House Divided - Dickinson College
The breach with White came because White supported the breakaway Liberal Republicans, reformists who nominated Horace Greeley for president.
It was also at this time that Medill broke with Greeley. Under Medill's management, the Tribune flourished, becoming one of the largest newspapers in Chicago. Medill served as its managing editor until , when Horace White became editor-in-chief. At that time Medill left day-to-day operations of the Tribune for political activities. But White clashed with Medill over the presidential election of So, in Medill bought additional equity from Cowles and from White, becoming majority owner.
In , he replaced White as editor-in-chief. Medill served as editor-in-chief until his death. Medill died in San Antonio, Texas, on March 16, Miscellaneous papers concerning the administration of the Joseph Medill Trust Medill was managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. Letters to and from Joseph Medill, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune.
Papers concerning the estate of Joseph Medill managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. The Eleanor Medill Cissy Patterson Papers consist chiefly of Medill, McCormick and Patterson family correspondence, Joseph Medill business and political letters, Chicago Tribune historical material, and a collection of letters of Joseph Medill and others to and from important people.
The papers cover the years , approximately, with most of the material falling in the period.
Joseph medill biography
He was also briefly mayor of Chicago , his term in office occurring during two of the most important years of the city's history as the city tried to rebuild in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire. Medill took a strong stand with regard to the role of a good newspaper in society, arguing that the press must represent truth , and goodness in order to advance the intellectual, social, and moral welfare of the public.
Although he rejected unproven news, abhorring rumor and gossip, especially in the form of attacks, he was vocal in his own opinions, even when they were not founded in fact. His legacy lies not only in having built the Chicago Tribune into a powerful force in moral journalism , his descendants also became major figures in the newspaper business: grandson Robert R.
He graduated from Massilon Village Academy in , but the family could not afford to send him to college due to losses incurred from a fire. Medill was mainly self-educated, mostly by reading any books he could come across, and he had a preference for history, travel, and biography books. At the age of 21, Medill began to study law in Canton, Illinois and was admitted to the bar in November McIlvaine, who would later become chief justice of Ohio.
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In this capacity, he would also come to know such men as Salmon P. Despite his training as a lawyer , Medill began spending more and more time in country newspaper offices. Lawyers, teachers, and anyone else interested in politics would gather in newspaper offices. Medill would spend his fee time arguing politics with fellow townspeople and would learn to set type, operate a hand press, and contribute an occasional editorial.
He would continue to practice law for several years before becoming an editor, buying or establishing small newspapers with a bias towards Whig and Free Soil leanings, frequently in the name of the anti- slavery movement. While helping to organize abolitionist political groups with the Whig Party during the start of his newspaper career in the late s, Medill met his future wife Katharine, one of his former students when he taught at a district school.
The couple would marry on September 2, and later had three girls named Elinor, Katharine, and Josephine. Later in life, after he joined the Chicago Tribune and started making a name for himself as an editor, Medill became known as a man of eccentricities. He liked to fraternize with scientists such as Thomas Edison whenever possible, but there were times when he held sunspots accountable for various calamities, such as when Chicago suffered some deaths from influenza during an unusually mild January.
His suspicion of sunspots faded when he read about the new discovery of microbes. A few hours after sending the letter, Medill died of organic heart trouble at the age of In the spring of , at the age of 32, Medill sold his interest in the Cleveland Leader, a paper he founded, and came to Chicago. He intended to purchase the eight-year-old, nearly- bankrupt Chicago Tribune but lacked the funds for a full buyout.
He bought a one-third interest and became managing editor, while his friend and colleague, Charles H. Ray, bought a one-quarter interest to become editor-in-chief. Medill and Ray took active hold of the paper on July 21, and the property made money in their first month. As the editor-in-chief, he installed a steam press and the first copper faced type ever used by an Illinois newspaper.
He also believed that preparing, inspiring, and assembling great articles would require a unique kind of skill and fortitude that good minds and honest hearts could make. After Horace White sold his interest to purchase into the Tribune and become editor in chief in , Medill left the paper to tackle more political roles, until he became mayor in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire of In , after his resignation as mayor, Medill toured Europe and returned to Chicago with a new desire to return to the Tribune.
