Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/217

Rh But the Federalist attack failed; the Federalist party was defeated and, with the advent of Jefferson into power, there began the dissolution of the first political party in the country, the only one to misinterpret so wilfully the character of the government that this was to be.

It is unfortunate that those who write of this period, even after so many years, do so with some of the acrimony of the times. To admire Hamilton is to disparage Jefferson, and vice versa. In this regard the student of journalism is more happily placed than the student of politics, for to both men journalism is largely, and very nearly equally, indebted. The most influential conservative paper to-day, the New York Evening Post, was Hamilton's own undertaking, while to Jefferson's belief in the masses, and in a government resting on a broad popular appeal,, we owe much of the development of the great popular journals that came later with what was called the cheap press, the press for "even" the workingmen.

The very success of this conservative press has proved the justification of Hamilton's industry, though it is never the conservative press that rules the country. Nevertheless we shall see it, under the leadership of Godkin and others, one of the most effective forces in the country for certain specific governmental reforms.

The political triumph of Jefferson in 1800 "was an event of importance in the history of the world." It marked, moreover, the retirement of Hamilton from national life, although he could not and did not give up his interest in the affairs of his state. It was this, more than a desire to found a national organ, that led him, shortly after the inauguratibn of Jefferson, to establish with John Jay and a group of Federalists, the New York