# History of American Journalism/Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII
PERIOD OF EARLY REPUBLIC
1783—1812
When the American colonies secured their independence and faced the problem of self-government, the conditions were extremely favorable for a revival of papers which had suspended publication during the war and also for the establishment of many new journals to mirror the radical changes of the times. The few Tory sheets which had survived through the cooperation of British arms now changed their policies and became loyal supporters of the new Republic. The people, ever mindful of the past, refused to subscribe or to support such papers. After brief struggles for existence they discontinued publication and their publishers made a living as booksellers, stationers, job printers, etc.
Controversies which soon arose between States became so bitter as almost to lead to civil war. They changed even the colorless and purposeless newspaper into a fighting organ. Editorial policies were largely determined by geographical location. To this stimulus may be attributed the influence secured by the local press—an influence even greater than that of the Revolutionary Period.
The debates over the adoption of the Constitution broke down the geographical lines and divided the press as well as the people into two groups, one which favored and the other which opposed. Some of the newspapers which had been most urgent in demanding nothing but absolute independence from England were among those which sought to delay or even to defeat the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The subsequent death of some of these journals was due to the fact that however sincere they might have been they took what later proved to be the unpopular side of this great issue. Others, often new publications, met with immediate favor because of the fervor with which they advocated the needs of such a document.
​document.
NEWSPAPERS CHIEFLY POLITICAL TRACTS
After the Constitution was adopted political leaders found that they needed mouthpieces for a wider expression of their views. They divided themselves into parties of which the com- mon people knew little or nothing. To get the people to take sides on political questions they founded newspapers which, while giving a little news, did more to advance and spread the doctrines of party leaders, for politics tended to make the jour- nals of the period not newspapers in the modern sense of the term, but chiefly political tracts : the moral essay of the Colonial Period was omitted and in its place was substituted a coarse and frequently vulgar attack upon a rival. Papers conceived amid intense political feeling and born simply to be bulletin boards for party leaders, continued to increase in number in spite of a high death-rate. At a political meeting it was considered quite proper to pass a resolution calling upon "our party newspapers to attack at once the reputations of all the leading Federalists in the State," or vice versa, for most papers were either Federal or Republican.
PERSONAL ATTACKS OF PRESS
In view of such conditions the newspapers of the last decade of the eighteenth century with here and there an exception only to prove the rule abounded in little else than libelous and scandalous personal attacks. The new freedom of the press promoted not truth but calumnies and falsehoods. Chief Jus- tice McKean, in a libel case (1798) against William Cobbett, of Peter Porcupine Gazette in the City of Brotherly Love, remarked :
Every one who has in him the sentiments either of a Christian or a gentleman cannot but be highly offended at the envenomed scurrility that has raged in pamphlets and newspapers printed in Philadelphia for several years past, insomuch that libelling has become a national crime, and distinguishes us not only from all the states around us, but from the whole civilized world. Our satire has been nothing but ribaldry and billingsgate; the contest has been who could call names in the greatest variety of phrases; who could mangle the greatest number of characters, or who could excel in the magnitude of their lies; hence the honor of families has been stained, the highest posts rendered cheap and vile in the sight of the people, and the greatest services and virtue blasted. ​
This opinion had already been held by Benjamin Franklin who said in a comment on the political change in the press:
Now many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the malice of individuals by false accusations of the fairest characters among themselves, augmenting animosity even to the producing of duels, and are, moreover, so indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the gov- ernment of neighboring states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may be attended with the most pernicious con- sequences.
PASSAGE OF SEDITION LAWS
That the American press from 1790 to 1800 was probably as powerful in its influence as at any time in its history, is not to be denied. But the violence and vituperation of the party press led to the first attempt on the part of the American Government to regulate the newspaper press. The year of 1798 saw the passage of the Alien and Sedition Laws. A section of the latter enacted :
That if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall know- ingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering, or pub- lishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States done in pursuance of any such law or of the powers in him vested by the Constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage, or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having juris- diction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.
