BENNETT, JAMES G. 



63 



as well as those of Scott and the Lake School 

 of poets, and wrote very fair sentimental poe- 

 try himself. But the book which seems to 

 have exerted the greatest influence upon his 

 subsequent career was the Autobiography of 

 Benjamin Franklin, then just published in Scot- 

 land. This seems to have determined him to 

 emigrate to this country. Without money or 

 friends, or even a definite purpose, he sailed 

 for America in April, 1819, to seek his fortune, 

 and landed at Halifax. He had less than 

 twenty-five dollars in his purse, and knew no 

 better way of earning more than by teaching 

 book-keeping. Halifax had no use for the 

 young Scotchman, and, after a few months of 

 hardship, he made his way along the coast to 

 Portland, and thence embarked for Boston in 

 a schooner. He wandered hungry about the 

 streets for two days without food, looking for 

 work. His first employment was as salesman 

 in the shop of a man named Wells, and after- 

 ward as proof-reader in the publishing-house 

 of Wells & Lilly, then the publishers of the 

 North American Review. When the firm went 

 into bankruptcy, he came to New York, about 

 1822, and found work as an occasional con- 

 tributor to some of the newspapers. Journal- 

 ism, however, in those days was a beggarly 

 resource for occasional contributors; and 

 hence we find him accepting gladly the offer 

 of Mr. Edmund Morford, of Charleston, to be- 

 come Spanish translator and general assistant 

 in the office of the Charleston Courier. He 

 did not remain there very long, though he 

 always expressed a great liking for Charleston 

 and its people. Having returned to New York 

 about 1824, he advertised a "permanent Com- 

 mercial School," to be opened at 148 Fulton 

 Street ; but he had so few pupils that it proved 

 temporary instead of " permanent." He next 

 commenced a course of lectures (which were 

 very poorly attended), at the Old Dutch 

 Church in Ann Street, on Political Economy ; 

 and, these resources failing, he again turned to 

 the newspapers, as reporter, paragraphist, 

 poet, and general-utility man. In 1825 he 

 bought the Sunday Courier on credit ; but he 

 made nothing with it, and soon gave it up. 

 The next year he became connected with the 

 Democratic National Advocate, and, when that 

 journal, having changed hands, advocated the 

 election of John Quincy Adams as against 

 Jackson, he left it, and joined the late M. M. 

 Noah, as associate-editor of the Enquirer, suc- 

 ceeding W. G. Graham, who had been killed 

 in a duel. The new associate was at that 

 time, and ever afterward, a non-resistant on 

 principle, with supreme contempt for the cow- 

 ardice of the duellist. He began to inter- 

 est himself strongly in party politics. He 

 joined the Tammany Society. That cynical 

 spirit, which was so conspicuous in his writ- 

 ings during his whole subsequent career, was 

 already a characteristic of his style. He looked 

 at all great movements, all conflicts of princi- 

 ple, from the point of view of an outside ob- 



server, who found it for his business interests 

 to espouse either one side or the other, but 

 had no real sympathy with either. In 1828 he 

 was in Washington as correspondent of the 

 Enquirer, and it was in this capacity that he 

 made his first decided hit in his chosen profes- 

 sion. Beading Horace Walpole's letters in the 

 Library of Congress, he was inspired to attempt 

 a little newspaper correspondence in a some- 

 what similar vein, and the Enquirer soon ap- 

 peared with a series of lively personal letters, 

 sketching prominent characters, without, how- 

 ever, offensive freedom, and tickling the pub- 

 lic appetite with what was then a new sensa- 

 tion. The letters attracted notice, and were 

 extensively copied. Mr. Bennett's earnings at 

 this time, from correspondence, poems, police 

 reports, paragraphs, leading articles, and mis- 

 cellaneous sketches, ranged from five to twelve 

 dollars a week. The Enquirer, at his sugges- 

 tion, was consolidated soon afterward with 

 another paper, and the result was the Courier 

 and Enquirer, which, under James Watson 

 Webb, became the leading American newspa- 

 per of the time. For three years Bennett was 

 Webb's most efficient assistant. But on Au- 

 gust 18, 1832, the Courier and Enquirer aban- 

 doned Jackson for Nicholas Biddle ; the posi- 

 tive editor and his equally obstinate assistant 

 quarrelled, and the paper lost the services of 

 Mr. Bennett; "and in losing him," says Par- 

 ton, "lost its chance of retaining the suprema- 

 cy among American newspapers to this day." 

 He had not yet learned, however, the differ- 

 ence between a newspaper and a political or- 

 gan ; so, when he left General Webb, he start- 

 ed a cheap party-paper of the old style, de- 

 voted to the support of General Jackson and 

 Martin Van Buren. It lived only thirty days. 

 Then he carried the wreck of his savings to 

 Philadelphia, and placed them in a Jackson 

 paper called the Penmylvanian. He appealed 

 to the party for help, and they refused it. 

 " Van Buren has treated me in this matter," 

 wrote he, " as if I were a boy a child cold, 

 heartless, careless, and God knows what not." 

 He gave up the venture, and returned to New 

 York. He endeavored to get employment on 

 the Sun, but failed. It was a fortunate thing 

 for him that Van Buren had given him noth- 

 ing, and that the Sun rejected him ; for he re- 

 solved now to trust no more to politicians, and 

 the fruit of this resolve was the Herald. The 

 first number appeared on the 6th of May, 1835, 

 "price one cent, and for sale everywhere." It 

 was started without capital. Two young 

 printers, named Anderson and Smith, agreed 

 to print it, and share the profits or losses. 

 The firm name was James Gordon Bennett & 

 Co. Another printer, of his own name, re- 

 fused to accept a half-interest in the project, 

 preferring to work at a salary, and so ^con- 

 tinued for thirty-four years to serve the jour- 

 nal which he saw grow from nothing into a 

 magnificent property. The publication-office 

 and editorial room was a deep cellar at No. 20 



