Henry Raymond was the co-founder and long-time editor of
The New York Times. During his one-term in Congress
(1865-1867), he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the
Military Reconstruction Acts, but eventually voted for the
Fourteenth Amendment after speaking out against parts of it. Raymond was born in Lima, New York, to Lavinia Brockway
Raymond and Jarvis Raymond, who were farmers. A precocious
child, young Raymond was reading at age three and reciting
speeches at age five. He studied at a local Methodist prep
school, then at the University of Vermont, where he was a
standout speaker and a contributing writer for the New Yorker,
edited by Horace Greeley. Raymond graduated summa cum laude in
1840. That same year, he entered politics by campaigning for
William Henry Harrison, the Whig presidential candidate.
Raymond moved to New York City hoping to gain full-time
employment with the New Yorker. After a brief
apprenticeship, he was made an editorial assistant, but had to
augment his low salary by writing items for out-of-state
newspapers and ad copy for patent medicines. In 1841, Greeley
launched the New York Tribune, a penny paper that served
as the organ of the Whig Party, and Raymond joined the editor as
his chief assistant. Although both men were Whigs, Raymond
disagreed with his boss’s affinity for reform schemes,
especially socialism. In 1843, he left the Tribune for a
better-paying position as associate editor for the Morning
Courier and New York Enquirer, published by James Watson
Webb. In 1848, Raymond joined forces with representatives from
five other New York newspapers to form a cooperative
newsgathering service, the Associated Press.
In 1844 and 1848, Raymond campaigned for the Whig
presidential candidates Henry Clay and Zachary Taylor,
respectively. He also ran for public office himself, winning
election to the New York state legislature in 1849. Reelected
in 1850, his Whig colleagues in the majority selected him to
serve as speaker. In that same year he also began a six-year
stint as the first managing editor of Harper’s Monthly.
At this time he began to speak and write against the immorality
of slavery and its expansion into the western territories. When
Webb censored one of Raymond’s Courier and Enquirer
editorials, he quit. In 1851, Raymond and George Jones founded
The New York Times, with Raymond serving as its first
editor. It quickly enjoyed high circulation and became one of
the nation’s leading newspapers.
In 1852, Raymond was a major force behind the Whig nomination
of Winfield Scott for president. The editor gained renown
for an anti-slavery speech he delivered at the convention, even
though the delegates crafted a platform that waffled on the
issue. In 1854, New York Whigs nominated Raymond for
lieutenant governor. During the campaign he spoke against
the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened the Western
territories to slavery. He and the Whig candidate for governor,
Myron Clark, were elected by a slim margin.
The days of the Whig Party were numbered, though, and like
many northern Whigs, Raymond gravitated to the new Republican
Party. In fact, he was one of the founders of the Republican
Party in New York and helped draft its original charter. He
transformed The Times into a solidly Republican
newspaper, although it was officially independent of the party
apparatus. In 1857, The Times moved into a new
five-story building on the corner of Nassau Street and Park
Row. In 1859, he personally covered the Franco-Austrian War for
the paper, sending back realistic battle reports.
Raymond traveled to the 1860 Republican National Convention
in Chicago as a delegate for fellow-New Yorker, Senator William
Henry Seward, but loyally endorsed the party’s eventual nominee,
Abraham Lincoln. During the campaign, Raymond published a
series of open letters to former Representative William Yancey,
a southern fire-eater who was traveling through the North
arguing for the constitutionality of secession. The
Times editor countered with the theory that the constitution
created a perpetual union that could not be dissolved, and that
secession would provoke war.
During the Civil War The Times was a staunchly
pro-Union paper, and it shifted from its prewar
anti-slavery-expansion stance to endorse abolition as a war
aim. Raymond attended some of the battles himself, including
First Bull Run (Manassas) at which he prematurely telegrammed of
Union victory. For protection during the Draft Riots in New
York City, he installed Gatling guns on the roof of The
Times building. Under his direction, The Times
expanded its influence and circulation until it was barely able
to keep up with the demand for its papers.
Raymond was elected to the state legislature in 1861 and was
again chosen as speaker. In early 1863, he hoped to take
Preston King’s vacated seat in the U.S. Senate, but Edwin Morgan
was selected, instead. Raymond agreed with Lincoln’s policies,
authoring a campaign biography of the president in 1864 and
drafting the National Union platform. That same year, The
New York Times editor was elected to Congress by a margin of
less than 500 votes. He strongly supported Lincoln and,
initially, his successor, Andrew Johnson, against the Radical
Republicans. After voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1866,
Raymond voted for the Fourteenth Amendment that granted
citizenship and federal protection of civil rights. Critics
accused him of inconsistency.
In 1866, Raymond organized a National Union convention, which
Radicals condemned for its control by Democrats. His
involvement cost The Times readership and, therefore,
revenue. Within a few months he concluded that the Radicals
were correct about the National Union Party, and The Times
endorsed the Radical Republican candidate for New York governor
and began criticizing President Johnson. In Congress, however,
Raymond voted against both the impeachment resolution and the
Military Reconstruction Acts. After Raymond’s term ended,
Johnson nominated him to be minister to Austria, but the Senate
tabled the nomination indefinitely. He remained as the editor
of The New York Times until his death on June 18, 1869.
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