Thornton Leigh Hunt 1860s. Hunt was also editor of "The Spectator" from around 1859 to January 1861. James Buchanan was at that time President of the United States and was attempting to counter civil war over the issue of slavery, mostly by adopting a vacillatory position. Two Americans based in London - a businessman called John McHenry and an Assistant Secretary to ambassador George M. Dallas, called Benjamin Moran - determined to use the magazine as a counter to the generally anti-Buchanan position of the British press. Hunt had assisted Robert Stephen Rintoul at "The Spectator" and appears to have stayed on after
Robert Stephen Hawker Robert Stephen Hawker Robert Stephen Hawker (1803–1875) was an Anglican priest, poet, antiquarian of Cornwall and reputed eccentric. He is best known as the writer of "The Song of the Western Men" with its chorus line of "And shall Trelawny die? / Here's twenty thousand Cornish men / will know the reason why!", which he published anonymously in 1825. His name became known after Charles Dickens acknowledged his authorship of "The Song of the Western Men" in the serial magazine "Household Words". Hawker was born in the clergy house of Charles Church, Plymouth, on 3 December 1803. He was the