EDITORS JAILED
There were several prosecutions under this act. Abijah Adams, publisher of The Boston Chronicle, officially called bookkeeper ​
PERIOD OF EARLY REPUBLIC 1C3
at that time, was indicted for libeling the Massachusetts Legis- lature, found guilty, sentenced to jail for thirty days, and forced to give bond for one year of good conduct. The editor of The Chronicle was Thomas Adams, who was confined to his bed at the time, but he wrote for his paper the following note: "The patrons of The Chronicle may still depend on the regular supply of their papers. The Editor is on the bed of languishment and the bookkeeper is in prison, yet the Cause of Liberty will be supported amid these distressing circumstances."
Charles Holt, publisher of The Bee at New London, Connecti- cut, spent three months in jail and paid a fine of two hundred dollars because he censured the President and urged men not to enlist in the army. The Bee was a party opponent of John Adams, and after Holt had served his time and paid his fine, he took his paper to Hudson, New York. Fifty years later Con- gress refunded the fine with interest. James Thompson Cal- lender, editor of The Richmond Examiner, paid the same fine as Holt, but was sentenced for three times as long in jail for de- faming the press. When Jefferson became President, he par- doned Callender and had the fine remitted.
David Frothingham, editor of The Argus, of New York, was indicted for libel and found guilty by a jury which recom- mended, however, the mercy of the court. He was fined only one hundred dollars, but received a sentence of four months. Henry Croswell, editor of The Wasp, was indicted for printing a "scan- dalous, malicious and seditious libel concerning Thomas Jef- ferson." Alexander Hamilton was one of the lawyers who appeared for Croswell. In spite of these and other convictions, the attempt of the Government to reform the press only made bad matters worse.
Anthony Haswell, editor of The Vermont Gazette, at Benning- ton, Vermont, paid, a year after his indictment, a fine of two hundred dollars and spent sixty days in jail. Benjamin Frank- lin Bache, of The General Advertiser, probably escaped a still more severe sentence because his death ended a suit. Inciden- tally it may be remarked that because of the abuse his news- paper had heaped upon Washington, he had been thrashed by Clement Humphrey. ​
Even Washington once was led to remark that "the publica- tions in Freneau's [The National Gazette] and Bache's [The General Advertiser] papers were outrages on common decency." They were, especially the latter. When Washington retired from the presidency The General Advertiser, in its issue for Monday, March 6, 1797, incorrectly dated March 5, thus expressed itself in an editorial comment disguised as correspondence:
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," was the pious ejaculation of a man who be- held a flood of happiness rushing in upon mankind If ever there was a time that would license the reiteration of the exclamation that time is now arrived; for the man who is the source of all the misfor- tunes of our country, is this day reduced to a level with his fellow-citi- zens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United States If ever there was a period for rejoicing this is the moment every heart in unison with the freedom and happiness of the people ought to beat high with exultation, that the name of Wash- ington from this day ceases to give a currency to political iniquity, and to legalize corruption a new era is now opening up upon us, an era which promises much to the people; for public measures must now stand upon their own merits, and nefarious projects can no longer be supported by a name: when a retrospect is taken of the Washingtonian administration for eight years, it is a subject of the greatest astonish- ment that a single individual should have cankered the principles of republicanism in an enlightened people, just emerged from the gulf of despotism, and should have carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its very existence Such, however, are the facts, and with these staring us in the face, this day ought to be a Jubilee in the United States.
Yet this comment was mild compared with the coarser utter- ances of previous issues which ought not to be reprinted because of their vulgarity. Federalists were accustomed to speak of The General Advertiser as being "misconducted" first by "Bennie Bache" and later by "Willie Duane."
PRESS DIVIDED OVER BRITISH TREATY
Much of this newspaper hostility toward Washington, it may be remarked incidentally, grew out of the British Treaty of ​
1794 which divided the American press very distinctly in the matter of editorial opinion. Practically every Federal news- paper gave a column or two in support of the treaty. On the other hand, the Republican-Democratic press fairly teemed with criticism which was both coarse and spiteful in its attacks on the Administration. These editorial reproaches, expressed to quote Washington's own words "in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, to a no- torious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket," did much to strengthen his determination to retire to Mount Vernon, for Washington had become extremely sensitive to newspaper rebuke. Perceiving this, Jefferson, toward the last, did what he could to stem the torrent of newspaper abuse, but the flood was at high tide and could not be dammed. Federal newspapers, however, were more successful in their attempts to dam the Republican press.
