THE ATLANTIC
(Atlantic Monthly | The Atlantic Monthly)
This quotation illustrates how public approval of politicians has radically changed over the years bouncing up and down like a Yo Yo. In 1872, when this was written, the standing of politicians was low. During and after Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, the public more admired politicians. Opinions deteriorated and hit a new low with Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression only to rise again with FDR and WWII. Often the view of the presidency colors the public perception of all politicians, but sometimes there is a differential. During President’s Barack Obama’s first term, he was reasonably popular, but the public approval of the Congress had eroded to 10 percent, the lowest in recorded history.
The same problem has always existed with full scale trade wars always a possibility.
Getting agreement of different nations on copyright protection has always been a problem.
This quotation appeared in the middle of an 1862 article on the Civil War written by the great writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. The article had been mailed to the Atlantic Monthly editors in New York from Washington. There were a number of pages of descriptions of specific Cabinet Members and other politicians, their understanding of the issues in the war, and a description of how they spent their time, At the time, it was common for partisan newspapers and magazines to attack politicians of the other party. But the Atlantic, only 5 years old then was a very rare American publication. It was totally non partisan, artistic and literary as well as concerned with current and political events. It only ran articles of serious, (some argued elite) writers. Hawthorn’s material on the politicians was not very complimentary and would have been regarded by them and their supporters as a political attack. So the editors deleted the material that referred negatively to individuals, Their apology was as much to the author, Hawthorne—“our friend”—as it was to the readers. At the time, the New York Times, also non partisan, refrained from serious negative material about politicians and celebrities. This quotation shows us the journalistic and literary standards of the “better” publications of the time. To this day, even when running negative articles about politicians and celebrities, these publications will never use the extreme and sensational language of the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Post, the National Inquirer, and many other “tabloid” type publications.
This editorial was an excellent summary of the issue of Mormon polygamy where both sides are described. The Thugs were a violent religious sect in India where females were forced into marriage.
The reference was to President Ulysses S. Grant’s message to Congress which was particularly candid, substantive, and specific.
The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, as The Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers' commentary on education, the abolition of slavery, and other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf Whittier. James Russell Lowell was its first editor. It is known for publishing literary pieces by leading writers.
