In the numbers of people whom he influenced, Greeley had the advantage over Godkin. In February, 1855, the circulation of the Tribune was 172,000, and its own estimate of its readers half a million, which was certainly not excessive. It is not a consideration beyond bounds to infer that the readers of the Tribune in 1860 furnished a goodly part of the 1,866,000 votes which were received by Lincoln.
At different times, while Godkin was editor, The Nation stated its exact circulation, which, as I remember it, was about 10,000, and it probably had 50,000 readers. As many of its readers were in the class of Lowell, its indirect influence was immense. Emerson said that The Nation had “breadth, variety, self-sustainment, and an admirable style of thought and expression.”—“I owe much to The Nation,” wrote Francis Parkman. “I regard it as the most valuable of American journals, and feel that the best interests of the country are doubly involved in its success.”—“What an influence you have!” said George William Curtis to Godkin. “What a sanitary element in our affairs The Nation is!”—“To my generation,” wrote William James, “Godkin’s was certainly the towering influence in all thought concerning public affairs, and indirectly his influence has certainly been more pervasive than that of any other writer of the generation, for he influenced other writers who never quoted him, and determined the whole current of discussion.”—“When the work of this century is summed up,” wrote Charles Eliot Norton to Godkin, “what you have done for the good old cause of civilization, the cause which is always defeated, but always after defeat taking more advanced position than before—what you have done for this cause will [p271] count for much.”—“I am conscious,” wrote President Eliot to Godkin, “that The Nation has had a decided effect on my opinions and my action for nearly forty years; and I believe it has had like effect on thousands of educated Americans.”[8]
A string of quotations, as is well known, becomes wearisome; but the importance of the point that I am trying to make will probably justify one more. “I find myself so thoroughly agreeing with The Nation always,” wrote Lowell, “that I am half persuaded that I edit it myself!”[9] Truly Lowell had a good company: Emerson, Parkman, Curtis, Norton, James, Eliot,—all teachers in various ways. Through their lectures, books, and speeches, they influenced college students at an impressible age; they appealed to young and to middle-aged men; and they furnished comfort and entertainment for the old. It would have been difficult to find anywhere in the country an educated man whose thought was not affected by some one of these seven; and their influence on editorial writers for newspapers was remarkable. These seven were all taught by Godkin.
“Every Friday morning when The Nation comes,” wrote Lowell to Godkin, “I fill my pipe, and read it from beginning to end. Do you do it all yourself? Or are there really so many clever men in the country?”[10] Lowell’s experience, with or without tobacco, was undoubtedly that of hundreds, perhaps of thousands, of educated men, and the query he raised was not an uncommon one. At one time, Godkin, I believe, wrote most of “The Week,” which was made up of brief and pungent comments on events, as well as the principal editorial articles. The power of iteration, which the journalist possesses, is great, and, when that power is wielded [p272] by a man of keen intelligence and wide information, possessing a knowledge of the world, a sense of humor, and an effective literary style, it becomes tremendous. The only escape from Godkin’s iteration was one frequently tried, and that was, to stop The Nation.