PRESIDENTS VS. PRESS
When John Adams became President in 1797 he was even more severely attacked in the press than Washington had been. But his Administration fought the attacks. Armed by the Sedi- tion Law, which was passed the following year and which has already been outlined, it sought to annihilate the Republican papers which it could not force to surrender. In the fight, which lasted four years, the Federal Party lost, for the people rallied to the support of the papers and defeated Adams in the election of 1800 by putting Thomas Jefferson in the presidential chair. Jefferson remitted many of the fines imposed upon Republican editors, but was later forced to commence suits for libels upon himself by Federal editors.
Federal papers bitterly attacked Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase on the ground that he had trampled on the Consti- tution which granted him no such power to acquire additional territory: some of the most radical sheets suggested that the States where the Federals were in the majority should secede from the Union. Jefferson's Embargo Policy alienated some of his own party organs especially in Virginia where the to- bacco-growers had been hard hit by the Embargo. Jefferson ​
suffered the same personal abuse from newspaper editors as did Washington. Federal editors spoke of him as "a cold thinking villain whose black blood always runs temperately bad."
EDITORIAL CHANGES
One important change occurred during the Period of the Early Republic, in the matter of editing newspapers. In the Colonial Period the editor was almost invariably a practical printer who depended upon his trade for a living, and where this was not possible, he supplemented the income from his press by ways which have already been outlined in a preceding chapter. He spoke of himself in his columns not as an "editor," but as a printer, undertaker, author, and other terms. Such editorial matter as appeared in his columns was from the pen of other contributors. During the Period of the Early Repub- lic, when papers were founded chiefly for political purposes, the editor came into his own. He was either a printer seeking an office or he was a politician who hired a printer to run his paper. In the Colonial Period the pamphlet was the medium for editorial expression, but with the change just mentioned, to use the newspaper for political purposes, the pamphlet dis- appeared and its contents were printed in the newspaper. To- ward the close of the period men of real ability were hired to edit newspapers in which they had no financial interest. Com- munications from other pens were welcomed, but they were no longer given first place in the paper.
PESTILENCE AND PRESS
The prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia during sev- eral seasons toward the close of the eighteenth century, and an epidemic of a malignant fever in New York City in the early part of the nineteenth century, caused several papers in both cities to suspend publication. The fever devastation in Phila- delphia may have been one of the reasons why Freneau failed to resume publication of The National Gazette. For fear that it might return, Joseph Gales, at the suggestion of his wife, who had been a sufferer from the fever in a previous year, sold his Independent Gazetteer, in 1799, to Samuel Harrison Smith, who, ​
in 1800, moved the journal to Washington, as has been men- tioned elsewhere in this book, and gave it the name of The National Intelligencer. Gales then went to Raleigh, North Caro- lina, where he started another paper, The Raleigh Register, a name which suggested itself from his first-born newspaper ven- ture, The Sheffield Register, of England. After the malignant fever had attacked New York City in 1803, The Evening Post of that city pledged itself "to pursue the discussion of the origin of the late pestilence to a regular and satisfactory close." Wil- liam Coleman, the editor of that paper, had evidently seen a vision that a newspaper might do something more than merely print the news of political squabbles.
NEWSPAPERS DISINFECTED
At times when epidemics similar to those just named in the preceding paragraph were appearing in the larger cities, the publishers of newspapers disinfected their sheets before deliv- ering them to newsboys and post-riders. Frequently, in order that the sheets might not be carriers of disease, they were put into stoves and thoroughly smoked before being wrapped for delivery. In the South, where yellow fever often spread very rapidly, special stoves, built of sheet iron, were designed for this purpose and used tobacco as fuel, but the process was slow, as only one sheet "smoked" at a time. The plan of "smoking" by wholesale from resinous woods was probably more commonly employed in the North than in other sections of the country be- cause of the great infection feared from smallpox. The academic and pedantic newspaper critics, who, like the poor, have been ever present, used to assert at such times that a publisher would perform a much more useful service for the public if he would pay more attention to disinfecting the contents of his papers and less to disinfecting the sheets themselves. The latter, so the critics asserted, could be done when necessary by the reader in his own home.
