Henry Jams Raymond, an American journalist, born in Lima, Livingston co., N. Y., Jan. 24, 1820, died in New York, June 18, 1869. He worked on his father's farm, at the age of 16 taught a country school, and graduated at the university of Vermont in 1840. He then studied law for a year in New York, and became assistant editor of the "Tribune" on its establishment by Mr. Greeley in 1841, having previously contributed to the "New Yorker," edited by the same journalist. He was remarkably accurate and successful as a reporter, and in 1843 joined the staff of the "Courier and Enquirer," in which journal he had a controversy with Greeley on Fourierism, which was published in a pamphlet. He was elected by the whigs to the state assembly in 1849, was reelected in 1850, and became speaker. In 1851 he severed his connection with the "Courier and Enquirer," and founded (Sept. 18) the "New York Times." In the whig national convention at Baltimore in 1852, in the face of violent opposition, he delivered a long address setting forth the northern views of the public questions then at issue.

In 1854 he was elected lieutenant governor of New York. He was prominent in organizing the republican party, and wrote its "Address to the People" issued by the convention at Pittsburgh in February, 1856. He warmly supported the government in the civil war, and in 1864 was elected to congress, where he advocated the reconstruction policy of President Johnson. He published "History of the Administration of President Lincoln" (12mo, New York, 1864; enlarged and reissued as "Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln," 8vo, 1865), and numerous addresses.