Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made

by James Dabney McCabe

In 1817 he came into possession of a copy of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, which had been recently published in Scotland. The perusal of this little book changed the course of his whole life. It induced him to abandon all thoughts of the priesthood, and to try his fortune in the New World, in which the great philosopher had succeeded so well before him. A little more than a year later he left Glasgow, and in May, 1819, being now about twenty years old, landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had less than twenty-five dollars in his purse, knew no vocation save that of a book-keeper, and had not a friend on this side of the ocean.

He secured a few pupils in Halifax, and gave lessons in book-keeping, but his profits were so small that he determined to reach the United States as soon as possible. Accordingly he made his way along the coast to Portland, Maine, where he took passage for Boston in a small schooner. He found great difficulty in procuring employment, for Boston then, as now, offered but few inducements to new-comers. He parted with his last penny, and was reduced to the most pressing want. For two whole days he went without food, and a third day would doubtless have been added to his fast had he not been fortunate enough to find a shilling on the Common, with which he procured the means of relieving his hunger. He now obtained a salesman's place in the bookstore of Messrs. Wells & Lilly, who, upon discovering his fitness for the place, transferred him to their printing-office as proof-reader; but his employers failed about two years after his connection with them began, and he was again thrown out of employment.

From Boston he went, in 1822, to New York, where he obtained a situation on a newspaper. Soon after his arrival in the metropolis he was offered, by Mr. Wellington, the proprietor of the "Charleston (S.C.) Courier," the position of translator from the Spanish, and general assistant. He accepted the offer, and at once repaired to Charleston. He remained there only a few months, however, and then returned to New York.

He now proposed to open a "Permanent Commercial School," at 148 Fulton Street, and advertised to teach the usual branches "in the inductive method." His advertisement set forth that his pupils would be taught "reading, elocution, penmanship, and arithmetic; algebra; astronomy, history, and geography; moral philosophy, commercial law, and political economy; English grammar and composition, and, also, if required, the French and Spanish languages by natives of those countries." This elaborate scheme was never put into execution, as Mr. Bennett did not receive a sufficient number of applications to warrant him in opening the school. He next attempted a course of lectures on political economy at the old Dutch Church in Ann Street, but this enterprise was also a pecuniary failure. In 1825 he purchased the "New York Courier," a Sunday paper, but did not succeed with it. He continued to write for the press, principally for one or two papers, selling his articles where he could, and in 1826 formed a regular connection with the "National Advocate," a Democratic journal. To his duties in this position he applied himself with an energy and industry never surpassed, and rarely equaled, in his profession. He took an active part in politics, and wrote regularly and constantly for his paper, acquiring considerable reputation by his articles against the tariff and on banks and banking. He now embarked in journalism as the business of his life, and with the determination to succeed. In order to win success, he knew he must first learn to master himself. He neither smoked, drank, nor gambled. He indulged in no species of dissipation, but was temperate and prudent in all things. A few years later he said of himself, "I eat and drink to live, not live to eat and drink. Social glasses of wine are my aversion; public dinners are my abomination; all species of gormandizing my utter scorn and contempt. When I am hungry, I eat; when thirsty, drink. Wine or viands taken for society, or to stimulate conversation, tend only to dissipation, indolence, poverty, contempt, and death."

In 1827 the "National Advocate" changed hands, and, under its new proprietors, supported John Quincy Adams for President. Mr. Bennett, being a supporter of Martin Van Buren, then a United States Senator, resigned his position on the paper, and soon after, in connection with the late M.M. Noah, established "The Enquirer," which warmly espoused the cause of Andrew Jackson in the Presidential canvass of 1828. About this time he became a recognized member of the Tammany Society.

