extraordinary in this new enterprise. His chief assistant was James R. Spalding, a classmate of Henry J. Raymond, and for some time a writer on the Courier and Enquirer. He was a tall, dignified, scholarly editor. Hoe made one of his fastest lightning presses for the new establishment. The splendid new building on the block with the Times was leased. One of the largest and most dangerous looking signs ever seen was erected on its roof. Park Row and Beekman Street were excavated for deep vaults for press-room and paper-room. Besides all this, the new concern unwisely became a member of the Associated Press. Editors and reporters were engaged. All the arrangements were made and completed, and one bright morning in 1860 the World made its appearance.

It was a dignified and a moral sheet. When we take the religious statistics of New York City into consideration, we find a religious community large enough to support such a paper as the World was intended to be, and to support it handsomely-magnificently; but it lacked something; it did not fill the eye of the religious portion of the public; they would look at the World, but they would not go to bed without reading the Herald, or the Times, or the Tribune. There was evidently something wrong. What was it? The World had all the telegraphic and all the shipping intelligence that the other papers had, and, with its contemporaries, it had the world, physically and mentally, before it-as full of events, as full of news, as full of meat, in a word, as an oyster. But the universal world was Pandora's box to the New York World. It refused to give any details of the evils that filled the box, and waited patiently and expensively for the appearance of that sleeping beauty, Hope, which was so snugly and cosily coiled up at the bottom.

Two hundred thousand dollars, it was maintained, were spent in the effort to make the World a success. Those who subscribed this money became disgusted. No wonder they did. Alexander Cummings became not only disgusted, but he afterwards became Governor of Wyoming Territory. The World changed hands. It then became a secular paper-a worldly World, and has not since deviated from its new path. The Herald, after this, in speaking of its three contemporaries, called them "the world, the flesh, and the devil."

No better men than the originators of this paper ever lived. They wished to inculcate sound principles and sound morals among the masses. Their intentions were excellent, but difficult to carry out. Colonel Cummings was a journalist of great experience in Philadelphia; he was educated under the wing of the Hon. Simon Cam

Union of the World and Courier and Enquirer. 669

eron; he was shrewd, active, intelligent; every one supposed that, if any one knew the requirements of a first-class paper, he did ; but he failed. The Tribune was started on high moral grounds; so was the Times; but the managers of these papers found that they could not ignore the facts of the day. They live. So it was with the World; but its financial supporters, in the fullness of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, would not consent to a change of policy in that paper for all the pecuniary gain in the world. They preferred to sink the two hundred thousand dollars. Their motto was Principles with Principal, or nothing.

On the 1st of July, 1861, the World and the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer were united, and appeared on that morning under the double name of the two papers. The Courier and Enquirer of the 27th of June, 1861, thus announced its partial disappearance from the field of journalism:

TO THE PUBLIC.

On Monday, July 1st, the Courier and Enquirer will change its form from folio to the more popular quarto shape. This change of issue we have long had in contemplation, having several years since advanced so far in that direction as to cause a portion of the necessary machinery for such a change to be prepared, but the advice of timid friends dissuaded us. The intended change will not affect our business relations with advertisers in any respect, except that, for the future, their favors will have the important advantage of an immensely increased circulation. Our advertising and publication office will continue, as heretofore, at No. 162 Pearl Street; and in the absence of the senior editor, General Webb, from the country, he will be represented by his son, Mr. Robert S. Webb, who has been actively connected with the Courier and Enquirer for the last twelve years, and who has justly won the reputation of being the equal of any associate editor ever employed on the Courier and Enquirer.

*

***

* Fashions change, and so do the tastes of the public; and in nothing has this change been more apparent than in regard to newspapers. The folio form of the Courier and Enquirer is less attractive than formerly, and a very large majority of the public demand cheap newspapers, which may be purchased at the corners of the streets and upon every thoroughfare of the country. We have long felt the necessity of conforming to this change in public taste, but, in consequence of the number of competitors already in the field, we have hesitated to make an experiment which would necessarily involve a very large outlay of capital, and greatly increased labor in the mechanical department of the paper. We are happy to announce, however, that we have completed an arrangement with the World newspaper, which, while it accomplishes in a single day all that we have desired, secures to the readers of the Courier and Enquirer, and all who favor us with their advertisements, every advantage which energy, enterprise, and an enormous outlay of capital could have promised them. In one word, from and after the 1st day of July, the Courier and Enquirer and the World become one newspaper, and will be published as the World and Courier and Enquirer in the form and on the terms and conditions of the World.

We need not dwell on the advantages of this union to the readers, and the friends and advertisers of the Courier and Enquirer. There is not one of them who would not greatly rejoice to know that we had received an addition of some THIRTY THOUSAND to our subscription list, and it certainly would not be cause of regret to them that the price of subscription to the joint paper is, at the same time, reduced more than a third. And such is precisely the intelligence which we this morning have the pleasure to communicate.

The leading feature of the Courier and Enquirer has been its identification with the commercial interests of our city, and for years past the question has been

asked, Why can you not combine the benefits of the sale papers and their extended circulation with your peculiar commercial character? We have always admitted the necessity of such a Press, and have repeatedly promised that, when practicable, it should be furnished, and we indulge the hope that that promise is about to be redeemed. Most assuredly there shall be no faltering on our part to render our commercial department even more attractive than it heretofore has been, and, to accomplish this object, great additional labor will be expended in condensing in the smallest possible space every species of information which has heretofore rendered this department of our paper so acceptable to every class of readers. We pledge ourselves to the readers of the Courier and Enquirer, and to the public at large, that whatever may be the shortcomings of the joint newspaper in other respects, its commercial character shall not only be sustained, but, if possible, improved. We flatter ourselves, however, that, with the combined talent of the two papers, "The World and Courier and Enquirer" will in all respects commend itself to the intelligent reader as being at least equal in every department to its enterprising rivals, at the same time that it will sustain and advance the reputation which has been honestly won by the Courier and Enquirer, of being the leading commercial newspaper in the Union.

