CHAPTER XI
At Washington in Sumter Days.—1861
I REMAINED in New York till February 26, and then
proceeded also to the national capital. I was conscious
of now being so thoroughly qualified as a political writer
and observer that I could be perfectly sure of constant
and well-paid employment, having the special advantage,
too, of being well acquainted with the President and his
most intimate friends and advisers. I was also convinced
that Washington was the proper and most promising field
for me. I conceived the plan of trying a new departure
in news-reporting from Washington, viz., to gather and
furnish the same political and other news by mail and
telegraph to a number of papers in different parts of
the country, geographically so situated that they would not
interfere with each other by the simultaneous publication
of the same matter. I telegraphed a proposal to that effect
from New York to the Cincinnati Commercial and the
Chicago Tribune, both of which promptly accepted it. The
New York Tribune and Times, having already special
correspondents in Washington, would not accept it; but the
elder Bennett and Frederic Hudson of the Herald offered
to engage me as a telegraphic correspondent, and, as they
conceded my condition that I should be free to speak
through the Herald as a sympathizer with the Republican
party, I came to an understanding with them. My enterprise
was to be a sort of supplement to the Associated Press,
whose then Washington correspondent was very inefficient,
but was kept in his place on account of his long
services. It was, indeed, the beginning in this country of the
news syndicates or agencies of which scores now exist in
153