FREEDOM OF PRESS
For some unaccountable reason the American colonies, after they established their independence and had drawn up their ​
Constitution, did not make provision for the freedom of the press. Each colony, however, as it drew its State Constitution, passed some resolution to the effect that the press being essen- tial to State freedom ought to be inviolably preserved. As new States and Territories drew their own constitutions, they incor- porated some similar resolution to protect the press from the censorship to which it had been subjected during the colonial period. Even the first Congress saw the mistake of its omission and passed an Amendment that Congress shall make no law abolishing the freedom of speech or of the press. In spite of this constitutional guarantee, the Alien-Sedition Laws were passed.
HILDRETH ON PRESS OF PERIOD
Hildreth, in speaking of the influence of the press upon American politics in 1812, thus explains the rise of this period of black journalism: "The demand for printers and editors, especially in the middle states could not be supplied from do- mestic sources and as many of these political exiles had been connected with the press at home, many of them having been driven into exile in consequence of publications prosecuted by the Government as libelous and seditious, they had adopted the same calling in America."
LOCATION OF LEADING PAPERS
According to the census of 1800 there were in the United States only eleven cities or towns which had a population of over five thousand. Of these, only two, Philadelphia (70,287) and New York (60,489), had more than fifty thousand: three, Balti- more, Boston, and Charleston, had between twenty and thirty thousand: three, Providence, Savannah, and Norfolk, had be- tween five and ten thousand: just over the five thousand limit were Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Albany, New York, and Richmond, Virginia. As the total population, as given in the census, was about five million, three hundred thousand, the city population, therefore, constituted only about five per cent. Newspapers had greatly increased in number since 1783, but they were still largely agricultural, except in the eleven cities just mentioned. The temporary location of the seat of the Gov​
eminent at Philadelphia had given that city a most influential place in journalism. Its papers were not only the largest in cir- culation, but they had the widest distribution and were the most frequently quoted. When the Government removed to Wash- ington this newspaper preeminence went from Philadelphia to New York. Already the latter had made itself felt in a political way, and its newspapers, especially its dailies, took first place not only in local, but also in national, influence. The political battle between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr assisted materially in giving an impetus to New York journalism.
MASSACHUSETTS STAMP ACT OF 1785
During the Period of the Early Republic an attempt to put a stamp tax on newspapers was made in Massachusetts. That State, on March 18, 1785, passed an act imposing duties on licensed vellum, parchment and paper including "for every newspaper two-thirds of a penny." Nothing could have aroused greater opposition on the part of the press, to which the very name of "stamp act" was most offensive. Whereas, there was no evidence that the State Legislature desired in any way to abridge the liberties of the press, the newspapers promptly took that point of view and filled their columns with tirades against this obnoxious act.
The Massachusetts Centinel was especially bitter in its de- nunciation. To quote from the issue of May 4, 1785 :
The Stamp Act, passed the last session of the General Court, meets opposition throughout every part of the Commonwealth; that part laying a duty on newspapers particularly so. The cloven foot in it appears too visible to escape notice. To clog the currents of informa- tion, and to shackle the means of political knowledge and necessary learning, are discordant notes to the general ear. But its danger is not the whole of its evil consequences. It is deemed impolitic and unequal, impolitic, as it will encourage our sister States to send their papers into this commonwealth cheaper than they can possibly be afforded here, to the ruin of a set of artizans, whose exertions in the late revolution deserve a more liberal fate: unequal, as the revenue arising from newspapers must (while but a mite in the general treasury) operate, in a great degree, to the destruction of the present printers of these publications. ​
The Boston Gazette in its issue for April 18, 1785, printed the following item :
The General Court in their last Session was pleased to pass an Act, generally called the STAMP ACT, a Name heretofore held in an ap- probious light, and highly disgustful to us.
A clause in said Act says, "For every NEWS-PAPER, two thirds of a Penny."
Should the Stamp on NEWS-PAPERS take place, the price will be enhanc'd and the poor, by being unable to take the same, will be de- prived of the pleasure of affording themselves and their children the advantages attendant on the perusal of this vehicle of entertainment and political knowledge; and who will say, it will not be a disad- vantage to the State in general, for the majority of the inhabitants thereof to be politically ignorant?
