The New York Herald.
Whoever first applied to the New York
Herald the name of the ‘"Satanic press"’ gave a comprehensive description of that journal and its editor, which every line of its history and every day of its life demonstrate to be true.
In that characteristic of the Devil which consists in falsehood, the
Father of Lies might himself be envious of the success of this, the most eminent of his progeny.--
Bennett's account of the great naval battle in the
Roads, in which he claims a victory, is but one of those monstrous falsehoods which daily spring from the most inveterate and unblushing liar on the face of the earth.
Falsehood is, however, one of the least noxious and least onions of his hideous characteristics.
His whole life has been so unulterably base and so fearfully mischievous to society, that ‘"the Satanic"’ is the only phrase which can give any adequate conception of his character.
It is true that
Greeley, of the
Tribune, appears to be more cruel and inhuman in his ideas of the manner in which the war should be carried on, but this is simply because he is a fanatic and a fool.
If
Bennett is more conservative in his theory, it is simply the promptings of a more intelligent self-interest.
He well knows that the exterminating and abolitionixing crusade of
Greeley would recoil, with terrific force upon Northern manufacturers and commerce, involving them inevitably and hopelessly in a common ruin with the
South.
But for this, he would be more bloody and diabolical than
Greeley, without the extennation of his fanaticism and madness.
The Almighty Dollar is in this, as all other subjects, the mainspring of his action.
The
Herald was originally established to make money, not alone by legitimate newspaper enterprise, but by every art and scheme, no matter how corrupt and corrupting, which should build up the personal fortunes of its proprietor.
It laid itself out deliberately to pander to the foulest passions and most infamous vices of human nature, that it might coin gold out of the depravity of the world.
It gave systematically and habitually pictures of crime, real and imaginary, which were so presented as to engender all manner of similar crime in the imagination and conduct of mankind.
It established a column regularly in its advertisements under the head of "Personal," for the convenience of those who were tempted to crime by its infamous teachings.
It habitually assailed religion, because the restraints of religion presented the chief barrier against the universal demoralization which it sought to effect for its personal emolument.
Its proprietor has himself been charged upon the floor of Congress with the incredible crime of conniving at the dishonor of his own family.
And yet licentiousness has been only one of the infamous engines which the
Herald has employed to make money.
It has levied black mail upon the mercantile community, endeavoring to destroy the financial credit of every honest trader who would not pay liberally to keep its foul claws off his character and business.
It has held men and women of other vocations in the same grip of mortal terror, terrifying them with the rod of a blasted name, unless they would nor lay a propitiatory sacrifice of gold upon the altar of this Moloch.
The man who owns it has grown gray in crime, and now that he is tottering on the very verge of that world where — if Eternal Justice be not a madman's dream — he will receive a punishment commensurate with the evil and misery he has brought upon society, he is more ruthless than ever in his career of wickedness, and frantic to find some new abyas of degradation deeper and fouler than any to which he has yet descended.
