ABSTRACT
The world owes more, far more to John Swinton than it knows or perhaps ever can know. Evidently the Times sought to attribute its own duality to Swinton and thus devalue his accomplishments. John Swinton was born on December 12, 1829, in the town of Salton, near Edinburgh, in Haddingtonshire, Scotland. Swinton was associated with major New York newspapers for nearly a half-century, working under three famous editors: Henry J. Raymond of the Times, Charles A. Dana of the Sun, and Horace Greeley of the Tribune. The United States, when Swinton was in his twenties, was approaching a critical point in its history that culminated in the Civil War. Swinton's many-sided interests are also touched upon by Frank M. O'Brien, the chronicler of another New York newspaper on which Swinton played a major role. In July 1877, during strikes on the railroads and in other industries, Swinton addressed another huge demonstration in Tompkins Square.
