Expansionist Editor

An Easterner Goes West.

George Kendall was a native New Englander, but he made his mark as an editor and adventurer in the American Southwest, founding the New Orleans Picayune, promoting Texas independence, traveling to Santa Fe, suffering in Mexican jails, and reporting on the Mexican War. Though Kendall's adventures set him apart from most journalists, his achievements and ambitions nevertheless illustrate the ways that many nineteenth-century American newspapermen saw themselves and defined their paper's nationalist mission. Youth. Born in 1809 to an old Massachusetts family, Kendall was a restless young man eager to make his way in the world. His education was haphazard, but he had a quick mind and enjoyed reading, music, painting, and theater. However, none of these were as meaningful to him as the world of action, a fact soon confirmed by his journeys west and south.

Apprenticeship.

At age...