From the New York Tribune. EDITORIAL. "In the death of Hon. Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, the Press of our city has lost one of its ablest and most eminent members, Mr. Raymond, after graduating with distinction at the University of Vermont, came directly to this city in the autumn of 1840, and was employed on the New-Yorker, for which he had written with force and spirit while a student. The Tribune was started the next April, and Mr. Raymond held the second place on its editorial staff from the outset until the autumn of 1848, when he resigned it to accept a like position on the Courier and Enquirer, which he likewise relinquished after a few years; visiting Europe with his family, and being repeatedly elected to the Assembly of our State, whereof he was in the second term chosen speaker. He now started the Times, of which he was from the first sole editor, though well served by assistants. He was chosen Lieutenant-Governor of our State in 1854, and elected to Congress from our Sixth District in 1864. Mr. Johnson, in 1867, nominated him for Minister to Austria, but the Senate did not confirm the selection. "Mr. Raymond's official career, though evincing ability, did less than justice to his comprehensive knowledge and rare intellectual powers. Never so positive and downright in his convictions as his countrymen are apt to be, he was often misjudged as a trimmer and time-server, when in fact he spoke and wrote exactly as he felt and thought. If what he uttered to-day was not in full accordance with what he said yesterday, the difference evinced in his essay was a true reflection of one which had preceded it in his mind. He saw both sides of a controverted issue, and, if one of them seemed the juster to-day, the other might nevertheless command his preference to-morrow. This mental constitution or mental habitude is rare with us, and he would have been more favorably judged as a journalist or politician in Great Britain than in this country. "Mr. Raymond would have ranked in England as a 'Liberal Conservative,' and would have followed the flag now of Gladstone, then of Lord Stanley, occasionally siding with Robert Lowe, and again with Beresford Hope. He was sincerely favorable to liberty, reform, and progress; he was no less sincerely averse to rash or violent changes, and anxious that progress should be regular and equable, never shocking a prejudiced nor fluttering a timorous breast. It is perhaps unfortunate, but none the less true, that giant wrongs and strongly fortified abuses are not thus to be overborne. "There were probably others who evinced greater ability in some special department; but, regarding journalism in its broadest aspects, we doubt whether this country has known a journalist superior to Henry J. Raymond. He was an admirable reporter, a discerning critic, a skilful selecter and compiler of news, as well as an able and ready writer. There was nothing in the whole range of newspaper work that he could not do well, and (what is of equal importance) with unhesitating promptness. He was never too sick to work when work had to be done, and always able and willing to do any amount of labor that the exigency might require. Others may have evinced a rarer faculty, which some might term genius; but Mr. Raymond embodied talents that have rarely been surpassed. "Genial, unassuming, and thoroughly informed by study, observation, and travel, Mr. Raymond was a delightful companion, and his society was widely courted and enjoyed. A thoroughly capable and effective canvasser, he has for years shunned public speaking whenever it could be avoided, finding enough to do without it, and having no decided love for the sound of his own voice. Snatched away so suddenly, in the prime of life and in the midst of its activities, his death makes a void that will not easily be filled, while his widow and children are called to mourn a loss at once astounding and irreparable." From the New York Herald. "THE DEATH OF HENRY J. RAYMOND -MODERN JOURNALISM. "One of the central lights of the New York daily press has been suddenly extinguished. Henry J. Raymond, late the active head and controlling mind of the Times, is no more. The circumstances of his death yesterday morning, and the leading events of his public career, we give elsewhere in these columns. In the prime of life, and apparently possessing a physical constitution unshaken by his active public labors of a quarter of a century, the announcement of his death was somewhat startling, as another unlooked-for admonition of the uncertainties of this earthly existence. He leaves behind him the reputation of a brilliant speaker, an able and accomplished writer, a good, experienced, and successful journalist, a respected neighbor, and a useful citizen. His name is conspicuous in that distinguished catalogue of 'self-made men,' who, by dint of their individual energy, tact, industry, and perseverance, have risen from poverty and obscurity to influence and affluence. His example will be an encouragement to others setting out excel· sior from the valley of humiliation for the distant table-lands of distinction and prosperity. "The history of Mr. Raymond, however, is but the history of many others who have climbed from obscurity to distinction, varying only in its details. He came to this city a poor youth, seeking employment. He chose the career of a journalist, with an eye to practical results, and made it a success. His preliminary training as a reporter and sub-editor qualified him for the undertaking of a new daily on his own account. He was fortunate, too, in the opening presented (1851) for the Times. At that period the demand for morning newspapers in the city was greater than the supply. The machinery and facilities of the Herald establishment, for instance, were not equal to the morning's demand for the Herald at that day. The surplus of readers unsupplied offered a fair margin for a new journal, which it was the good fortune of the Times to seize upon, and, in bringing forward this new journal, Mr. Raymond's experience had taught him to abandon the old school of the old stage-coach and sailing-ship epoch of the Courier and Enquirer, and to fall in with the new school of the Herald, of the new epoch of steamships and railways. The Times was established on the Herald idea of the latest news, and, as Mr. Raymond comprehended it, upon the Herald idea of editorial independence. We had, in fact, opened a new placer, - a