And will not this Stamp on NEWS-PAPERS, if held in force, tend thereto?
It is therefore hoped and expected by many, that the Honorable Members of the General Court, in then- next Session will take the above mentioned Clause in the said Act into mature consideration repeal the same, and free the public from that bar to political wisdom.
On August 12, 1785, under a Philadelphia date-line, was pub- lished an article entitled "A Libel Some Will Say." From it, the following paragraph was taken:
Every man in the thirteen states from New Hampshire to Georgia, should pour out incessant execrations on the devoted heads of those miscreants in Massachusetts who machinated, advised, aided, abetted, or assisted in laying sacriligious hands upon that most invaluable of all blessings THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS that palladium of all the rights, privileges, and immunities, dear or sacred to any body of men worthy to rank above the brute creation! that dispeller of the till then impenetrable clouds which overspread the world for ages anterior to the auspicious aera of its discovery! That scourge of tyrants whether monarch, aristocrats, or demagogues.
TAX ON ADVERTISING
Because of the unpopularity of this act, the Massachusetts Legislature repealed it on July 2, 1785. But another was passed, putting a duty on advertisements of six pence on each insertion. Some of the Massachusetts newspapers, notably The Massa- chusetts Centinel, were willing to accept this substitute on the ground that it was no infringement of the liberty of ​the press
and that it "contributed thousands to the exigencies of the State." But most of the papers continued their opposition to the measure. The Massachusetts Spy said that it had to suspend publication on account of the act. Of this circumstance, The American Herald of Boston in its issue for April 3, 1786, said:
The Massachusetts Spy (which it is acknowledged has been very essential to this Commonwealth in particular, before, at, and since the late Revolution) is now languishing with a dangerous Wound, given ii by the Legislature of Massachusetts on the second day of July last. Humble and united application has been made for a particular kind of Court Plaister, which could speedily have wrought a Cure; but as that Power, only, which gave the Wound, could apply the Remedy, with effect, it could not be obtained! The wound grows worse daily mortification has taken place, and in all probability will soon prove fatal to the existence of that Old Public Servant "Alas Poor SPY."
MODERN METHOD TO EVADE LAW
While the Massachusetts papers of this period could scarcely have afforded the services of modern corporation lawyers, some of them knew how to get around the law that was so offensive to them. The way in which it was done is outlined in this announce- ment from The Boston Gazette:
The sixteenth article of our Bill of Rights says "The Liberty of the Press is essential to the security of Freedom in a State: It ought not therefore to be restrained in this commonwealth."
While the papers of the other states are crowded with advertisements, (free of duty) those of this state are almost destitute thereof; which justly occasions the oppressed printers of those shackled presses to make their separate complaints, as many do, owing to their being pro- hibited advertising in their own papers their own Books and Station- ery without incurring a penalty therefor. We, for the same reason that our brother Typographers use, forbear publishing that Bibles, Testa- ments, Psalters, Spelling-Books, Primers, Almanacks, &c. besides Sta- tionery and all kinds of Blanks, may be had at No. 42, Cornhill.
The duty on advertisements also prevents our publishing that we have lately reprinted an excellent moral Discourse, entitled, "The Shortness and Afflictions of Human Life illustrated," for the price of said book being but eight pence, it will take away the profits of too many; and perhaps encourage government to continue this burthen. ​
Such methods to make the law ineffectual doubtless had much to do with its repeal in 1788. The House Committee in reporting on the act, announced that the imposition on the newspapers was not worth the small return from the tax (250) so long as the papers from New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, arid Connecticut might circulate freely in Massachusetts. Several of the papers which had suspended publication on account of the act reappeared. The Massachusetts Spy in resuming publica- tion on April 3, 1788, offered this salutation of thankfulness:
The Printer has the happiness of once more presenting to the Pub- lick, the MASSACHUSETTS SPY, or the WORCESTER GAZETTE, which at length is restored to its Constitutional Liberty, (thanks to our present Legislature), after a suspension of two years. Heaven grant that the FREEDOM of the PRESS, on which depends the FREEDOM of the PEOPLE, may, in the United States, ever be guarded with a watchful eye, and defended from Shackles of every form and shape, until the trump of the celestial messenger shall announce the final dis- solution of all things.
