John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[122] education as against ignorance, for the elevation of labor as against oppression, for a free press as against a servile one, for free schools as against parochial schools, for tolerance as against bigotry, for liberty of conscience against ecclesiastical tyranny, for the elevation of the many against the oppression of the few, for the development of our own resources in preference to those of other countries, for the open shop against the closed shop, for the right of every man to put a price upon his own labor, and work at his job or leave it against the right of any one to prevent another from taking it. When it is remembered, besides, that they stood for good conduct, right living, correct morals, patriotic citizenship, sound scholarship, and, indeed, for everything good as against everything bad, and were generally able to give enlightened reasons for the faith that was in them, or for the course they advocated on every question, the reader must come to the conclusion, in spite of their personal peculiarities, that they were not only most worthy men, but that they exerted a powerful influence in the right direction upon the affairs of their day and generation.

They were leaders, not followers, of public opinion. They were teachers, not always wise or infallible, but always deeply in earnest and full of enthusiasm; always striving mightily after the truth as they saw it, and endeavoring to draw correct conclusions from it, and in this noble work no opposition silenced, no danger daunted them.

Dana, as managing editor, had long since become the arbiter of what should appear in the columns of the great journal. He accepted or rejected the contributions sent to him, and, not content with that, edited them with an unsparing hand. The blue pencil was never out of use. No writer was too great, no subject too important to escape its rapid and unerring stroke. During this entire