In the spring of 1828 he went to Washington, where he resided for some time as the correspondent of "The Enquirer." In looking through the library of Congress one day, he found an edition of Horace Walpole's letters, which he read with a keen relish. These suggested the idea of a series of similar letters to his own paper, and he at once put his plan into execution. His letters were written and published. They were "spicy," pleasant in style, full of gossip about the distinguished personages who thronged the capital every winter, and, withal, free from any offensive personality. They were read with eagerness, and widely copied by the press throughout the country. Yet he was poorly paid for them, and at a time when he had made a "real hit" was forced to labor hard for a bare subsistence. He did all kinds of literary work. He wrote editorials, letters, sketches, poetry, stories, police reports, in short, every thing that a newspaper had use for, and yet his earnings were barely more than sufficient to afford him a decent support.

In 1829, the "Courier and Enquirer" were united under one management, and Mr. Bennett was made assistant editor, with James Watson Webb as his chief. In the autumn of that year he became associate editor. Says Mr. James Parton (by no means an ardent admirer of Mr. Bennett):

"During the great days of the 'Courier and Enquirer,' from 1829 to 1832, when It was incomparably the best newspaper on the continent, James Gordon Bennett was its most efficient hand. It lost him in 1832, when the paper abandoned General Jackson and took up Nicholas Biddle, and in losing him lost its chance of retaining the supremacy among American newspapers to this day. We can truly say that at that time journalism, as a thing by itself and for itself, had no existence in the United States. Newspapers were mere appendages of party, and the darling object of each journal was to be recognized as the organ of the party it supported. As to the public, the great public, hungry for interesting news, no one thought of it. Forty years ago, in the city of New York, a copy of a newspaper could not be bought for money. If any one wished to see a newspaper, he had either to go to the office and subscribe, or repair to a bar-room and buy a glass of something to drink, or bribe a carrier to rob one of his customers. The circulation of the 'Courier and Enquirer' was considered something marvelous when it printed thirty-five hundred copies a day, and its business was thought immense when its daily advertising averaged fifty-five dollars. It is not very unusual for a newspaper now to receive for advertising, in one day, six hundred times that sum. Bennett, in the course of time, had a chance been given to him, would have made the 'Courier and Enquirer' powerful enough to cast off all party ties, and this he would have done merely by improving it as a vehicle of news. But he was kept down upon one of those ridiculous, tantalizing, corrupting salaries, which are a little more than a single man needs, but not enough for him to marry upon. This salary was increased by the proprietors giving him a small share in the small profits of the printing-office; so that, after fourteen years of hard labor and Scotch economy, he found himself, on leaving the great paper, a capitalist to the extent of a few hundred dollars. The chief editor of the paper which he now abandoned sometimes lost as much in a single evening at the card-table. It probably never occurred to him that this poor, ill-favored Scotchman was destined to destroy his paper and all the class of papers to which it belonged. Any one who examines a file of the 'Courier and Enquirer' of that time, and knows its interior circumstances, will see plainly enough that the possession of this man was the vital element in its prosperity. He alone knew the rudiments of his trade. He alone had the physical stamina, the indefatigable industry, the sleepless vigilance, the dexterity, tact, and audacity needful for keeping up a daily newspaper in the face of keen competition."

Mr. Bennett left the "Courier and Enquirer" in 1832, the cause of his action being the desertion of General Jackson by that journal. He at once started a cheap partisan paper, called "The Globe," devoted to the interests of Jackson and Van Buren. It failed to receive the support of the Democratic party, however, and went down after a precarious existence of thirty days.

Undismayed by this failure, Mr. Bennett removed to Philadelphia, and invested the remainder of his capital in a daily Democratic journal, called "The Pennsylvanian," of which he was the principal editor, laboring hard to win for it the assistance and support of the party. He had rendered good and admitted service to the Democracy, but was to experience the ingratitude for which political organizations are proverbial. He applied to Martin Van Buren and other prominent leaders of the party to aid him in securing a loan of twenty-five hundred dollars for two years, which sum would have enabled him to establish his paper on a paying basis, but the politicians turned deaf ears to his appeals, and his paper failed, after a brief and desperate struggle.