March 26, 1861; The New York Herald
Nearly thirty years ago Messrs. Tappan, Hale and Hallock set up an anti-slavery newspaper in the city of New York. Instead of publishing the news, they devoted their columns to details of alleged cruelties practiced by slaveholders upon their chattels. A baser attempt at political demoralization was never attempted, and the worst publications of French sansculottes writers are innocuous compared with these records. The establishment of this pestilent sheet was the commencement of the anti-slavery crusade which has now resulted in the dissolution of the Union, the overthrow of this hitherto great nation, this superb governmental fabric, the work of Washington and the patriots and sages who lighted the torch of liberty at Lexington and saw its full blaze at Yorktown. More than all this, the work of Tappan, Hallock, Hale & co. has arrested the progress of this imperial city, paralyzed its trade, and thrown thousand of honest artisans upon the charity of a cold and heartless world. The publication to which we refer is the Journal of Commerce, the vehicle through which the first grain of abolition poison was administered. What merchant will not kick this sheet out of his counting room?