Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/80

72 Of these, some were of short and others were of long duration. The first of them was The Impartial Citizen, at Syracuse, N. Y., in 1848, published by Samuel Ward.

Mr. Ward was a very intelligent and sober man, and conducted his journal on a very lofty plane. He was as able as any other journalist since that time, and his publication was managed with as much shrewdness and practical ability as any of his day. By many he was regarded as an abler speaker than writer.

The principles for which the paper fought are indicated by its name. It clamored particularly for Afro-American citizenship at the North, and the freedom of the slave at the South.

Mr. Douglass, an able man himself, says—"To my mind, Mr. Ward was the ablest black man the country has ever produced." It follows that Mr. Ward must have been an able man.

The Citizen advocated, with convincing logic, political action against slavery. Though the paper had unfortunately but a brief existence, it gained for itself the reputation of being a spirited sheet. The editor of The North Star, which was a contemporary of The Citizen, says—"Mr. Ward was an educated man, and his paper was ably edited." This was an excellent effort at journalism.

There was now no Afro-American journal published in New York City. The Ram's Horn having been suspended in 1848, left the Afro-Americans in that city without any organ.

While journals, backed by men of brains, were springing up in other parts of the North, New York City contained, probably, a greater number of able black men, both speakers and writers than could be found elsewhere.

Mr. Louis H. Putman, a man identified with all the Afro-American interests, began the publication of The Colored Man's Journal, in New York City. It was backed by a man of some financial strength, and therefore survived many a