From this point, of course, their stories, like their lives, become united, and merge, with a rare concord, into one.  They have had no bickerings, no misunderstanding, no difference of view which a consultation did not at once reconcile; they have never known a division of interests; from their common coffer each has always drawn whatever he chose; and, down to this day, there has never been a settlement of accounts between them.  What facts could better attest not merely a singular harmony of character, but an admirable conformity of virtues?

The history of the “Intelligencer” has, as to all its leading particulars, been for fifty years spread before thousands of readers, in its continuous diary.  To re-chronicle any part of what is so well known would be idle in the extreme.  Of the editors personally, their lives, since they became mature and settled, have presented few events such as are not common to all men,—­little of vicissitude, beyond that of pockets now full and now empty,—­nothing but a steady performance of duty, an exertion, whenever necessary, of high ability, and the gradual accumulation through these of a deeply felt esteem among all the best and wisest of the land.  Amidst the many popular passions with which nearly all have, in our country, run wild, they have maintained a perpetual and sage moderation; amidst incessant variations of doctrine, they have preserved a memory and a conscience; in the frequent fluctuations of power, they have steadily checked the alternate excesses of both parties; and they have never given to either a factious opposition or a merely partisan support.  Of their journal it may be said, that there has, in all our times, shone no such continual light on public affairs, there has stood no such sure defence of whatever was needful to be upheld.  Tempering the heats of both sides,—­re-nationalizing all spirit of section,—­combating our propensity to lawlessness at home and aggression abroad,—­spreading constantly on each question of the day a mass of sound information,—­the venerable editors have been, all the while, a power and a safety in the land, no matter who were the rulers.  Neither party could have spared an opposition so just or a support so well-measured.  Thus it cannot be deemed an American exaggeration to declare the opinion as to the influence of the “Intelligencer” over our public counsels, that its value is not easily to be overrated.

Never, meantime, was authority wielded with less assumption.  The “Intelligencer” could not, of course, help being aware of the weight which its opinions always carried among the thinking; but it has never betrayed any consciousness of its influence, unless in a ceaseless care to deserve respect.  Its modesty and candor, its fairness and courtesy have been invariable; nor less so, its observance of that decorum and those charities which constitute the very grace of all public life.