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1851-1921 By Elmer Davis Originally published 1921 |
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years been associated with William Cullen Bryant in the editorial direction of The Evening Post, and his service as Minister to France had increased his reputation and given him an experience in international politics which at that particular time was extremely valuable. Yet his career as editor of The Times lasted only a few weeks, and is interesting chiefly as illustrating the fact that in the equipment of a newspaper editor the wisdom of the serpent is a somewhat more useful quality than the harmlessness of the dove.
The summer of 1869 saw Jay Gould and Jim Fisk and their associates going on from the plunder of a railroad to the more ambitious scheme of cornering the gold supply of a nation in which the resumption of specie payments was still something of a millennial dream. As is well known, they counted on the neutrality of President Grant, who was neither a financial expert nor a connoisseur in human wile,. and whose brother-in-law, Corbin, a friend of the Fisk-Gould group, was generally supposed to supply most of the financial information for the White House.
Bigelow, who knew the President well, saw him early in August, and as a result of the interview wrote for The Times two editorial articles on Grant's economic policy which were generally understood as representing the views of the White House. At Gould's suggestion, Corbin prepared another editorial article, which a gentleman who was a friend of both Corbin and Bigelow succeeded in persuading the editor was also a reflection of Grant's opinion. This article, headed "Financial Policy of the Administration,"
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