Rise of Mctropolita)i Joiiriialisni 45 i ing phraseology fired the popular heart, but Weed held the workers in leash like a master of the hounds. He had become the master of a simple, direct, and powerful editorial style, but his influence depended little on his controversial paragraphs, pungent as they were. Personal acquaintance was his main reliance, and with habitual cleverness he made the columns of his newspaper contrib- ute to these resources. There was a column in the Evening Jour- nal in which Weed used to make personal mention of his friends and foes in short articles, varying from a line and a half to a dozen or fifteen lines in length. "That column," says Dyer, "was a prodigious power in the politics of the state of New York. There was seldom a young man in any part of the state, who gave prom- ise of becoming a person of influence, that was not kindly and flat- teringly mentioned in that column, no matter to what party he be- longed." To the young and aspiring Whig politician, that kindly allusion in the most prominent newspaper of his party often seemed like a glowing promise that his humble merit should not lose its reward. The young Democrat also, who was revolving in the ob- scure orbit to which the Regency had appointed him, and who per- haps had believed both the Evening Journal 2.nA its editors to be of vil- lainy all compact, was some day surprised and gratified to find that Weed had printed a flattering notice of him, in which regretful ref- erence to his politics was mingled with admiring acknowledgment of his abilities. His opinion of the Whig leader and of the Whig paper changed rapidly. He mailed copies of the Journal to all his friends. Perhaps he called on Weed, and was received with win- ning cordiality. He concluded that his veteran foe was not so black as he was painted, and he returned home to wonder why the editor of the Argus was so much less clear-sighted than his rival of the Journal. All this strategy on Weed's part was surely not journalism, but it was excellent politics. By such means Weed obtained some power of manipulating the machinery of both parties, and his influence was the more valuable because it was so secret and intangible. It was not and is not likely that journalist-politicans like Weed and Croswell could contribute much to the institutional development of the newspaper. They subordinated the journalist to the politician, as their predecessors had done before them, and the grinding of the party organ was sufficiently musical to their ears. But in the very heyday of their fame and vigor, a new spirit was beginning to move upon the waters especially in New York Cit)'. The beginning of the second quarter of this centurj' was a period of intellectual unrest and fermentation. In Europe there
