Aurora, and Joseph T. Buckingham of the Boston Galaxy were also conspicuous figures in the early days.
It was during the exciting debates of 1824, however, that newspapers began sending their own representatives to report them, relying less on the papers printed in Washington. Any success of such semi-official journalism as Jackson planned was bound to be temporary at best, especially when the men outside the official circle were of such caliber as were James Gordon Bennett, who acted as correspondent to the New York Courier from 1827 to 1832; Richard Houghton, afterward editor of the Boston Atlas, the man responsible for undermining Daniel Webster's hold on the country and bringing about the nomination of William Henry Harrison; James Webb of the New York Courier and Enquirer; George D. Prentice of the Louisville Journal; Thurlow Weed of the Albany Evening Journal; Henry B. Anthony of the Providence Journal; Thomas Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer, and later Horace Greeley, John W. Forney and Henry J. Raymond. Every one of these men would have scoffed at taking "dictation," even from a President.
