Edwin Lawrence Godkin

Edwin L. Godkin
Born	Edwin Lawrence Godkin (1831-10-02)October 2, 1831 County Wicklow, Ireland
Died	Devon, England
Occupation	Journalist, editor, author
Signature

Edwin Lawrence Godkin (2 October 1831 – 21 May 1902) was an Irish-born American journalist and newspaper editor. He founded The Nation and was the editor-in-chief of the New York Evening Post from 1883 to 1899.

Early life

Godkin was born in Moyne (a hamlet in Knockananna), County Wicklow, Ireland. His father, James Godkin, was a Congregationalist minister and a journalist. He studied law at Queen's College, Belfast, where he was the first president of the Literary and Scientific Society.

Journalist

After leaving Belfast in 1851 and studying law in London, he was the Crimean War correspondent for the London Daily News in Turkey and Russia and was present at the Siege of Sevastopol.

In 1856, he emigrated to the United States and wrote letters to the News, giving his impressions of a tour on horseback he made of the southern states of the American Union. He studied law under David Dudley Field in New York City, and he was admitted to the bar in 1859. Because of his impaired health, he travelled in Europe in 1860 to 1862. He wrote for the News and the New York Times in 1862 to 1865.

In 1865, Godkin was asked by a group of abolitionists, led by the architect Frederick Law Olmsted, to found a new weekly political magazine. Godkin, who had been considering starting such a magazine for some time, agreed and so became the first editor of The Nation when it began publishing in New York City in 1865.

Charles Eliot Norton gained supporters for the magazine in Boston, and James Miller McKim in Philadelphia. In 1866, two others joined Godkin as proprietors while he remained editor until the end of 1899. In 1881, he sold The Nation to the New York Evening Post, and he became an associate editor of the Post and then editor-in-chief in 1883 to 1899, succeeding Carl Schurz. Under Godkin's tenure, The Nation supported free trade and was anti-imperialist, but it opposed socialism and women's suffrage.

Godkin in 1892

Godkin was interested in Irish politics, and he often wrote about the Irish Question. Godkin was initially hostile to Irish nationalism, identifying it with the violence of Fenianism. However, in the 1880s, Godkin became a supporter of Irish Home Rule and endorsed the position of Charles Stewart Parnell. That resulted in Godkin becoming engaged in a controversy with Goldwin Smith, who opposed Home Rule. Under Godkin's leadership the Post broke with the Republican Party in the presidential campaign of 1884, when Godkin's opposition to nominee James G. Blaine did much to create the so-called Mugwump party, and his organ became thoroughly independent, as was seen when it attacked the Venezuelan policy of President Grover Cleveland, who had, in so many ways, approximated the ideal of the Post and Nation. He consistently advocated currency reform, the gold standard, a tariff for revenue only, and civil service reform, rendering the greatest aid to the last cause. His attacks on Tammany Hall were so frequent and so virulent that in 1894, he was sued for libel because of biographical sketches of certain leaders in that organization; the cases never went to trial.

In 1896, Godkin broke with the Democratic party after it nominated William Jennings Bryan. He supported the National Democratic Party (United States) third ticket because it championed a gold standard, limited government, and free trade. His opposition to the war with Spain and to imperialism was able and forcible.

Later life

Godkin

He retired from his editorial duties on the December 30, 1899, and he sketched his career in the Evening Post of that date. Although he recovered from a severe apoplectic stroke early in 1900, his health was shattered, and he died in Greenway, Devon, England, on the May 21, 1902. He was buried at Saint Michael's Church in Haselbech, Daventry District, Northamptonshire, England, near the home of the friend with whom he had been staying.

Legacy

Godkin shaped the lofty and independent policy of the Post and The Nation, which had a small but influential and intellectual class of readers. However, he had none of the personal magnetism of Horace Greeley, for instance, and his superiority to the influence of popular feeling made Charles Dudley Warner style The Nation the weekly judgment day. He was an economist of the school of John Stuart Mill, urged the necessity of the abstraction called economic man, and insisted that socialism, if put into practice, would not improve social and economic conditions in general. In politics, he was an enemy of both sentimentalism and loose theories in government.

After Godkin's death, William James wrote that Godkin "was certainly the towering influence in all thought concerning public affairs, and... his influence has certainly been more pervasive than that of any other writer of the generation."

Works

• The History of Hungary and the Magyars. New York: Alexander Montgomery (1853).
• Government, “American Science Series” (1871).
• Henry G. Pearson: A Memorial Address delivered June 21, 1894. New York: Privately Printed (1894).
• Reflections and Comments. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1895).
• Problems of Modern Democracy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1896).
• Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy. New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company (1898).
• Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin, Vol. 2. New York: The Macmillan Company (1907).
• A Letter on Lincoln. Riverside, Conn.: The Hillacre Bookhouse (1913).

