Charles A. Dana (Auguse 8, 1819–October 17, 1897) was
one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century journalism. As the editor of the influential New York Sun, Dana
molded the newspaper into a lively, well-written sheet that
appealed to the urban working class population. Dana’s Sun
was an example of a new independent press of the Gilded
Age that was political, but not overtly partisan. Historians
have described newspapers like the Sun as “personal journalism,” in which the content is a reflection of the editor’s
personality and views, rather than political partisanship or
the independent and objective presentation of a more modern professional paper.
Little in Dana’s early life presaged a career in journalism. Born in 1819 into a poor family in New Hampshire,
Dana had a difficult childhood and was forced to live with an uncle in Buffalo through his teenage years. His success
as a student, however, offered Dana an opportunity to study
at Harvard, beginning in 1839. He managed to complete
only a year and a half of classes before dropping out due
to lack of financial resources. While at Harvard, Dana was
attracted to Transcendentalism and its dedication to social
reform. In 1841, Dana joined the experimental community
of radicals and intellectuals at Brook Farm, in rural Massachusetts, and taught school there. He also wrote for the
Harbinger, a weekly newspaper dedicated to Fourierism, a
type of Christian socialism that promoted producer-owned
cooperatives and respect for the working man. Although the
Brook Farm community broke up after a short time, Dana
met his wife, Eunice MacDaniel Dana, there and continued
to correspond with former members.
Dana got his start in New York journalism in 1846 with
the assistance of Horace Greeley, another friend from the
days at Brook Farm. Impressed with Dana’s intellect and
skill as a writer, Greeley hired Dana as a reporter for the
New York Tribune, one of the most influential and widely
circulated papers in the nation. Dana became the paper’s
city editor in early 1847. In 1848, as political unrest and
class warfare broke out across Europe, Dana arranged a
deal to cover the uprisings for several New York papers.
Although his experiences in Europe did little to change his
sympathy for the laboring classes, Dana returned to America in early 1849 with less enthusiasm for radicalism and a
greater appreciation of gradual reform. Dana became the
managing editor of the Tribune and acted as Greeley’s second in command. Many journalists of the time considered
Dana to be nearly as important as Greeley in maintaining
the Tribune’s excellence during the 1850s. Greeley and
Dana were influential voices in Whig/Republican politics
during that decade, but quarreled over the slavery question
as the Civil War neared, with Dana being much less willing to compromise with the South. Dana resigned from the
Tribune in 1862.
Dana’s connections in the Republican Party led him
to a position in government service during the Civil War.
He was initially appointed to a commission investigating
wartime corruption. While investigating conditions in the
Army on the western battlefields, Dana developed close ties
with General Ulysses S. Grant and became one of the general’s most ardent supporters. With Grant’s assistance, he
was later appointed Assistant Secretary of War, a position
he held to the end of the conflict.
Dana had always occupied the more radical wing of the
Republican Party and this remained true through the postwar period. Rather than setting up shop in New York again,
Dana accepted an offer from a group of Chicago businessmen to edit a paper to rival the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Republican under Dana promoted suffrage rights for
black Americans, demanded punishment for the leaders of
the Confederacy, and expressed a growing opposition to
President Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction policies. The
newspaper also reflected the pro-business orientation of its
backers and promoted development and industrial growth
in the city. Dana edited the newspaper for ten months and
then left for unknown reasons, although the paper’s owners
were likely uncomfortable with his political views.
Dana’s rise to prominence in journalism truly began
when he bought the New York Sun, the first “penny paper,”
from Moses Beach in 1868. The Sun had long been popular among the artisans and working men of the city, most
of whom were Democrats. If anyone was surprised that a
prominent Republican would buy this paper, they had forgotten about Dana’s early involvement with social reform
and his long advocacy of workers’ rights. Dana edited the
paper with a constant independence from party and it continued to reflect his personal views, which turned increasingly
Democratic. The Sun was no sure backer of Democratic
candidates, however. Dana offered only lukewarm support
to many of them and backed a Greenback-Labor candidate
over the Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1884. He broke
totally with the party after William Jennings Bryan won
the 1896 nomination. He also became more conservative on
the question of labor rights by the end of his career, due in
part to his attitudes about immigrants.
The Sun served as a model for a successful paper under
Dana. He hired skilled writers to produce clear and concise copy and expanded the definition of news to include
more human interest stories. The paper was famous for its
playful “casual essays” on interesting topics. Dana also
revamped the paper’s outward appearance, cleaning up the
type font and reducing the number of columns per page.
Dana believed that advertising was a waste of newsprint and
hoped to someday publish the Sun entirely from subscription revenues. Although this was never possible, advertisements were limited as much as possible. By 1874, the Sun
had the largest circulation among New York daily newspapers. The paper’s popularity was undercut later in the
century by competition for the working class reader from
Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Readers were turned
away by his weak support for the Democratic Party and
circulation dropped rapidly. Dana remained committed to
using the paper to express his own views and remained editor until he passed away on October 17, 1897.
Further Reading
Rosebault, Charles J. When Dana was the Sun. New York:
McBride and Co., 1931.
Steele, Janet E. The Sun Shines for All: Journalism and Ideology in the Life of Charles A. Dana. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
University Press, 1993.
Stone, Candace. Dana and the Sun. New York: Dodd, Mead and
Co., 1938.
Robert Rabe