times, was a large sum. The circulation averaged over forty thousand
per diem. In 1859 the system of keeping an accurate account of the
circulation was inaugurated, and the actual figures of each day's issue
were recorded and published. From this record it is learned that the
Herald, from a circulation of forty-one thousand one hundred and
ninety-three in January, rose to fifty-three thousand and twenty-six in
December. Twelve compositors were regularly employed this year, and the
weekly composition bill was two hundred dollars. The year 1860 brought
the exciting presidential campaign which resulted in the election of
Abraham Lincoln. Great pains were taken to keep the Herald's readers
fully informed of the movements of all the political parties, and its
long reports of the national conventions, meetings, speeches, etc., in
all parts of the country, especially in New England, brought it to the
notice of many new readers. The average daily circulation for the year
was a little over fifty-four thousand, and the issue on the morning
after the November election reached seventy-three thousand seven hundred
and fifty-two, the largest edition since the Webster trial. E.B.
Haskell, now one of the proprietors, entered the office as a reporter in
1860, and was soon promoted to an editorial position. A year later R.M.
Pulsifer, another of the present proprietors, entered the business
department.

The breaking out of the Civil War in the spring of 1861 created a great
demand for news, and an increase in the circulation of all the daily
papers was the immediate result. It is hardly necessary to say here that
the Herald warmly espoused the cause of the Union, and that the events
of that stirring period were faithfully chronicled in its columns. To
meet a call for news on Sunday, a morning edition for that day was
established on May 26; the new sheet was received with favor by the
reading public, and from an issue of ten thousand at the outset its