The Nation

=== Founding and journalistic roots ===
''The Nation'' was established on July 6, 1865, at 130 Nassau Street ("[[Park Row (Manhattan)|Newspaper Row]]") in [[Manhattan]]. Its founding coincided with the closure of the abolitionist newspaper ''[[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]]'',<ref>''The Anti-Slavery Reporter'', August 1, 1865, p. 187.</ref> also in 1865, after slavery was abolished by the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]]; a group of abolitionists, led by the architect [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], desired to found a new weekly political magazine. [[Edwin Lawrence Godkin]], who had been considering starting such a magazine for some time, agreed and so became the first editor of ''The Nation''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Eric|last=Fettman|contribution=Godkin, E. L.|editor-first=Stephen L.|editor-last=Vaughn|title=Encyclopedia of American Journalism|location=London|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=9780415969505|page=200}}</ref> [[Wendell Phillips Garrison]], son of ''The Liberator''{{'}}s editor/publisher [[William Lloyd Garrison]], was Literary Editor from 1865 to 1906.

Its founding publisher was Joseph H. Richards; the editor was Godkin, an [[Irish American|immigrant from Ireland]] who had formerly worked as a correspondent of the London ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'' and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=John Bassett |last=Moore |title=Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Dinner: The Biltmore, April 19, 1917 |journal=The Nation |volume=104 |issue=2704 |date=April 27, 1917 |at=section 2, pp. 502–503 }}</ref><ref name="ja">{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=Aucoin |title=The Nation |editor-first=Stephen L. |editor-last=Vaughn |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of American Journalism |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-415-96950-5 |pages=317–8 }}</ref> Godkin sought to establish what one sympathetic commentator later characterized as "an organ of opinion characterized in its utterance by breadth and deliberation, an organ which should identify itself with causes, and which should give its support to parties primarily as representative of these causes."<ref name=Moore503>Moore, "Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Dinner", p. 503.</ref>

In its "founding prospectus" the magazine wrote that the publication would have "seven main objects" with the first being "discussion of the topics of the day, and, above all, of legal, economical, and constitutional questions, with greater accuracy and moderation than are now to be found in the daily press."<ref name="FoundingProspectus">{{cite news |author=Richards |first=Joseph H. |date=July 6, 1865 |title=Founding Prospectus |work=The Nation |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/founding-prospectus/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709125914/http://www.thenation.com/article/founding-prospectus/ |archive-date=2015-07-09}}</ref> ''The Nation'' pledged to "not be the organ of any party, sect or body" but rather to "make an earnest effort to bring to discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred."<ref name="FoundingProspectus"/>

In the first year of publication, one of the magazine's regular features was ''The South As It Is'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dennett |first1=John R. |title=The South As It Is: 1865–1866 |date=2010 |publisher=University of Alabama Press}}</ref> dispatches from a [[Economy of South Carolina#War and economic recovery|tour of the war-torn region]] by John Richard Dennett, a recent [[Harvard University|Harvard]] graduate and a veteran of the [[Port Royal Experiment]]. Dennett interviewed [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] veterans, freed slaves, agents of the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], and ordinary people he met by the side of the road.

Among the causes supported by the publication in its earliest days was civil service reform—moving the basis of government employment from a [[political patronage]] system to a professional [[bureaucracy]] based upon [[meritocracy]].<ref name=Moore503 /> ''The Nation'' also was preoccupied with the reestablishment of a sound national currency in the years after the [[American Civil War]], arguing that a stable [[currency]] was necessary to restore the economic stability of the nation.<ref>Moore, "Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Dinner", pp. 503–504.</ref> Closely related to this was the publication's advocacy of the elimination of [[protective tariffs]] in favor of lower prices of consumer goods associated with a [[free trade]] system.<ref name=Moore504>Moore, "Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Dinner", p. 504.</ref>

[[File:(King1893NYC) pg617 THE EVENING POST AND THE NATION, EVENING POST BUILDING (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|''The Evening Post'' and ''The Nation'', 210 Broadway, Manhattan, New York]]
The magazine would stay at [[Park Row (Manhattan)|Newspaper Row]] for 90 years.