"I have shed rivers of tears over the inexpressibly affecting letter thus begun. One would think I might have become familiar enough with images of death and destruction; yet somehow the image of Pickie's little dancing figure, lying, stiff and stark, between his parents, has made me weep more than all else. There was little hope he could do justice to himself, or lead a happy life in so perplexed a world; but never was a character of richer capacity,―never a more charming child. To me he was most dear, and would always have been so. Had he become stained with earthly faults, I could never have forgotten what he was when fresh from the soul's home, and what he was to me when my soul pined for sympathy, pure and unalloyed."

A few months after these words were written, Margaret Fuller saw her native shores; but she was destined never to tread them again. The vessel in which she was a passenger was wrecked on the coast of Long Island. The body of her infant son was washed on shore, but she and her husband found death, burial, requiem, all in the deep.

At war with all the world-The spirit of the Tribune-Retorts vituperative-The Tribune and Dr. Potts-Some prize tracts suggested-An atheist's oath-A word for domestics-Irish Democracy-The modern drama-Hit at Dr. Hawks-Dissolution of the Union-Dr. Franklin's story-A Picture for Polk-Charles Dickens and Copyright-Charge of Malignant falsehood-Preaching and Practice-Col. Webb severely hit-Hostility to the Mexican war-Violence incited-A few sparks—The course of the Tribune-Wager with the Herald.

THE years 1845, 1846, and 1847, were emphatically the fighting years of the New York Tribune. If it was not at war with all the world, all the world seemed to be at war with it, and it was kept constantly on the defensive. With the 'democratic' press, of course, it could not be at peace. The whig press of the city denounced it really because it was immovably prosperous, stensibly

on the ground of its Fourierite and progressive tendencies. Its opposition to capital punishment, the freedom of its reviews, and the hospitality it gave to every new thought,' gave offense to the religious press. Its tremendous hostility to the Mexican war excited the animosity of all office-holders and other patriots, including the president, who made a palpable allusion to the course of the Tribune in one of his messages. There was talk even of mobbing the office, at one of the war meetings in the Park. Its zeal in behalf of Irish repeal alienated the English residents, who naturally liked the 'pluck' and independence of the Tribune. Its hostility to the slave power provoked the south, and all but destroyed its southern circulation. It offended bigots by giving Thomas Paine his due; it offended unbelievers by refusing to give him more. Its opposition to the drama, as it is, called forth many a sneer from the papers who have the honor of the drama in their special keeping. The extreme American party abhorred its enmity to Nativism. The extreme Irish party distrusted it, because in sentiment and feeling it was thoroughly Protestant. The extreme liberal party disliked its opposition to their views of marriage and divorce. In a word, if the course of the Tribune had been suggested by a desire to give the greatest offense to the greatest number, it could hardly have made more enemies than it did.

In the prospectus to the fifth volume, the editor seemed to anticipate a period of inky war.

"Our conservatism," he said, "is not of that Chinese tenacity which insists that the bad must be cherished simply because it is old. We insist only that the old must be proved bad and never condemned merely because it is old; and that, even if defective, it should not be overthrown till something better has been provided to replace it. The extremes of blind, stubborn resistance to change, and rash, sweeping, convulsive innovation, are naturally allies, each paving the way for the other. The supple courtier, the wholesale flatterer of the Despot, and the humble servitor and bepraiser of the dear People, are not two distinct characters, but essentially the same. Thus believing, we, while we do not regard the judgment of any present majority as infallible, cannot attribute infallibility to any acts or institutes of a past generation, but look undoubtingly for successive improvements as Knowledgo, Virtue, Philanthropy, shall be more and more diffused among men.

"Full of error and suffering as the world yet is, we cannot afford to reject

anexamined any idea which proposes to improve the Moral, Intellectual, of Social condition of mankind. Better incur the trouble of testing and exploding a thousand fallacies than by rejecting stifle a single beneficent truth. Especially on the vast theme of an improved Organization of Industry, so as to secure constant opportunity and a just recompense to every human being able and willing to labor, we are not and cannot be indifferent.

"No subject can be more important than this; no improvement more certain of attainment. The plans hitherto suggested may all prove abortive; the experiments hitherto set on foot may all come to nought, (as many of them doubtless will;) yet these mistakes shall serve to indicate the true means of improvement, and these experiments shall bring nearer and nearer the grand consummation which they contemplate. The securing of thorough Education, Opportunity and just Reward to all, cannot be beyond the reach of the nineteenth century. To accelerate it, the Tribune has labored and will labor resolutely and hopefully. Those whose dislike to or distrust of the investigations in this field of human effort impel them to reject our paper, have ample range for a selection of journals more acceptable."

