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Mark Holland

9/7/2004

Pierce, Civil War & Reconstruction

 

Harper’s Weekly and the Buildup to War

 

Harper’s Weekly was one of the most influential journals in 19th century America. Founded initially in 1850 by the four Harper brothers; James, John, Joseph, and Fletcher; the Harper’s Monthly at first focused only on publishing works by authors such as Dickens and Thackeray, until the great success of that venture prompted the brothers to release it weekly, thus the name Harper’s Weekly was adopted.

 

 

In 1860, with circulation of the magazine reaching 200,000, author Thomas Nast was hired. Nast worked with the Weekly for twenty years, and in that time helped to develop political cartoons, Uncle Sam, and came up with the idea to use donkeys and elephants to represent the Democratic and Republican Party respectively.

 

 

During the initial buildup to the Civil War, the journal portrayed a surprisingly reasonable stance on slavery and other issues pertaining to the South, surprising because the Weekly was published in New York of all places! The editor of the Weekly reasoned that this was because he did not want to lose the substantial amount of Southern readership that his paper possessed. It is also interesting to note that the Weekly supported Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat) in the 1860 election, and then supported to support Abraham Lincoln (Republican) during wartime. From the above, one could make the assumption that the paper was pro-union after the outbreak of the Civil War, a stance that it could now safely take since it’s Southern readers now belonged (in some eyes) to a separate nation.

The Weekly in 1861

 

For a newspaper from the North, the Weekly gave considerable attention to Southern political leaders in the months leading up to the war. An example of this is in the January 5th, 1861 edition of the journal, which gave biographies of the major political figures in Georgia, the state next on the list of secession. This supports the paper’s somewhat neutral stance before the war, as the biographies were written impartially as opposed to other Northern papers of the time, which tended to portray Southern leaders in a somewhat lesser light. The rest of January focused on Major Robert Anderson and the transfer of the garrison of Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter.

 

The first issue in February focused on prominent Mississippi politicians, including Jefferson Davis. The paper made a fairly accurate statement, proclaiming that Davis would “occupy a high position, either in the Southern Confederacy or in the United States.” As noted before, the Weekly continued it’s moderate stance on secession and the sectional strife gripping the nation. In the events leading up to the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the paper still remained surprisingly in the middle. While most Northern papers were condemning the actions of the Southern forces surrounding the Union garrison at Sumter, the Weekly still refused to commit totally to the Northern side. Again, one would assume this would be to keep a hold on their readers in the South until the latest, after which they would publicly support the North, as was stated earlier.

 

Even after the attack on Sumter, the Weekly treated the event as a critical turning point in American history. One has to respect the fact that the Weekly was in a neutral stance up until the actual start of hostilities, a fact that was lacking in the majority of newspapers and journals at this time. The Weekly continued to put out detailed reports of battles, campaigns, and political occurrences throughout the war, and continued to run strong for the rest of the century.

[Steviekick 0]

Good Article...B+

[TheFranchise 0]

***3/4

[The Mandarin 0]

**1/2, too many restholds during the middle.

[TheFranchise 0]

**1/2, too many restholds during the middle.

Don't no-sell the newspaper from the North.