Thus passed away one more of the "blanket sheets"-one more of the "respectable sixpenny" papers-one more of the old class of newspapers in the metropolis, to become another of the reviled cheap papers, verifying the prediction of Snowden that "Raymond would not be satisfied till he saw the Courier and Enquirer a twocent paper."

These absorptions of newspapers are not always beneficial to the absorber. Of the papers now in existence, the Herald, Tribune, Times, Sun, and Evening Post never bought out or took in other papers as a means of success. The Journal of Commerce, Evening Express, and Commercial Advertiser have done so. The old Gazette was merged with the Journal, the old Daily Advertiser with the Express, and the Evening Star with the Commercial. The World is now made up of the Morning Courier, the New York Enquirer, the New York American, and Weekly Argus, these five in one-the World and Courier and Enquirer; but, finally, with a determination to stand alone in its glory, it quietly dropped the latter name, and sensibly adheres to that of The World alone.

There was a lamentable episode in the career of the World, which occurred in 1864, that gave it a marked position with the conservative portion of the community. It was one of those events that will happen in any age and in any country, and, in fact, was of little real consequence, as it afterwards proved, as the forged proclamation, the cause of the suspension of the World and Journal of Commerce, at that time merely antedated a few weeks a bona fide proclamation of similar purport. The suspension of these journals was “an untoward event," and was a mistake, or rather a blunder, of Secretary Stanton. It is our duty to place on record the letter of the editor of the World which he addressed to the President on resuming the publication of his paper. Historically and journalistically it is a communication of importance:

The Bogus Proclamation.

671

SIR,-"That the king can do no wrong" is the theory of a monarchy. It is the theory of a constitutional republic that its chief magistrate may do wrong. In the former the ministry are responsible for the king's acts. In the latter the President is responsible for the acts of his ministers. Our Constitution admits that the President may err in providing for a judgment upon his doings by the people in regular elections. In providing for his impeachment, it admits that he may be guilty of crimes.

In a government of laws and not of men, the most obscure citizen may without indecorum address himself to the chief magistrate when to the Constitution whence you derive your temporary power, and he the guarantee of his perpetual rights, he has constantly paid his unquestioning loyalty, and when to the laws, which your duty is to care for a faithful execution of, he has rendered entire obedience.

If the matter of his address be that in his person, property, and rights the Constitution has been disregarded and the laws disobeyed; if its appeal to the principles of justice be no more earnest than the solicitude of its regard for truth, and if the manner of his address be no less temperate than firm, he does not need courtly phrases to propitiate an attentive hearing from a magistrate who loves his country, her institutions, and her laws.

In the World of last Wednesday morning was published a proclamation, purporting to be signed by your excellency, and countersigned by the Secretary of State, appointing a day of fasting and prayer, and calling into military service, by volunteering and draft, four hundred thousand citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. That proclamation was a forgery, written by a person who, ever since your departure from Springfield to Washington in 1861, has enjoyed private as well as public opportunities for learning to counterfeit the peculiarities of your speech and style, and whose service for years as a city editor of the New York Times and upon the New York Tribune acquainted him with the entire newspaper machinery of the city, and enabled him to insert his clever forgery into the regular channels by which we receive news at a time when competent inspection of its genuineness was impossible, and suspicion of its authenticity was improbable. The manifold paper, resembling in all respects that upon which we nightly receive from our agents news, and from the government itself orders, announcements, and proclamations, was left with a night clerk about 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, after the departure of every responsible editor, and was at once passed into the hands of the printers, put in type, and published. No newspaper in the country but would have been deceived as we were.

Our misfortune was complete. At an early hour, however, before the business of the city had fairly begun, it was discovered that we had been imposed upon, and were being made to appear the instruments of a deception of the public. There was no delay in vindicating our character. Our whole machinery for spreading news was set in motion instantly to announce that we had been deceived by a forgery that your excellency had issued no proclamation. The sale of papers over our counters was stopped. Our bundles to the Scotia, bound for Europe that day, were stopped. The owners' and purser's files were stopped. News-room bundles and files were stopped, and the agent of the line was informed that the proclamation was a forgery. Our printers and pressmen were brought from their homes and beds to put in type and publish the news of our misfortune. Our bulletin-boards were placarded with the offer of reward for the discovery of the forger; and to the agent of the Associated Press I sent a telegram reciting all the facts, for him to transmit at once to nearly every daily paper in the North, from Maine to California. Thus, before the Scotia sailed-before your Secretary of State had officially branded the forgery, the wings which we had given to Truth had enabled her to outstrip every where the falsehood we had unwittingly set on foot, and in many places the truth arrived before the forger had come to tell his tale.

For any injury done to ourselves, to the government, or to the public, this publicity was ample antidote. It, indeed, made injury impossible.

But the insult to your excellency was the greater in proportion to the eminence of your station. Early in the afternoon of Wednesday, therefore, I went with Mr. Wm. C. Prime, the chief editor of the Journal of Commerce, which had been deceived precisely as we were, to the head-quarters of the Department of the East,