New York Post

The New York Evening Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1800. Hamilton chose William Coleman as the first editor. He remained in charge until being replaced by William Cullen Bryant in 1829. Bryant, who remained in control for the next fifty years, was a strong opponent of slavery and gave support to the emerging trade union movement. In June, 1836, Bryant defended the striking Society of Journeyman Tailors by linking the issue with slavery: "They are condemned because they are determined not to work for the wages offered them. If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition."

In 1881 Henry Villard, a German immigrant with progressive political views, acquired a controlling influence in the New York Evening Post. He appointed Carl Schurz, another radical born in Germany, as managing editor. He was replaced two years later by Edwin Godkin, the former editor of The Nation, another journal owned by Villard.

When Henry Villard died in 1900 the New York Evening Post was taken over by his son, Oswald Garrison Villard. He held radical political opinions and gave his support to women's suffrage, trade union law reform and equal rights for African Americans. Villard was a founder member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACTU).

A pacifist, Villard opposed America's participation in the First World War. This upset his patriotic readers and advertisers and Villard was forced to sell the New York Evening Post in 1918.

Dorothy Schiff purchased the New York Evening Post in 1939. She appointed Ted Thackrey as editor who turned it into a streamlined tabloid. It remained a supporter of progressive politics and was the only New York City daily to support Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate for president, in 1952 and 1956. Schiff sold the newspaper to the Australian, Rupert Murdoch, in 1977.

Primary Sources

(1) William Cullen Bryant, New York Evening Post (13th June, 1836)

They are condemned because they are determined not to work for the wages offered them. If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition. Strike the right of associating for the sale of labour from the privileges of a freeman, and you may as well as once bind him to a master.