North Shore, April 26, 1865.
My Dear Charles,
— Yours of the 24th reaches me this evening. I cannot at once decide upon the
proposition which you make, — for I should wish to ask several questions.
I doubt if $50,000 is capital enough to start such a paper
as you contemplate, and I am far from sure that it is really needed. It seems
to me always best to use existing machinery if possible, and I fear that the
influence which would control the new paper would constantly tend to make it
outrun the popular sympathy upon whose support it must rely, so far as to defeat
its purpose, by limiting its circulation to those who need no conversion. Do
not the “Atlantic,” the “North American,” the “Evening Post,” and “Harper's
Weekly” — to go no further — address the various parts of the audience that are
counted upon for a new paper, and are there not great advantages in having the
questions presented in these different forms? The change in public sentiment
upon the true democratic idea is so wide and deep, that an organ for special
reform in the matter does not seem to be required. It — the reform — has now
become the actual point of the political movement of the country; and the same
reasoning which justifies the abandonment of the abolition societies and organs
pleads against your project.
If I lay more stress upon the special object of the paper
than its projectors intend, then it becomes merely a liberal Weekly of the most
advanced kind, and I can see no particular reason for its success.
As for myself, I am perfectly free to say what I think upon
all public questions in “Harper's Weekly” without the least trouble or
responsibility for the details of the paper, and with no necessity of even
being at the office. The audience is immense. The regular circulation is about
one hundred thousand, and on remarkable occasions, as now, more than two
hundred thousand. This circulation is among that class which needs exactly the
enlightenment you propose, and access is secured to it by the character of the
paper as an illustrated sheet. I should want some very persuasive inducement to
relinquish the hold I already have upon this audience, for I could not hope to
regain it in a paper of a different kind. Of course, “Harper's Weekly” is not
altogether such a paper as I should prefer for my own taste; but it does seem
to me as if I could do with it the very work you propose, and upon a much
greater scale than in the form you suggest; nor is the pecuniary advantage of
your offer such as to shake this conviction.
Now from what I say you will see how I feel. The offer you
make is so handsome and honorable that I do not decline it, unless you must
have an immediate answer. If the affair can still remain open, will you tell me
if the capital is secured — if the paper is to be started anyhow, — if
there is any person selected for the business editor — whether it is to be a
joint-stock association — and what the size, etc., of the paper is intended to
be.
If you have the time to inform me upon these and such
points, I will not delay long in giving you a final answer.
Always your
affectionate,
G. W. Curtis.
SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p.
189-92
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