, one may find it in
many pithy expressions on the floor of the House or the Senate. For the
congressman and the senator are industrious newspaper readers. They are
apt to read some able New York journal which speaks for their party, and
the congressman will read the daily and weekly newspapers of his
district, and the senator the prominent ones of his state which belong
to his party.

For the period which covered Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, I used
the _Nation_ to a large extent. Its bound volumes are convenient to
handle in one's own library, and its summary of events is useful in
itself, and as giving leads to the investigation of other material.
Frequently its editorials have spoken for the sober sense of the people
with amazing success. As a constant reader of the _Nation_ since 1866, I
have felt the fascination of Godkin, and have been consciously on guard
against it. I tried not to be led away by his incisive statements and
sometimes uncharitable judgments. But whatever may be thought of his
bias, he had an honest mind, and was incapable of knowingly making a
false statement; and this, with his other qualities, makes his journal
excellent historical material. After considering with great care some
friendly criticism, I can truly say that I have no apology to make for
the extent to which I used the _Nation_.

Recurring now to the point with which I began this discussion,--that
learned prejudice against employing newspapers as historical
material,--I wish to add that, like all other evidence, they must be
used with care and skepticism, as one good authority is undoubtedly
better than a dozen poor ones. An anecdote I heard years ago has been
useful to me in weighing different historical evidence. A
Pennsylvania-Dutch justice of the peace in one of the interior townships
of Ohio had a man arraigned before him for stealing a pig. One witness
swore that he distinctly saw the theft committed; eight swore that they
never saw the accused steal a pig, and the verdict was worthy of
Dogberry. "I discharge the accused," said the justice. "The testimony of
eight men is certainly worth more than the testimony of one."

Private and confidential correspondence is highly valuable historical
material, for such utterances are less constrained and more sincere than
public declarations; but all men cannot be rated alike. Some men have
lied as freely in private letters as in public speeches; therefore the
historian must get at