ts of the Cleveland administrations. He
sometimes voted for the Republicans, sometimes for the Democrats,
according to the merits of the transitory issue or the particular
candidate, but after 1884 no one could have called him either a
Republican or a Democrat.

Independence of party is less rare among American than among European
newspapers; but courage such as Godkin's is rare everywhere. The
editor of a century ago had in most countries to fear press
censorship, or the law of political libel, or the frowns of the great.
The modern editor, delivered from these risks, is exposed to the more
insidious temptations of financial influence, of social pressure, of
the fear of injuring the business interests of the paper, which are
now sometimes enormous. Godkin's conscientiousness and pride made him
equally indifferent to influence and to threats. As some one said,
you might as well have tried to frighten the east wind. Clear, prompt,
and self-confident, judging everything by a high standard of honour
and public spirit, he distributed censure with no regard either to the
official position or to the party affiliations of politicians. The
"Weekly Day of Judgment" was the title bestowed upon the _Nation_ by
Charles Dudley Warner, who himself admired it. As Godkin expected--or
at least demanded--righteousness from every one, he was more a terror
to evildoers than a praise to them that do well, and the fact that,
having no private ends to serve, he thought only of truth and the
public interest, made him all the more stringent. Because he was, and
found it easy to be, fearless and independent, he scarcely allowed
enough for the timidity of others, and sometimes chastised the weak as
sternly as the wicked. An editor who smites all the self-seekers and
all the time-servers whom he thinks worth smiting, is sure to become a
target for many arrows. But as Godkin was an equally caustic critic of
the sentimental vagaries or economic heresies of well-meaning men or
sections of opinion, he incurred hostility from quarters where the
desire for honest administration and the purity of public life was
hardly less strong than in the pages of the _Nation_ itself. Though he
took no personal part in politics, never appeared on platforms nor in
any way put himself forward, his paper was so markedly himself that
people talked of it as him. It was not "the _Nation_ says" or "the
_Post_ says," but "Godkin says." Even his foreign birth was charged
aga