Edwin Croswell was an American journalist and politician. Croswell’s father and uncle were both influential editors and journalists in the early 19th century. Edwin expanded the family's influence on American journalism.
Background
Edwin Croswell was of English stock, his paternal ancestor having come from England and settled in Boston in 1655. He was born on May 29, 1797 in Catskill, New York, the son of Mackay Croswell and the nephew of the eminent Dr. Ilarry Croswell.
Mackay Croswell was a tavern-keeper who was noted for his geniality, his fund of good stories, and boon companionship. He was also editor of the Catskill Packet (founded in 1792) and of its three successors. Edwin spent his boyhood about the tavern and in the office of his father’s newspaper.
Education
Croswell educated himself in the English classics; was attracted to Swift’s sententious purity, and patterned his style after the Junius Letters.
Career
When he was fourteen years old he entered the office of the Catskill Recorder and was soon assistant editor. Edwin’s future appeared bright while Thurlow hung about Mackay Croswell’s office hoping to be apprenticed.
Croswell’s untiring industry and single-hearted devotion to party soon attracted the attention of the politicians. When Moses Cantine (editor of the Albany Argus) died in 1823, the “Albany Regency, ” especially Martin Van Buren, called Croswell to the editorial chair of the Argus.
He was elected state printer in 1824 and held the office until 1847, save for one interruption, when Weed, master Whig politician, became state printer (1840 - 44).
Croswell was one of a trio of great partisan editors of the Democratic party in the thirties, the others being Francis Preston Blair of the Washington Globe, and Thomas Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer.
These were the pen-executives for their party until they fell victims to party factions. Croswell was more certain in his judgment than Ritchie, and less vitriolic titan Blair. As mouthpiece of the Albany Regency his journal led the way for the New York papers of his faith.
He broke with Van Buren on the Texas question, became embroiled in an unfortunate party quarrel with William Cassidy of the Albany Atlas, which was increasing in strength, and retired from the Argus in 1854.
The Canal Bank failure (1848), his illness, and a desire to enter business of a different nature to improve his financial circumstances, had much to do with his retirement. He engaged in business in New York City, but died a poor man at Princeton, New Jersey, after friends had come to his aid.
Politics
He was a conservative who sagaciously labored to keep harmony in the Democracy until the inevitable break came between the “Barnburners” and “Hunkers. ”