Henry Jarvis Raymond
Henry Jarvis Raymond (24 January 1820–1869) was a founder of the New York Times. He was an American journalist and politician born in Livingston County New York, New York. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1840. After graduating from college, Raymond assisted Horace Greeley in publishing several newspapers. Then in 1951 Raymond founded the New York Times. He was the newspaper's editor and chief proprietor until his death in New York City.
Journalistic career
Raymond began his journalistic career on Greeley's New Yorker, working as a staff journalist. After writing for Greeley's New Yorker, Raymond started James Bennett's working as an assistant editor for the Tribune, (a newspaper that Greeley owned) in 1841. In 1843, Raymond left the Tribune and began writing for the Courier and Enquirer.
Editorially, Raymond sought a compromise between Greely's open partisanship and Bennett's party-neutrality. In the first issue of the Times Raymond announced his purpose to write in temperate and measured language, and to control his emotions in his writing. "There are few things in this world which it is worth while to get angry about; and they are just the things anger will not improve." In controversy he meant to avoid abusive language. His editorials were generally cautious, impersonal, and finished in form.
New York State politics
As Raymond matured as a journalist, his political opinions diverged from Greeley's political philosophy. The split in their relationship intensified in 1849, when Raymond was elected to the state assembly by the Whigs. His nomination over Greeley on the Whig ticket for New York lieutenant-governor in 1854 led to the dissolution of the political firm of Seward, Weed and Greeley. Raymond was a member of the New York Assembly in 1850 and 1851, and in the latter year was Speaker. In 1854, Raymond was elected lieutenant-governor of the state. At this time, he actively sought to organize the new Republican party, by supporting Abraham Lincoln's candidacy for President.
Raymond played a major role in the formation of the new Republican party. Raymond drafted the Address to the People adopted by the Republican organizing convention which met in Pittsburgh on 22 February 1856. In 1862, he was again Speaker of the New York Assembly.
National politics
During the Civil War, Raymond supported Lincoln's policies in general, but protested his delays in aggressively prosecuting the war.[citation needed] He was among the first to urge the adoption of a broad and liberal post-war attitude toward the people of the South and opposed the Radical Republicans who wanted harsher measures against the South. In 1865, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention, and was made Chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1865–67.
On 22 December 1865, he attacked Thaddeus Stevens' theory of the dead states (in which states that had seceded were not to be restored to their former status in the Union), and, agreeing with the President, argued that the states were never out of the Union, in as much as the ordinances of secession were null. Raymond authored the Address and Declaration of Principles issued by the Loyalist (or National Union) Convention at Philadelphia in August 1866. His attack on Stevens and his prominence at the Loyalist Convention caused him to lose favor with the Republican party. He was removed from the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 1866, and in 1867 his nomination as minister to Austria, which he had already refused, was rejected by the Senate.
He retired from public life in 1867 and devoted his time to newspaper work until his death in New York City in 1869.
Journalistic career
Raymond began his journalistic career on Greeley's New Yorker , working as a staff journalist. Raymond gained further experience editing when he started James Bennett's working as an assistant editor for the Tribune, (a newspaper that Greeley owned) in 1941. In 1843, Raymond left the Tribune and began writing for the Courier and Enquirer. As Raymond matured as a journalist, his political opinions began to diverge from Greeley's political philosophy. The split in their relationship intensified in 1849, when Raymond was elected to the state assembly by the Whigs. Then, with the help of friends, Raymond raised one hundred thousand dollars capital (a hundred times what Greely staked on the Tribune ten years earlier) and founded the New York Times on 18 September, 1851.
Editorially, Raymond sought a compromise between Greely's open partisanship and Bennett's party-neutrality. In the first issue of the Times Raymond announced his purpose to write in temperate and measured language, and to control his emotions in his writing. "There are few things in this world which it is worth while to get angry about; and they are just the things anger will not improve." In controversy he meant to avoid abusive language. His editorials were generally cautious, impersonal, and finished in form.
Raymond was an able public speaker; one of his best known speeches was a greeting to Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth, whose cause he defended.
Legacy
During his lifetime, Henry Jarvis Raymond created the New York Times, which remains today as one of the most prominent newspapers in the world. Through his creation of the newspaper and his political actions to found the Republican abolitionist party, Raymond influenced the course of events in American history.
Major works
In addition to the his work with the New York Times, he wrote books including:
- A Life of Daniel Webster (1853)
- Political Lessons of the Revolution (1854)
- Letters to Mr. Yancey (1860)
- A History of the Administration of President Lincoln (1864)
- The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln (1865)
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Augustus Maverick, Henry J. Raymond and the New York Press for Thirty Years (Hartford, 1870)
- Davis, Elmer. History of the New York Times, 1851-1921 (1921)
- Dicken-Garcia, Hazel. Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America (1989)
- Douglas, George H. The Golden Age of the Newspaper (1999)
- Sloan, W. David and James D. start. The Gilded Age Press, 1865-1900 (2003)
- Summers, Mark Wahlgren.The Press Gang: Newspapers and Politics, 1865-1878 (1994)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article also copies from Newspapers, 1775 – 1860 by Frank W. Scott (1917), which is also in the public domain
External links
Credits
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