Medill borrowed enough money from Field to buy up controlling shares of the Tribune, resuming a command of the paper that would last until his death. It took nine years for Medill to completely repay Field for the loan, and Medill was constantly annoyed whenever Field offered advice on how to run the paper. John, New Brunswick , Canada, on April 6, His father, who had emigrated from Ireland, moved the family to Ohio in Except for brief schooling, young Medill educated himself.
He studied law with attorneys and was admitted to the bar in But law practice was uncertain, so he turned to journalism, purchasing the Coshocton Whig in and renaming it the Republican. In he established the Daily Forest City in Cleveland, which he consolidated the following year with the Free Democrat; he called the new paper the Cleveland Leader.
In Medill married Katherine Patrick.
Joseph Medill - Encyclopedia.com
Medill did not found the Chicago Tribune. He bought an interest in it in , the year he became managing editor, and he bought controlling interest in Many people were involved in establishing the Tribune, but Medill gave the paper its impetus and direction. Most authorities credit Medill with popularizing the name "Republican" for the rising new political party.
He tried to get Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation many months before Lincoln thought reasonable. He personally reported many of Lincoln's speeches, and Lincoln often visited the Tribune offices before he became president.
Item 1 of 3: Joseph Medill (April 6, – March 16, ) was a Canadian-American newspaper editor, publisher, and Republican Party politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, and he was Mayor of Chicago from after the Great Chicago Fire of until
Medill was opposed to a compromise of any type with the South and joined the Radical Republicans after the Civil War. The Chicago fire of destroyed the Tribune building, but the Tribune was back on the streets in 2 days. The first, revitalized issue carried Medill's famous editorial "Cheer Up. One of the Tribune's greatest achievements was the publication in May of a page special supplement that gave the complete, newly revised version of the New Testament.
Medill also promoted his city, and largely through his efforts Chicago became the site of the World's Columbian Exposition of In , Medill left the Tribune editorship for political activity, which occupied him for the next ten years. In , he was elected as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional convention.
Medill joined with Samuel Snowden Hayes and Rosell Hough prominent Chicago Democrats in order to oppose conditions of military draft laws during the American Civil War , feeling that the government was demanding too many troops to be drafted out of Cook County. On February 23, , they met with President Lincoln.
Stanton rejected their concerns. Lincoln castigated them, particularly chewing-out Medill. Lincoln argued that Chicagoans and Medill's newspaper had been most uncompromising in their opposition to the south's stance on slavery, and therefore should muster the men demanded of them to supply the Union with troops. Holden , and served as mayor for two years.
Medill was sworn in as mayor on December 4, As mayor, Medill gained more power for the mayor's office, created Chicago's first public library, enforced blue laws , and reformed the police and fire departments. During his mayoralty, Medill worked successfully to have the Illinois General Assembly modify the city charter to increase mayoral authority.
Tuley to draft a "Mayor's Bill" to be submitted to the General Assembly in its next session. In his first year as mayor, Medill received very little legislative resistance from the Chicago City Council. His appointments were approved unanimously by the City Council. Medill sought funding for the recovery of Chicago. Taking Medill's lead, on February 12, , the City Council approved an ordinance that prohibited the construction of wood frame buildings in city limits.
Medill was a strong Republican loyalist who supported President Grant for re-election in This caused a breach with Tribune editor, Horace White after White supported the breakaway Liberal Republicans , reformists who nominated Horace Greeley for president. In his second year as mayor, tensions arose as he began to further utilize the new powers given to the mayor.
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He appointed his loyalists to lead most important committees, while aldermen of wards consisting of immigrant populations received lesser consideration for appointments. Medill and his police superintendent Elmer Washburn cracked down on gambling. Medill met not only resistance from a City Council divided over his exercise of power and aspects of his agenda, but also resistance from citizens.
Hesing derided him as "Joseph I, Dictator ". The stress of the job of mayor impaired Medill's health. In August , he appointed Lester L. Medill was built in Panama City , and named in his honor. The family tree omits Medill's third daughter, Josephine, who died in Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.
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