Charles Anderson Dana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Anderson_Dana

Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper New-York Tribune until 1862. During the American Civil War, he served as Assistant Secretary of War, playing especially the role of the liaison between the War Department and General Ulysses S. Grant. In 1868 he became the editor and part-owner of The New York Sun. He at first appealed to working class Democrats but after 1890 became a champion of business-oriented conservatism. Dana was an avid art collector of paintings and porcelains and boasted of being in possession of many items not found in several European museums.

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American newspaper editor. He was a member of the Brook Farm community for five years. In 1847 he began 15 years on the New York Tribune, most of that time as managing editor. When Dana's views on the conduct of the Civil War became too militant for the editor, Horace Greeley, Dana resigned. His reports as a special investigator in the West for the War Dept. helped to build up official confidence in General Grant. In 1864, Dana became Assistant Secretary of War. His Recollections of the Civil War (1898) are valuable. He is best remembered for his great career as editor of the newspaperman's news paper, which began in 1868 when Dana became editor and part owner of the New York Sun. Though his editorials were erratic he denounced the corruption in Grant's administration and refused to support labor unions and civil service reform and often cynical, as a news editor he established high standards of re adability and maintained a famous staff of writers. He also wrote The Art of Newspaper Making (1895) and Eastern Journeys (1898). "When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog, that is news." --Charles Anderson Dana

Brook Farm, the best-known utopian experimental community in America, was founded by George and Sophia Ripley in the spring of 1841. A former Unitarian minister, Ripley was editor of The Dial, the principle journal of Transcendentalism, and his ideas for Brook Farm combined the theorie s of individual self-reliance from New England Transcendentalism with more radical social reforms of the time. He envisioned the community as one in wh ich manual and intellectual labors would be united. In a letter to Ralph Wal do Emerson, the leading light of the Transcendental movement, Ripley explaine d his goals: "Our objects, as you know, are to insure a more natural union bet ween intellectual and manual labor than now exists, to combine the thinker an d the worker as far as possible in the same individual . . . [where] though t would preside over the operations of labor, and labor would contribute to t he expansion of thought." The practical application of these objectives came i n the form of an agricultural community, located on 170 acres of poor-quality farmland at West Roxbury, near Boston. To pay for the farm and supplies, sh ares were sold at $500 each, and stockholders could withdraw their initial in vestment with interest due by giving one year's notice to the trustees. Nath aniel Hawthorne, a fellow Transcendentalist, was one of the original subscrib ers to the community but later withdrew . A number of other leading Transcen dentalists, including Emerson and Margaret Fuller, were frequent visitors to Brook Farm but never became members. Membership in the community was granted by the vote of established members after the purchase of shares, in return f or which individuals received free tuition in the community's school or five percent annual interest and one year's board in return for 300 days of labor. The work of members was centered around the six major activities of teachin g, farming, working in the manufacturing shops, domestic endeavors, work on the buildings and grounds, and the planning of cooperative recreation projec ts. Social activities included picnics, lectures, boating parties, music, an d dancing. Throughout 1842 and 1843, the community thrived and in one year was visited by as many as 4000 guests, many simply curious Boston residents. T he most successful ventures of Brook Farm were the school and the recreationa l aspect. The school attracted students from the south, Cuba, and the Philip pines and was respected as a preparatory school by Harvard and even by the Unitarians against whom many of the Transcendentalists had rebelled. At the end of 1842 and throughout 1843, the community at Brook Farm underwent some significant changes. Ripley had become extremely[Franksfamily2.FTW]

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=gordonsto...