Although Godkin published three volumes of Essays, the honors he received during his lifetime were due to his work as editor of The Nation and the Evening Post; and this is his chief title of fame. The education, early experience, and aspiration of such a journalist are naturally matter of interest. Born in 1831, in the County of Wicklow in the southeastern part of Ireland, the son of a Presbyterian minister, he was able to say when referring to Goldwin Smith, “I am an Irishman, but I am as English in blood as he is.”[11] Receiving his higher education at Queen’s College, Belfast, he took a lively interest in present politics, his college friends being Liberals. John Stuart Mill was their prophet, Grote and Bentham their daily companions, and America was their promised land. “To the scoffs of the Tories that our schemes were impracticable,” he has written of these days, “our answer was that in America, barring slavery, they were actually at work. There, the chief of the state and the legislators were freely elected by the people. There, the offices were open to everybody who had the capacity to fill them. There was no army or navy, two great curses of humanity in all ages. There was to be no war except war in self-defense…. In fact, we did not doubt that in America at last the triumph of humanity over its own weaknesses and superstitions was being achieved, and the dream of Christendom was at last being realized.”[12]
As a correspondent of the London Daily News he went to the Crimea. The scenes at Malakoff gave him a disgust for [p273] war which thenceforth he never failed to express upon every opportunity. When a man of sixty-eight, reckoning its cost in blood and treasure, he deemed the Crimean War entirely unnecessary and very deplorable.[13] Godkin arrived in America in November, 1856, and soon afterwards, with Olmsted’s “Journey in the Seaboard Slave States,” the “Back Country,” and “Texas,” as guidebooks, took a horseback journey through the South. Following closely Olmsted’s trail, and speaking therefore with knowledge, he has paid him one of the highest compliments one traveler ever paid another. “Olmsted’s work,” he wrote, “in vividness of description and in photographic minuteness far surpasses Arthur Young’s.”[14] During this journey he wrote letters to the London Daily News, and these were continued after his return to New York City. For the last three years of our Civil War, he was its regular correspondent, and, as no one denies that he was a powerful advocate when his heart was enlisted, he rendered efficient service to the cause of the North. The News was strongly pro-Northern, and Godkin furnished the facts which rendered its leaders sound and instructive as well as sympathetic. All this while he was seeing socially the best people in New York City, and making useful and desirable acquaintances in Boston and Cambridge.
The interesting story of the foundation of The Nation has been told a number of times, and it will suffice for our purpose to say that there were forty stockholders who contributed a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, one half of which was raised in Boston, and one quarter each in Philadelphia and New York. Godkin was the editor, and next to him the chief promoters were James M. McKim of Philadelphia and Charles Eliot Norton. The first number [p274] of this “weekly journal of politics, literature, science, and art” appeared on July 6, 1865. Financial embarrassment and disagreements among the stockholders marked the first year of its existence, at the end of which Godkin, McKim, and Frederick Law Olmsted took over the property, and continued the publication under the proprietorship of E. L. Godkin & Co. “The Nation owed its continued existence to Charles Eliot Norton,” wrote Godkin in 1899. “It was his calm and confidence amid the shrieks of combatants … which enabled me to do my work even with decency.”[15]
Sixteen years after The Nation was started, in 1881, Godkin sold it out to the Evening Post, becoming associate editor of that journal, with Carl Schurz as his chief. The Nation was thereafter published as the weekly edition of the Evening Post. In 1883 Schurz retired and Godkin was made editor-in-chief, having the aid and support of one of the owners, Horace White. On January 1, 1900, on account of ill health, he withdrew from the editorship of the Evening Post,[16] thus retiring from active journalism.
For thirty-five years he had devoted himself to his work with extraordinary ability and singleness of purpose. Marked appreciation came to him: invitations to deliver courses of lectures from both Harvard and Yale, the degree of A.M. from Harvard, and the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford. What might have been a turning point in his career was the offer in 1870 of the professorship of history at Harvard. He was strongly tempted to accept it, but, before coming to a decision, he took counsel of a number of friends; and few men, I think, have ever received such wise and disinterested advice as did Godkin when he was thus hesitating in what way he should apply his teaching. [p275] The burden of the advice was not to take the professorship, if he had to give up The Nation.
Frederick Law Olmsted wrote to him: “If you can’t write fully half of ‘The Week’ and half the leaders, and control the drift and tone of the whole while living at Cambridge, give up the professorship, for The Nation is worth many professorships. It is a question of loyalty over a question of comfort.” Lowell wrote to him in the same strain: “Stay if the two things are incompatible. We may find another professor by and by … but we can’t find another editor for The Nation.” From Germany, John Bigelow sent a characteristic message: “Tell the University to require each student to take a copy of The Nation. Do not profess history for them in any other way. I dare say your lectures would be good, but why limit your pupils to hundreds which are now counted by thousands?”[17]