Godkin, E. L.

E. L. Godkin, in full Edwin Lawrence Godkin, (born October 2, 1831, Moyne, County Wicklow, Ireland—died May 21, 1902, Greenway, Devonshire, England), Anglo-American editor and founder of The Nation, a news and opinion magazine.

After graduating in 1851 from Queen’s College, Belfast, studying law, and working for newspapers in London and Belfast, Godkin went to the United States late in 1856. He continued a connection with the London Daily News while studying law in New York City; he was admitted to the bar in 1858. In the early 1860s Godkin was offered a partnership in The New York Times by its editor, Henry Jarvis Raymond. He declined the offer and in 1865 founded The Nation, which quickly became the foremost review in the country.

In 1881 Godkin sold The Nation to Henry Villard, owner of the New York Evening Post. The Nation then became a weekly edition of the Post. Godkin was the Post’s editor in chief from 1883 until his retirement in 1900.

Independent, acerbic, and elitist, Godkin avoided appealing to the tastes and sensationalism exploited in the yellow journalism of his era. His influence was immense. Under his leadership the Post broke with the Republican Party in the presidential campaign of 1884, and his opposition to James G. Blaine (Republican candidate for president in 1884) did much to create the so-called Mugwump faction; the Post thereafter became independent. Godkin consistently advocated currency reform, the gold standard, a tariff for revenue only, and, especially, civil service reform. His attacks on Tammany Hall were so frequent (especially his biographical sketches of Tammany leaders) that he was sued for libel several times, but the cases were dismissed. He also voiced strong and often effective opposition to jingoism and to imperialism.