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Newspaper publisher. As a reporter for the New York Tribune he gained nationwide fame in the 1840s when he filed widely reprinted stories from Europe on several revolutionary movements. From 1849 to 1862 he was Managing Editor, resigning over personality conflicts with Editor Horace Greeley. Dana was then hired by the War Department to investigate Civil War battlefield conditions. He uncovered numerous frauds by contractors and quartermsters and also provided Secretary of War Stanton and President Lincoln reports on the conduct of several generals, allaying concerns that Ulysses Grant was ineffective because of alcoholism. Dana stayed with Grant through the Battle of Chattanooga and successfully urged Lincoln to name Grant commander of all Union armies. Dana was Assistant Secretary of War from 1864 to 1865, aiding in the management of the department at the close of the war. In 1866 he founded the Chicago Republican, remaining with this newspaper until becoming part owner of the New York Sun in 1868. The Sun became influential nationwide under Dana's leadership, opposing the impeachment of President Johnson and supporting Grant for President. Dana later turned against Grant over corruption in his administration, supporting Democrats and occasional third party candidates. He was also a noted author, and his works included "The Art of Newspaper Making" and "Reminiscences of the Civil War." (bio by: Bill McKern)

A biography from the period reads: "Not as a journalist, merely, but also as a critic, historian and politician, has greatness been achieved by Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York "Sun." His manifold ability and industry have placed him well in the lead of the newspaper managers of today. Mr. Dana was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, August 8, 1819. He was educated at Harvard, and in 1842 joined the Brook Farm Community in its socialistic venture. Two years later he took the management of the "Herbinger," a weekly paper devoted to social reform and literature, and in 1847 became connected with the staff of the New York "Tribune." He attained the position of managing editor of that paper, and the development of his genius for journalism was largely instrumental in making it the leading organ of anti-slavery sentiment just before the war, with an extraordinary influence and circulation. Leaving the "Tribune" in April 1862, he entered the service of the government, and from 1862 to 1865 was assistant Secretary of War. He then became editor of the Chicago "Republican," which failed of success. In 1868 he organized the stock company that now owns the New York "Sun," and for over twenty-six years has been actively and continuously engaged in the management of that successful journal. Mr. Dana collaborated with Gen. James H. Wilson in writing a "Life of Ulysses S. Grant." He also edited "The Household Book of Poetry," and, in connection with Rossiter Johnson, compiled "Fifty Perfect Poems." As an editor, Mr. Dana is trenchant and fearless; as a critic, able and opinionated; as a politician, aggressive and bitter. The "Sun" is conducted as an independent Democratic journal, and from a literary standpoint ranks high.."

http://capecodhistory.us/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I27226&tr...

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Charles Anderson Dana was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper New York Tribune until 1862. During the American Civil War, he served as Assistant Secretary of War, playing especially the role of the liaison between the War Department and General Ulysses S. Grant. In 1868 he became the editor and part-owner of the New York Sun. He at first appealed to working class Democrats but after 1890 became a champion of business-oriented conservatism. Dana was an avid art collector of paintings and porcelains and boasted of being in possession of many items not found in several European museums.

Dana was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire on August 8, 1819. He was a descendant of Richard Dana, progenitor of most of the Danas in the United States, who emigrated from England, settled in Cambridge in 1640, and died there about 1695. At the age of twelve, Charles Dana became a clerk in his uncle's general store at Buffalo, until the store failed in 1837. At this time, he began the study of Latin grammar, and prepared himself for college. In 1839 he entered Harvard, but the impairment of his eyesight forced him to leave college in 1841. He also abandoned his intentions to study in Germany and enter the ministry. From September 1841 until March 1846 he lived at Brook Farm, where he was made one of the trustees of the farm, was head waiter when the farm became a Fourierite phalanx, and was in charge of the Phalanx's finances when its buildings were burned in 1846. During his time with Brook Farm, he also wrote for the Transcendental publication, the Harbinger. In 1846, he married widow Eunice MacDaniel.

Dana had written for and managed the Harbinger, the Brook Farm publication, devoted to social reform and general literature. Later, beginning 1844, he also wrote for and edited the Boston Chronotype of Elizur Wright for two years. In 1847 he joined the staff of the New York Tribune, and in 1848 he wrote from Europe letters to it and other papers on the revolutionary movements of that year. In Cologne he visited Karl Marx and Ferdinand Freiligrath. (From 1852 to 1861, Marx was one of the main writers for the New York Daily Tribune).

