James Brooks remained editor-in-chief of the paper until his death in 1873,[6] and in June 1877 Erastus gave over control to a group led by John Kelly (a boss of Tammany Hall) and Augustus Schell, though he still made contributions to the paper.

Historian Richard Schwarzlose has referred to the Evening Express as "never an outstanding newspaper" (1990).

The "Strangers' List" was popular with merchants looking for customers, which led Herald editor James Gordon Bennett, Sr. to once call the paper the Drummer's Gazette.

Hudson remarked that its readership "is largely confined to the numerous railway cars and steam-boats running to and from and within the limits of the city, where a numerous class engaged in business in the metropolis do all their reading," and had "outlived a number of evening papers.

"[8] One anecdote shared in the younger Brooks' obituary is that in order to get the news printed quickly after an election in the early 1840s, the younger Brooks set up a printing office in a steamboat returning from Albany to New York with the election returns, so that upon arriving in New York they were ready to go to press with the results before the rival papers.

In January 1847, the Express accepted the offer of Ezra Cornell to use his new telegraph line from Albany to New York to get legislative news, and was able to publish a new message from the governor in advance of the pony express line used by the Herald.

After Brooks declared in Congress in February 1864 that the Democratic Party should stop defending slavery, the Express also moved in that direction.