Selected articles

• "Anglo-French Alliance and Orsini," The Knickerbocker, Vol. LII, No. 1 (July 1858).
• "French Invasion of England," The Knickerbocker, Vol. LIV, No. 5 (November 1859).
• "Aristocratic Opinions of Democracy," The North American Review, Vol. C, No. 206 (January 1865).
• "The Democratic View of Democracy," The North American Review, Vol. CI, No. 208 (July 1865).
• "The Tyranny of the Majority," The North American Review, Vol. CIV, No. 214 (January 1867).
• "The Labor Crisis," The North American Review, Vol. CV, No. 216 (July 1867).
• "Commercial Immorality and Political Corruption," The North American Review, Vol. CVII, No. 220 (July 1868).
• "The Prospects of the Political Art," The North American Review, Vol. CX, No. 227 (April 1870).
• "Baby Suffrage," The Nation, Vol. X, No. 250 (April 1870).
• "Professional Guilds," Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects (1870).
• "The Eastern Question," The North American Review, Vol. CXXIV, No. 254 (January 1877).
• "The Political Outlook," The Century Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (February 1880).
• "Libel and Its Legal Remedy," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XLVI, No. 278 (December 1880).
• "The Attempt on the President's Life," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XLVIII, No. 287 (September 1881).
• "The Civil Service Reform Controversy," The North American Review, Vol. CXXXIV, No. 305 (April 1882).
• "The Danger of an Office-Holding Aristocracy," The Century Magazine, Vol. XXIv, No. 2 (June 1882).
• "An American View of Popular Government," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. XIX, No. 108 (February 1886).
• "American Home Rule." In: Handbook of Home Rule. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. (1887).
• "A Lawyer's Objection to Home Rule." In: Handbook of Home Rule. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. (1887).
• "American Opinion on the Irish Question," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. XXII, No. 126 (August 1887).
• "The Republican Party and the Negro," The Forum, Vol. VII (May 1889).
• "Public Opinion and the Civil Service," The Forum, Vol. VIII (November 1889).
• "Newspapers Here and Abroad," The North American Review, Vol. CL, No. 399 (February 1890).
• "Criminal Politics," The North American Review, Vol. CL, No. 403 (June 1890).
• "The Right of the Citizen to His Own Reputation," Scribner's Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (July 1890).
• "Money Interests in Political Affairs," The Forum, Vol. X (September 1890).
• "A Key to Municipal Reform," The North American Review, Vol. CLI, No. 407 (October 1890).
• "The Economic Man," The North American Review, Vol. CLIII, No. 419 (October 1891).
• "Idleness and Immorality," The Forum, Vol. XIII (May 1892).
• "A Month of Quarantine," The North American Review, Vol. CLV, No. 433 (December 1892).
• "The Duty of Educated Men in a Democracy," The Forum, Vol. XVII (March 1894).
• "The Problems of Municipal Government," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV (May 1894).
• "Who Will Pay the Bills of Socialism?," The Forum, Vol. XVII (June 1894).
• "Diplomacy and the Newspaper," The North American Review, Vol. CLX, No. 462 (May 1895).
• "The Political Situation," The Forum, Vol. XXI (May 1896).
• "The Real Problems of Democracy," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXVIII, No. 465 (July 1896).
• "Social Classes in the Republic," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXVIII, No. 470 (December 1896).
• "The Absurdity of War," The Century Magazine, Vol. LIII, No. 3 (January 1897).
• "The Illiteracy of American Boys," Educational Review, Vol. XIII (January 1897).
• "Peculiarities of American Municipal Government," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXX, No. 481 (November 1897).
• "The Conditions of Good Colonial Government," The Forum, Vol. XXVII (April 1899).
• "The Eclipse of Liberalism," The Nation, Vol. LXXI (August 1900).

Other

•  

See also

• Imperialism
• Irish question

Sources

•  
•  

Further reading

• Bryce, James (1903). "Edwin Lawrence Godkin." In: Studies in Contemporary Biography. New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Cary, Edward (1907). "The Career of Edwin L. Godkin," The New York Times, April 20, p. 252.
• Filler, Louis (1962). Late Nineteenth-Century American Liberalism. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co.
• Garrison, Wendell Phillips (1909). "Edwin Lawrence Godkin." in Letters and Memorials of Wendell Phillips Garrison. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Howells, W. D. (1907). "A Great New York Journalist," The North American Review, Vol. 187, No. 614.
• Lucas, C. P. (2004). "Godkin, Edwin Lawrence (1831–1902)." In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Nevins, Allan (1922). The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism. New York: Boni and Liveright.
• Pollak, Gustav (1915). Fifty Years of American Idealism. New York: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1915. short history plus numerous excerpts
• Rhodes, James Ford (1909). "Edwin Lawrence Godkin." In: Historical Essays. New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Rifkin, Lester Harvey. Edwin L. Godkin and The Nation, Thesis (Ph.D.), Brown University, 1959.
• Ross, Earle Dudley (1919). The Liberal Republican Movement. New York: Henry Holt & Company.
• Russ, Jr., William A. (1945). "Godkin Looks at Western Agrarianism: A Case Study," Agricultural History, Vol. 19, No. 4.
• Villard, Oswald Garrison (1923). "Edwin L. Godkin, Master of Comment and of Style." In: Some Newspapers And Newspaper-Men. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

External links

• Works by Edwin Lawrence Godkin at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Edwin Lawrence Godkin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Edwin Lawrence Godkin at Hathi Trust
• The Eclipse of Liberalism
• Edwin Lawrence Godkin Papers
• E.L. Godkin American Foreign Policy: 1885-1900