Here was a double-headed monster which, without saying "by your leave" or "blast your eyes" or any other politeness, had taken possession of each man's doorstep, looking very like it had brought its knitting and was come to stay.
The Journal established by Mr.Prentice, the Courier by Mr.Haldeman and the Democrat by Mr.Harney, had been according to the standards of those days successful newspapers.

But the War of Sections had made many changes.

At its close new conditions appeared on every side.
A revolution had come into the business and the spirit of American journalism.
In Louisville three daily newspapers had for a generation struggled for the right of way.

Yet Louisville was a city of the tenth or twelfth class, having hardly enough patronage to sustain one daily newspaper of the first or second class.

The idea of consolidating the three thus contending to divide a patronage so insufficient, naturally suggested itself during the years immediately succeeding the war.