After Massachusetts had repealed the act which taxed news- paper advertising, no State, because of the odium attached to a Stamp Act, attempted to impose a duty upon newspapers until the fifth decade of the next century. On September 30, 1842, an act of the Virginia Legislature imposed a tax on newspapers which amounted to the subscription price for each paper.
POSTAL REGULATIONS OF PERIOD
Newspapers multiplied so rapidly that they became a burden to post-riders. In order to make sure that copies reached sub- scribers, newspapers were forced to pay the carriers on the post- roads an extra allowance. This charge meant an increase in the subscription price. Madison "viewed with alarm this news- paper tax" as he called it. On June 12, 1792, he wrote Jeffer- son: "I am afraid the subscriptions will soon be withdrawn from the Philadelphia papers unless some step be speedily taken to prevent it. The best that occurs seems to be to advertise that the papers will not be put into the mails, but sent, as heretofore, to ​
all who shall not direct them to be put into the mail. Will you hint this to Freneau?" Federal postal acts of 1793 permitted every printer of a newspaper to send one copy without charge to every printer of a newspaper in the United States. Other provisions permitted newspapers to be carried in separate bags from letters at a fixed rate of one cent for a distance not over one hundred miles. Papers going farther were charged a cent and one half, but a restriction was made that postage on a single newspaper in a state where it was published should not exceed one cent. An additional act, the same year, insisted that news- papers should be dried by the publisher before being turned over to the postmaster for transmission: the Pdstal Department ob- jected to carrying too much water in its mail-bags. No distinction was made in the matter of weight of the different newspapers; whether they were large or small they paid the same price per copy.
READEKS BUT NOT BUYERS OF PAPERS
During this period, newspapers when sent regularly through the mail seemed to be more or less common property like um- brellas left in the hallways. The complaints about non-delivery of papers were frequent. Even George Washington had to com- plain on this matter, and in a letter to a Philadelphia printer who was about to establish a paper he made the following request: "It has so happened, that my Gazettes from Philadelphia, whether from inattention at the Printing or Post offices, or other causes, come very irregularly to my hands. Let me pray you therefore to address those you send me, in the appearance of a letter The common paper, usually applied, will do equally well for the cover. It has sometimes occurred to me, that there are persons who, wishing to read News Papers without being at the expense of paying for them, make free with those which are sent to others; under the garb of a letter it is not presumeable this liberty would be taken."
AN ADDITIONAL DUTY OF POST-RIDER
The post-rider was not only a carrier of the Gazettes in the early days of the Republic, but he was also a collector ​of sub-
scriptions. The following advertisement of the post-rider from Providence to Connecticut is taken from The Gazette of the former place for April 2, 1803 :
PAY THE POST, THAT HE MAY PAY THE PRINTER
I who have been TWO YEARS at most
(Strange as 't may seem) a RIDING POST
And worn my poor old DOBBIN'S shoes out
With riding hard, to bring the news out,
And made wry faces at the storm,
While yet the news was moist and warm,
That you might read, before the fire,
Of battles fought, and sieges dire,
What politician now is vest,
Who's dead, and who is married next,
And such like entertaining story,
Which I have always laid before ye,
Solicit, my friends, the amount
Of what is due ON OLD ACCOUNT.
ALBE STONE.
COMBINATION OF PUBLISHERS TO RAISE PRICES In 1803 several papers in New York City made an attempt to get together to fix prices. The New York Evening Post, in its issue for December 1 of that year, told of this attempt as fol- lows:
At a meeting of the Publishers of the following Daily Newspapers printed in the City of New- York, viz. Daily Advertiser, Mercantile Advertiser, Daily Gazette, American Citizen, Commercial Advertiser, and Evening Post held at Lovett's Hotel on Saturday 5th November, 1803 it was unanimously Resolved:
That the sum of eight dollars per annum, at present paid as the price on Subscription for a Daily Paper, is inadequate to the expences of Paper, Printing, and Publication: and that the same be increased to Ten Dollars from and after the first day of January next.
That the price of those papers which are issued twice a week for the country, shall, from and after the first day of January, be Four Dollars per annum.
