Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 24, 1860
On our pages this week, we illustrate passing events of great and stirring interest, both in the South and in the North — the Seceding movements in the South and the Presidential campaign in the North. We claim to be strictly and entirely neutral in our course of Journalism, chronicling events as they transpire in every section of the country, without bias, and without feeling; adhering closely to facts, but advocating neither one side nor the other of the disturbing element of partisan politics.
In pursuing this course we do not bate one jot of our independence; we truckle to neither party, nor do we ask favors of any party. The necessity of our position is, that our circulation must be universal — our expenses are so vast that the patronage of one class, however liberal, would be but a drop in the bucket in the way of enumerating our outlay.
Our aim is to produce a paper which shall be entirely free from objectionable opinions or partizan views of national policy, that it can be circulated in every section of the union and be receive in every family as a truthful exponent of facts as they occur, and a reliable Illustrated History of the time in which we live.
Bearing this aim steadily in view, we do not swerve from our design. Our Artists and Correspondents furnish us with illustrations and descriptive matter of every event of importance, which we transfer to our pages, and we must not be held responsible if our pages illustrate scenes of which the actors therein are ashamed. We are Historians, and represent the World as we find it, without fear, favor, or prejudice, confident that, while we persevere in that course, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper will be welcomed in every section and in every home in the United States.