Returning to the Tribune in 1849, Dana became a proprietor and its managing editor, and in this capacity actively promoted the anti-slavery cause, seeming to shape the paper's policy at a time when Horace Greeley was undecided and vacillating. However, his writing expressed racist feelings towards blacks on at least one occasion. In 1895, as editor of the New York Sun, he wrote "we are in the midst of a growing menace," the year of eventual black heavy weight champion Jack Johnson's first professional fight. "The black man is rapidly forging to the front ranks in athletics, especially in the field of fisticuffs. We are in the midst of a black rise against white supremacy." The extraordinary influence and circulation attained by the newspaper during the ten years preceding the Civil War was in a degree due to the development of Dana's genius for journalism, reflected not only in the making of the Tribune as a newspaper, but also in the management of its staff of writers, and in the steadiness of its policy as the leading organ of anti-slavery sentiment.

In 1861, Dana went to Albany to advance the cause of Greeley as a candidate for the U. S. Senate, and nearly succeeded in nominating him. The caucus was about equally divided between Greeley's friends and those of William M. Evarts, while Ira Harris had a few votes which held the balance of power. At the instigation of Thurlow Weed, the supporters of Evarts went over to Harris.

During the first year of the war, the ideas of Greeley and those of Dana in regard to the proper conduct of military operations were somewhat at variance; the board of managers of the Tribune asked for Dana's resignation in 1862, apparently because of this disagreement and wide temperamental differences between him and Greeley.

When Dana left the Tribune, Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, immediately made him a special Investigating Agent of the War Department during the American Civil War. In this capacity, Dana discovered frauds committed by quartermasters and contractors. As the eyes of the administration, as Abraham Lincoln called him, Dana spent much time at the front, and sent to War Secretary Edwin Stanton frequent reports concerning the capacity and methods of various generals in the field. In particular, the War Department was concerned about rumors of Ulysses S. Grant's alcoholism. Dana spent considerable time with Grant, becoming a close friend and assuaging administration concerns. Dana reported to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that he found Grant "modest, honest, and judicial. . . . 'not an original or brilliant man, but sincere, thoughtful, deep, and gifted with a courage that never faltered.' Although quiet and hard to know, he loved a humorous story and the company of his friends." Dana also observed the growing problem of cotton speculators, who were often going beyond established limits into rebel territory with the purpose of trading and often collaborating with the rebels. Dana warned President Lincoln and Stanton that the cotton trading and all related activity needed to be stopped, maintaining that general Grant was in full agreement with his assessment and recommendations. Dana went through the Vicksburg Campaign and was present at the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign. He urged placing General Grant in supreme command of all the armies in the field, which happened in March 1864. After returning to Washington Dana received a telegram from assistant Secretary of War H.P. Watson, instructing him to go to Washington to pursue another investigation, and was received by Stanton, who offered him the position of Assistant Secretary of War, which he accepted. It was reported in the New York papers the next morning. Dana held this position from 1863 to 1865. With the likely exception of John Rawlins, Dana had a greater influence over Grant's military career than any other political or military man.

In 1865–1866, Dana conducted the newly established and unsuccessful Chicago Republican, when the paper was owned by Jacob Bunn, and published by Alonzo Mack. He became the editor and part-owner of The Sun (New York) in 1868, and remained in control of it until his death. Upon taking control over the organization, he announced his credo:

It will study condensation, clearness, point, and will endeavor to present its daily photograph of the whole world's doings in the most luminous and lively manner.

Under Dana's control, The Sun opposed the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson; it supported Grant for the presidency in 1868; it was a sharp critic of Grant as president; and in 1872 took part in the Liberal Republican revolt and urged Greeley's nomination.

Dana made the Sun a Democratic newspaper, independent and outspoken in the expression of its opinions respecting the affairs of either party. His criticisms of civil maladministration during General Grant's terms as president led to a notable attempt on the part of that administration, in July 1873, to take him from New York on a charge of libel, to be tried without a jury in a Washington police court. Application was made to the United States District Court in New York for a warrant of removal, but in a memorable decision Judge Blatchford, later a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, refused the warrant, holding the proposed form of trial to be unconstitutional. Perhaps to a greater extent than in the case of any other conspicuous journalist, Dana's personality was identified in the public mind with the newspaper that he edited.

