story. Mr. Bailey,
who had acquired an interest in 1855 and became sole proprietor a year
later, decided to sell out, and on April 1 it was announced that he had
disposed of the paper to Royal M. Pulsifer, Edwin B. Haskell, Charles H.
Andrews, Justin Andrews, and George G. Bailey. All these gentlemen were
at the time and had for some years previously been connected with the
Herald: the first-named in the business department, the next three on
the editorial staff, and the last as foreman of the composing-room. In
announcing their purchase, the firm, which was then and ever since has
been styled R.M. Pulsifer and Company, said in the editorial column: "We
shall use our best endeavors to make the Herald strictly a newspaper,
with the freshest and most trustworthy intelligence of all that is going
on in this busy age; and to this end we shall spare no expense in any
department.... The Herald will be in the future, as it has been in the
past, essentially a people's paper, the organ of no clique or party,
advocating at all proper times those measures which tend to promote the
welfare of our country, and to secure the greatest good to the greatest
number. It will exert its influence in favor of simplicity and economy
in the administration of the government, and toleration and liberality
in our social institutions. It will not hesitate to point out abuses or
to commend good measures, from whatever source they come, and it will
contain candid reports of all proceedings which go to make up the
discussions of current topics. It will give its readers all the news,
condensed when necessary and in an intelligible and readable form, with
a free use of the telegraph by reliable reporters and correspondents."
That these promises have been sacredly fulfilled up to the present
moment cannot be denied even by readers and contemporary sheets whose
opinions have been in direct opposition to those expressed in the
Herald's editorial columns. No pains or expense have been spared to
obtain the news from all quarters of the globe, and the paper's most
violent opponent will find it impossible to substantiate a charge that
the intelligence collected with such care and thoroughness has in a
single instance been distorted or colored in the publication to suit the
editorial policy pursued at the time. The expression of opinions has
always, under the present management, been confined to the editorial
columns, and here a course of absolute independence h