Mr. Forney, who for many years had been the Washington correspondent of a Philadelphia print, was assigned to a prominent command on the skirmish-line of the allied pro-slavery press. Though not a wit himself, the following skit will warrant his friends to claim for him the credit of being once very nearly the cause of wit in another. Its chief interest to the reader now consists in its glimpses of many transitory political issues which only live in the daily press and private correspondence of the period.
PROSPECTUS OF THE "FORNEY-CATERER"
"A daily journal will be established in the City of New York under the title of the Forney-caterer, the first number of which will be issued Jan. 1st, 1854, or on some other first of January.
"This journal will profess radically Democratic principles. Believing in the largest liberty—especially in using the public moneys, it will insist on the extension of that liberty through all the domains of the public treasuries, national, state, and municipal, as the true idea of Democratic progress. It will be in favor of free trade, as practically illustrated in steamship contracts; and will particularly sustain the Sloo contract, and the assignment thereof to George Law, Edwin Croswell, Prosper M. Wetmore, and Marshall O. Roberts; and the Collins contract, which its editor will also personally advocate in the lobbies of Congress for a moderate compensation. Opposed to internal improvement by the general government, it will urge liberal appropriations of the public funds to any private company which shall make satisfactory arrangements for grants in aid of the Pacific Railroad; and will take a small interest in the purchase by the United States of the property of the Hudson's Bay Company, should that beneficent measure be revived with a prospect of success.
"In respect to the foreign policy of this country, it will be equally explicit. Asserting the honor and dignity of this great and powerful people, it will uphold the claims of Messrs. Hargous with firmness, whether against belligerent or bankrupt nations or against refractory or unconvinced commissioners.
"Located at the great commercial centre, this journal will aim to be metropolitan in its character. Not indifferent to the concerns of sister States, it will take a large interest in maintaining the Camden & Amboy monopoly and other domestic institutions, the blessings of which no traveller ever can pass a sister State without feeling.
"Strangers to the city and State of New York, as the editor and founder of this journal both are, it cannot be expected that they should at the outset act without hesitation in purely local matters. In respect to the offal contract and the Broadway railroad, and as to the canal lettings and the timber contracts of John C. Mather, it may be as well to say that they are, as yet, wholly uncommitted. They are, however, not altogether unfamiliar with similar things elsewhere.
"An ample capital has been contributed by gentlemen who are interested in maintaining the great measures to which this journal is to be devoted; and no expedient has been omitted to ensure its success as a business undertaking in behalf of its stockholders and managers. It will be provided with editors, reporters, and other attachés, enough to perform all useful services in the lobbies of Congress, of the State Legislature, and of the city Councils; and with talent and democracy enough in the editorial rooms to make good the ordinary wear and tear of character and influence incident to the other departments of the business.
"As conveyancing will form a large element of the business, expert legal counsel will be provided in the person of Mr. D. E. Sickles, who is recommended for this purpose by his rare skill in taking mortgages.
"Before concluding, it is a painful necessity to advert to the unhappy divisions of the Democracy of New York, which it is the main object of this undertaking to heal. An exact impartiality between those who are for preserving the party and those who are for breaking it up, was intended to be secured by dividing the ownership of the paper equally between them, and then putting its absolute editorial control in the hands of a gentleman whose associations, sympathies, affiliations, and tendencies are entirely and irresistibly—with the latter.