In a note to the public The Evening Post gave some of the reasons, which were found in the "rise which labor and every article employed in the printing shop had experienced since the terms of the subscriptions were last fixed." Printers' wa ​ges had
increased from six dollars to eight and nine; salaries of clerks and collectors had risen from three hundred and three hundred and fifty to four hundred and five hundred dollars a year. The item of paper, in quality and size, amounted in its blank state to more than one half of the proceeds of all subscriptions. Type had risen twenty-five per cent and all other materials in about the same proportion. Attention was called that these items including that of labor required prompt payment, while news- papers gave more extensive credit than was allowed in any other business "an evil sorely felt by the proprietors." While The Evening Post admitted that subscriptions in amount had quad- rupled, it asserted that they were not sufficient to support a newspaper establishment, and frequently confessed that it was the advertisers who provided the paper for the subscribers, and went so far as to say that without a very extensive advertising support, a publisher of a newspaper received less reward for his labor than the humblest mechanic. While the subscription rates were scheduled for a raise, those of advertising remained the same as before.
The scheme did not work out as planned. The Evening Post, in a column and a half editorial in its issue for December 9, expressed surprise that both The Mercantile Advertiser and The New-York Gazette had receded from the project which they had stood pledged to support and that The Morning Chronicle had declined to come into the measure, not because the price of sub- scriptions was high enough, but because, being the youngest establishment in the city, it was not prepared to encounter shock of the loss of subscribers. The same editorial in The Post denied that there had been any improper combination among the printers. The previous price of The Evening Post had been eight dollars per year to city subscribers and nine dollars to country subscribers.
PARTY SUPPORT OF PRESS
During the era of the party organ, not only the politicians but also the voters were expected to subscribe to the paper which supported partisan principles, regardless of the represen- tative merit of such publications. Occasionally, a paper of the ​
rival party became so energetic in the matter of gathering news or in its ability to express more forcibly its editorial opin- ions that it secured circulation among all parties. Such a paper was The Phoenix, started in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 11, 1802, to help the organization of the Republican Party, then under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, and to assist the polit- ical activities of the Honorable Theodore Foster, then United States Senator from Rhode Island. This paper became so popu- lar with the voters of Providence that The Gazette published a complaint in its columns that The Phoenix had not only the largest circulation, but also the largest advertising patronage in spite of the fact that it was a Republican paper in a Federal town.
NEWSPAPER DIVISION ALONG PARTY LINES
In 1810 Isaiah Thomas published, in his "History of Print- ing," a list of the American newspapers. His list of three hun- dred and sixty-six papers while not complete showed fairly well the relative distribution of papers along party lines. Of the twelve in New Hampshire, eight were Federal and two, Republican; of the thirty-two in Massachusetts, twenty were Federal and eleven, Republican; of the seven in Rhode Island, four were Federal and three, Republican; of the twelve in Con- necticut, ten were Federal and one, Republican; of the fifteen in Vermont, nine were Federal and six, Republican; of the sixty- seven in New York, twenty-nine were Federal and twenty- seven, Republican; of the eight in New Jersey, three were Federal and five, Republican; of the seventy-three in Pennsylva- nia, thirty-four were Federal and twenty-nine, Republican; of the three in Delaware, two were Republican; of the twenty-one in Maryland, nine were Federal and eleven, Republican; of the six papers in the District of Columbia, two were Federal and three, Republican; of the twenty-three in Virginia, seven were Fed- eral and fifteen, Republican; of the ten in North Carolina, five were Federal and three, Republican; of the ten in South Caro- lina, four were Federal and four, Republican; of the thirteen in Georgia, three were Federal and seven, Republican; of the seventeen in Kentucky, two were Federal and fourte ​en, Re-
publican; of the six in Tennessee, one was Federal and five were Republican; of the fourteen in Ohio, three were Federal and eight, Republican; of the four in Mississippi, one was Federal and one, Republican; of the ten in Territory of Orleans, five were Federal and one was Republican. Of the single papers in Michigan, Indiana, and Louisiana, Thomas did not give the party affiliation. Of the scattering neutral papers, most of them were agricultural in character. The figures already given show how closely the newspapers were divided on party lines, for politics and press were in close partnership. Often the party in control sought support through the advertising at its dis- posal; at other times it held before the editor the promise of political office. This partnership reached its closest affiliation in the next period.