In 1876, the Sun favored Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, opposed the Electoral Commission, and continually referred to Rutherford B. Hayes as the "fraud president". In 1884 it supported Benjamin Butler, the candidate of Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopolist parties, for the presidency, and opposed James G. Blaine (Republican) and even more bitterly Grover Cleveland (Democrat). Circulation peaked about 150,000, and the advent of Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World cut deeply into the Sun's circulation. Dana was a very old-fashioned publisher who distrusted the Linotype and relied not on advertising but on the two-cent cover price for his funding.

In 1888 it supported Cleveland and opposed Benjamin Harrison, although it had bitterly criticized Cleveland's first administration, and was to criticize nearly every detail of his second, with the exception of Federal interference in the Pullman strike of 1894; and in 1896, on the free silver issue, it opposed William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for the presidency. In a word, the Sun had abandoned its original working-class clientele and was now a staunch supporter of the conservative business community.

Dana's literary style came to be the style of The Sun—simple, strong, clear, boiled down. He recorded no theories of journalism other than those of common sense and human interest. He was impatient of prolixity, cant, and the conventional standards of news importance. Three of his lectures on journalism were published in 1895 as the Art of Newspaper Making.

With George Ripley he edited The New American Cyclopaedia (1857–1863), reissued as the American Cyclopaedia in 1873-1876.

Dana had an interest in literature. His first book was a volume of stories translated from German, entitled The Black Aunt (New York and Leipzig, 1848). In 1857, he edited an anthology, The Household Book of Poetry. His translation from German of "Nutcracker and Sugardolly: A Fairy Tale" was published in 1856 by the Philadelphia publisher C.G. Henderson & Co. In addition to translating German, Dana could read the Romance and Scandinavian languages. With Rossiter Johnson, he edited, Fifty Perfect Poems (New York, 1883).

Dana edited A Campaign Life of U. S. Grant, published over his name and that of General James H. Wilson in 1868. His Recollections of the Civil War and Eastern Journeys, Some Notes of Travel in Russia, in the Caucasus, and to Jerusalem were published in 1898.

Early in his journalism career, 1849, he wrote a series of newspaper articles in defense of anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his mutual banking ideas. They were published in collected form in 1896 as Proudhon and His Bank of the People by Benjamin Tucker, who did so partly to expose Dana's radical past as Dana had late in life become quite conservative, editorializing against radicals, "reds", and the free silver movement. This book remains in print today through a Charles H. Kerr Company Publishers edition with an introduction by Paul Avrich.

Dana was an art connoisseur. In 1880 he built a large residence in New York City on the corner of Madison Avenue and Sixtieth Street and furnished it with paintings, tapestries, and Chinese porcelains, giving his greatest attention to his porcelains. He devoted much time and historical study in the these areas of art throughout his life, boasting that, "They are not in the British Museum; they are not in the Louvre; and they are conspicuously absent at Dresden."

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"Newspaper Publisher, Civil War Figure, Presidential Cabinet Secretary. As a reporter for the "New York Tribune" he gained nationwide fame in the 1840s when he filed widely reprinted stories from Europe on several revolutionary movements. From 1849 to 1862 he was managing editor, resigning over personality conflicts with editor Horace Greeley. Dana was then hired by the United States War Department to investigate Civil War battlefield conditions. He uncovered numerous frauds by contractors and quartermasters and also provided Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln reports on the conduct of several generals, allaying concerns that General Ulysses S. Grant was ineffective because of alcoholism. Dana stayed with General Grant through the Battle of Chattanooga and successfully urged Abraham Lincoln to name Grant commander of all Union armies. Dana was Assistant Secretary of War from 1864 to 1865, aiding in the management of the department at the close of the war. In 1866 he founded the "Chicago Republican", remaining with this newspaper until becoming part owner of the "New York Sun" in 1868. The "Sun' became influential nationwide under Dana's leadership, opposing the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and supporting Grant for President. Dana later turned against Grant over corruption in his administration, supporting Democrats and occasional third-party candidates. He was also a noted author, and his works included "The Art of Newspaper Making" and 'Reminiscences of the Civil War.'" [https://www.findagrave.com/.../1906.../charles-anderson-dana]