In the spirit of these words the Tribune was conducted. And every man, in any age, who conducts his life, his newspaper, or his business in that spirit, will be misunderstood, distrusted and hated, in exact proportion to his fidelity to it. Perfect fidelity, the world will so entirely detest that it will destroy the man who attains to it. The world will not submit to be so completely put out of counte

nance.

My task, in this chapter, is to show how the editor of the Tribune comported himself when he occupied the position of targetgeneral to the Press, Pulpit, and Stump of the United States. He was not in the slightest degree distressed or alarmed. On the contrary, I think he enjoyed the position; and, though he handled his enemies without gloves, and called a spade a spade, and had to dispatch a dozen foemen at once, and could not pause to select his weapons, yet I can find in those years of warfare no trace of bitterness on his part. There is no malice in his satire, no spite in his anger. He seems never so happy as when he is at bay, and is never so funny as when he is repelling a personal assault. I have before me several hundreds of his editorial hits and repartees, some serious, more comic, some refuting argument, others exposing slander, some merely vituperative, others ery witty, all extremely readable,

though the occasions that called them forth have lng passed by, My plan is to select and condense a few of each kind, presenting only the point of each.

Many of our editor's replies are remarkable chiefly for their 'free and easy' manner, their ignoring of 'editorial dignity.' A specimen

or two:

In reply to a personal attack by Major Noah, of the Union, he begins, "We ought not to notice this old villain again." On another occasion, "What a silly old joker this last hard bargain of Tylerism is!" On another, "Major Noah! why won't you tell the truth once in a century, for the variety of the thing." On another, "And it is by such poor drivel as this that the superannuated renegade from all parties and all principles attempts to earn his forced contributions and Official' advertisements! Surely his latest purchasers must despise their worn-out tool, and most heartily repent of their hard bargain."

Such mild openings as the following are not uncommon:

"The Journal of Commerce is the most self-complacent and dogmatic of all possible newspapers."

"The villain who makes this charge against me well knows that it is the basest falsehood."

"We defy the Father of lies himself to crowd more stupendous falsehoods into a paragraph than this contains."

"Mr. Benton! each of the above observations is a deliberate falsehood, and you are an unqualified villain !"

"The Express is surely the basest and paltriest of all possible journals."

"Having been absent from the city for a few days, I perceive with a pleasurable surprise on my return that the Express has only perpetrated two new calumnies upon me of any consequence since Friday evening."

"'Ephraim,' said a grave divine, taking his text from one of the prophets, 'is a cake not turned. (Hosea, vii. 8.) Let us proceed, therefore, brethren, to turn Ephraim-first, inside out; next, back-side before; and, thirdly, 'tother end up.'

"We are under the imperative necessity of performing on Samuel of this day a searching operation like unto that of the parson on Ephraim of old."

That will suffice for the vituperative. We proceed to those of another description:

PROVOCATION.

A Sermon by Dr. Potts, denouncing the Tribune as agrarian, &c., reported in the Courier and Enquirer.

REPLY.

"It is quite probable that we have some readers among the pew-holders of a church so wealthy and fashionable as the Dr.'s, though few, we presume, among divines as well salaried as he is. We will only ask those of our patrons who may obey his command to read for their next Scripture lesson the xxvth Chapter of Leviticus, and reflect upon it for an hour or so. We are very sure they will find the exercise a profitable one, in a sense higher than they will have anticipated. Having then stopped the Tribune, they will meditate at leisure on the abhorrence and execration with which one of the Hebrew Prophets must have regarded any kind of an Agrarian or Anti-Renter; that is, one opposed to perpetuating and extending the relation of Landlord and Tenant over the whole arable surface of the earth. Perhaps the contemplation of a few more passages of Sacred Writ may not be unprofitable in a moral sense-for example:

"Woe unto them that join [add] house to house, that lay field to field that there be no place, that they be placed alone in the midst of the earth.' -Isaiah, v. 8.

"One thing thou lackest go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the the cross, and follow me:

"And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!'-Mark, x. 21-23. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as every man had need.'-Acts, ii. 44, 45.

"We might cite columns of this sort from the Sacred Volume, showing a deplorable lack of Doctors of Divinity in ancient times, to be employed at $3,500 a year in denouncing, in sumptuous, pew-guarded edifices costing $75,000 each, all who should be guilty of loosening the faith of many in the established order of things.' Alas for their spiritual blindness! the ancient Prophets-GOD's Prophets-appear to have slight faith in or reverence for that established order' themselves! Their 'schemes' appear to have been regarded as exceedingly 'disorganizing' and hostile to 'good order' by the spiritual rulers of the people in those days.

'That Dr. Potts, pursuing (we trust) the career most congenial to his feelings, surrounded by every comfort and luxury, enjoying the best society, and enabled to support and educate his children to the hight of his desires, should be inclined to reprobate all 'nostrums' for the cure of Social evils, and sneer