The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

THE EARLIER CAREER OF DANA

211

Here is a part of a letter which Dana wrote in 1852
to James S. Pike, the Washington correspondent of the
Tribune:
KEENEST OF PIKES:
What a desert void of news you keep at Washington!
For goodness' sake, kick up a row of some sort. Fight
a duel, defraud the Treasury, set fire to the fueling-mill,
get Black Dan [Webster] drunk, or commit some other
excess that will make a stir.
The solemn phrases of transcendentalism had vanished from the tip of Dana's pen.
In the fight over slavery in the fifties, the effort of
Greeley and Dana was against the further spread of
the institution over new American territory, rather than
for its complete overthrow. When Greeley was at the
helm, the Tribune appeared to admit the possibility of
secession, a forerunner of " Let the erring sisters depart
in peace." But when Dana was left in charge, the editorials pleaded for the integrity of the Union at any cost.
Greeley was heart and soul for liberty, but his fist was
not in the fight. Of the political situation in 1854,
Henry Wilson wrote, in his "Rise and Fall of the
Slave Power "
At the outset Mr. Greeley was hopeless, and seemed
disinclined to enter the contest. He told his associates
that he would not restrain them; but, as for himself, he
had no heart for the strife. They were more hopeful;
and Richard Hildreth, the historian; Charles A. Dana,
the veteran journalist; James S. Pike, and other able
writers, opened and continued a powerful opposition in
its columns, and did very much to rally and assure the
irieads of freedom and nerve them for the fight.
Dana went farther than Greeley cared to go, particularly in his attacks on the Democrats; so far, in