Patrick Ford (12 April 1837 – 23 September 1913) was anIrish-Americanjournalist andGeorgistland reformer.
Ford was born in Galway to Edward Ford (1805-1880) and Ann Ford (1815-1893), emigrating with his parents toBoston, United States in 1845, never returning to Ireland. He wrote in theIrish World in 1886 that "I might as well have been born in Boston. I know nothing of England. I brought nothing with me from Ireland—nothing tangible to make me what I am. I had consciously at least, only what I found and grew up with in here".[citation needed]
He left school aged thirteen and two years later was working as a printer's devil forWilliam Lloyd Garrison'sLiberator. He began writing in 1855 and, by 1861, had become editor and publisher of theBoston Tribune, also known as theBoston Sunday Tribune orBoston Sunday Times. He was an abolitionist and a supporter of the Union.[citation needed]
At 15, Ford went to work as a "printer's devil" for William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper,The Liberator. He credited Garrison for his advocacy for social reform.[1]
During theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865) Ford served in Union forces in the Ninth Massachusetts Regiment with his father and brother. He saw action in northernVirginia and fought atFredericksburg.[citation needed]
He spent four years after the war inCharleston, editing theSouthern Carolina Leader, printed to support newly freed slaves. He settled inNew York City in 1870 and founded theIrish World, which became the principal newspaper of Irish America. It promised "more reading material than any other paper in America" and outsoldJohn Boyle O'Reilly'sBoston Pilot.[citation needed]
In 1878, Ford re-titled his newspaper, theIrish World and American Industrial Liberator. During the early 1880s, Ford promoted the writings of land reformer,Henry George in his paper.[2] The paper promoted a range of progressive causes such aswomen's rights and trade unionism. Originally the paper was supportive ofFranklin Delano Roosevelt but eventually became disenchanted with him believing that he had become a "friend of the money lords".[3]
In 1880, Ford began to solicit donations through theIrish World to support Land League activities in Ireland. Funds received were tabulated weekly under the heading "Land League Fund." Between January and September 1881 alone, more than $100,000 was collected in donations. British Prime Minister William Gladstone would later state that without the funds from theIrish World, "there would have been no agitation in Ireland."[4] In 1881, Ford publishedThe Criminal History of the British Empire, a collection of five letters that he sent to Gladstone.[5]
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