regular White Pine silver mine; and numerous diggers undertook to work the vein at various points. Thus the Times came into the field, and from the margin suggested to begin with as a penny paper, it gradually built up a constituency of its own, and became an established success. But had we possessed in 1851 our lightning presses and stereotyping facilities of the present day, there would have been no opening for the Times, as there is no opening here now for a new morning newspaper, except upon an enormous outlay of capital, with the hazards of heavy losses for a year or two, and then a collapse. "The costly machinery and appliances of modern journalism give a security to established popular newspapers which did not exist in the primary formation. Thus a morning daily, established upon all these modern improvements and advantages, becomes a fixed institution to be transmitted from one generation of conductors and readers to another. Hence we may conclude that the Times, notwithstanding the death of Mr. Raymond, will go on as before, and that ere long his son, now at Yale College, will put on the harness and worthily maintain the editorial status of his father, with the continued prosperity of his paper. From this modern school of established popular journals it is apparent, too, that as the whole newspaper press of the country has improved, and is improving, it will still advance with the spirit, the progress and the requirements of the age. "But there is another lesson suggested from Mr. Raymond's career, which is worthy of some attention. He was a politician as well as a journalist, and in attempting to subordinate his functions as a journalist to his aspirations as a party politician he failed in both characters. No man can serve two masters.' Mr. Raymond pushed the experiment to the wall; but, driven at last to a choice, he wisely abandoned the rôle of an aspiring party politician for that of the untrammelled editor. The wisdom, however, of the Herald's example of standing aloof from intriguing and treacherous party politicians he had to learn from dear experience. Old Thad. Stevens' settled the question, and evidently satisfied Mr. Raymond that even in conducting a party journal which pays, it is unsafe to have any other irons in the fire. In the line in which he was successful, and in the political party adventures in which he failed, there are valuable lessons for newspaper men, while in his general editorial course of moderation, dignity, courtesy, and refinement, his example will command universal respect. Indeed, it would be well if with the public press it were the universal law.' The New York World, which had also been engaged in fierce controversies with the Times, published the following estimate of Mr. Raymond's character: "Mr. Raymond's life, brief as it was, covered and was contemporaneous with the rise and growth and progress to maturity of the New York Press such as we see it to-day. He entered the ranks of the profession when it was but poorly and partially recognized as a profession at all; he has fallen in his ripe manhood, conspicuous among its chiefs, when its duties and its responsibilities have multiplied and come into the light, until it is seen and felt of all men to be the truest power for good or evil in the land. His work has been done through years few in number, but in pregnancy of meaning and of influence how grave and full! He rests from it now. May he rest in peace! And well will it be for the American press and the American people, if no journalist of equal ability and influence shall ever in the future less worthily devote the one and exert the other than he whom we are called now to lay in what men call his 'untimely grave.'” Tardy justice was done to Mr. Raymond by Horace Greeley, in the passages quoted, on a previous page, from the columns of the Tribune. The man being dead, the Tribune confessed that in his life he had been "misjudged ; " that he had not been a "time-server;" that, "in fact, he spoke and wrote exactly as he felt and thought." Yet, through many years, Raymond was to Greeley "a little villain," a phrase of Tribune invention too frequently used as a term of opprobrium, — a a "trickster," a traitor to principle, devoid of honor, destitute of common honesty. Raymond died, and the Tribune at once retracted its harsh judgment. The alternative conditions, therefore, are simple: either Mr. Greeley's prejudice had obscured the truth while Mr. Raymond lived, or the truth was insincerely uttered when the man was dead. Let us, for sweet charity's sake, adopt the former, in the belief that the Tribune expressed its absolute conviction in the words of eulogy uttered at the last. Tardy justice is better than no justice at all; but the judicial impartiality which is not swayed by personal hatred, nor perverted by political antagonism, is in all cases the best and manliest. Henry J. Raymond was at no period of his career the character described by the Tribune and the Herald. Living, he was the target for poisoned shafts. Dead, his revilers confessed their error. Human fallibility had thus another illustration. 1 CHAPTER XXI. AT REST. FUNERAL CEREMONIES ELOQUENT ADDRESS BY REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. THE funeral of Henry J. Raymond, which took place on Monday, the 21st of June, was attended by an immense concourse of relatives and friends. After appropriate ceremonies at the residence of the family in New York, the remains were conveyed to the University Place Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Tenth Street and University Place, the followingnamed gentlemen officiating as pall-bearers: The Mayor of the City, Admiral Farragut, On the arrival of the funeral procession at the church, the clergy, consisting of Rev. Dr. Tyng, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Alfred A. Kellogg, and Rev. Dr. Shedd, proceeded to the porch, and there received the remains, which they preceded up the aisle, Dr. Tyng reading the appropriate services. The usual services of the Episcopal Church were then read by Dr. Tyng. The following address was delivered by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher : "It is not expected that I should indulge in eulogy, nor even that I should attempt to recount the prominent facts in the history of him who is gone. But a few days ago he walked in manly vigor and unceasing activity. But to-day! Not when he was born, nor when he was in his cradle was he weaker |