When Mr. Everett was engaged in his noble effort to assist the ladies of the Mount Vernon Association in purchasing the home and tomb of Washington, Mr. Bonner proposed to him to write a series of papers for the “Ledger,” for which he offered him ten thousand dollars, the money to be appropriated to the purchase of Mount Vernon.  Mr. Everett accepted the offer, and the celebrated Mount Vernon Papers were the result.  This was a far-sighted move on the part of Robert Bonner.  Under ordinary circumstances Mr. Everett would probably have declined to “write for the ‘Ledger;’” but in a cause so worthy he could not refuse.  The association of his name with the journal was of incalculable service to it, and the Mount Vernon Papers were to its proprietor his very best advertisement.  (We are viewing the matter commercially.) The sale of the paper was wonderfully increased, and a golden harvest was reaped.

This connection of Mr. Everett with the “Ledger” led to a warm personal friendship between himself and its proprietor, which was broken only by the statesman’s death—­a circumstance which speaks volumes for the private worth of the younger man.  Mr. Everett continued to write for the paper after his Mount Vernon articles were finished, and is said to have earned over fifty thousand dollars by his able contributions to it.

Soon after the completion of the Mount Vernon Papers, Mr. Bonner secured the services of George Bancroft, the historian, who contributed a series of admirable articles.  Mr. Everett’s connection with the “Ledger” had settled the question that it was not beneath the dignity of the most eminent literateur in the land to write for it.  Fanny Fern’s husband, Mr. James Parton, Alice and Phoebe Carey, Mrs. Southworth, and a host of others have helped, and still help, to fill its columns.

But perhaps its most profitable contributor, next to Mr. Everett, is Henry Ward Beecher.  That wonderful gift of the great preacher which enables him to touch so constantly upon subjects nearest to the hearts of most men, would make him invaluable to any paper.  Mr. Bonner was struck with this after hearing him preach several times, and resolved to secure his services for the “Ledger.”  He proposed, to the parson’s utter astonishment, that Mr. Beecher should write a story for the paper, and coupled it with the offer of a sum which many persons would consider a fortune.  The field was utterly new to Mr. Beecher.  Novel-writing was something he had never even thought of; but after some hesitation he accepted the offer.  Soon after this, the publication of “Norwood” was begun in the columns of the “Ledger.”  The story was longer than was at first agreed upon, and Mr. Bonner paid its author a handsome sum in addition to the amount originally offered.  The reward was princely, but not out of proportion to the service rendered by Mr. Beecher, who has won thousands of readers for the paper.  Mr. Beecher still writes for the “Ledger,” and there is no present prospect of his genial and useful contributions coming to a close.