# History of American Journalism/Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII
TRANSITION PERIOD
1832—1841
The penny press brought several changes in the manufacture and marketing of newspapers. Among these were the use of steam to turn the press and the employment of boys to sell single copies in addition to distributing papers among regular subscribers. The greater demand for larger editions, the competition to be first in news, the better facilities for gathering items, the deeper interest taken in civic improvement, the changes in the body politic, the expansion of the country, the increase of literacy among all classes with the introduction of compulsory education—all these things brought readjustment in the printing and making of newspapers.
These changes came gradually, however, and will be taken up more in detail as they appear. They were concomitant with other transformations of American civilization. Many reforms grew out of the agitations of the penny press. In New York, for example, The Sun advocated the installation of a paid fire department. Under the volunteer system the chief aim of fire companies was to be first at the burning building rather than to extinguish the flames. One company never hesitated to destroy the apparatus of a rival if thereby it could be first at the fire. Rival gangs which formerly fought on city streets put on the red shirts of volunteer firemen and fought their battles for supremacy as before. In securing the introduction of horse-drawn engines and the adoption of a paid department, The Sun rendered a most distinct service to the city. The Herald performed just as distinct a service when it fought for the adoption of uniforms for the city police. Previously, members of the police department had been distinguished from civilians only by the presence of a badge worn on the coat. In case of trouble, it was not uncommon for a policeman to remove his badge and with ​
the insignia in his pocket, watch the fracas as a spectator. The reforms in the police department brought about by The Herald added much to the respect for law and order in New York. Pos- sibly the penny press of Philadelphia secured even greater reforms for that city. The press was again simply a mirror of the transformations of overgrown villages into metropolitan cities and of isolated States and Territories into a Nation.
GREELEY, SEWARD, AND WEED
During the time when the penny press was being established in the larger cities, Horace Greeley was interested in various newspaper enterprises. His entrance into New York City in 1831, because of his peculiarities of dress and mannerisms, might be paralleled to that of Benjamin Franklin into Phila- delphia. From his savings as a journeyman printer, Greeley, as has already been mentioned, aided hi the publication of what became the first one-cent newspaper in New York, The Morning Post. At the time The Sun was established he was running a job office which made a specialty of the advertising literature of lot- teries, etc. In conjunction with Jonas Winchester he started on March 22, 1834, The New Yorker, in which he published the larger part of his editorial work, both original and selected writ- ings, though he continued to write for The Daily Whig. He was a member of the political company, spoken of in the press as Seward, Weed, and Greeley. This company proceeded, after the political revolution of 1837 to start, under the auspices and by the direction of the Whig Central Committee of the State f New York on March 3, 1838, a campaign paper in Albany called The Jeffersonian. Funds for its establishment were con- tributed by the leading Whig politicians in amounts of ten dol- lars each. The paper, sold at fifty cents a year, was according to Greeley established "on the impulse of the Whig tornado to secure a like result in 1838 so as to give the Whig party a Gov- ernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Senate, Assembly, United States Senator, Congressman, and all the vast executive patronage of the State," then amounting to millions of dollars. For his ser- vices, Greeley received a remuneration of one thousand dollars, but he naturally expected to get some of those offices worth from ​
three to twenty thousand dollars per year which Seward upon being elected Governor was handing out to his friends. In this he was disappointed: to quote his words, "I return to my garret and my crust."
In the Tippecanoe and Tyler campaign of 1840 known as the "Tip and Ty" campaign in the press the same political firm brought out another campaign paper on May 2, 1840, entitled The Log Cabin published simultaneously at New York and Albany. Of this sheet Henry Jarvis Raymond, when editor of The New York Times, once said, "It was the best campaign paper ever published." It was designed only for a campaign sheet and was expected to expire with the twenty-seventh number: forty- eight thousand of the first issue were sold and subscriptions came in at the rate of seven hundred a day. The Log Cabin, both by its caricatures and by its editorials, promoted the raising of log cabins, formally dedicated with plenty of hard cider, as political centers and headquarters for Harrison and Tyler men.
The Whig tornado, mentioned by Greeley, started with Jack- son's decision to remove the deposits of the Government from the Bank of the United States. Financial interests subsidized existing Whig organs and started new ones at strategic points. Democratic papers, alienated by Jackson, continued their op- position to his successor, Martin Van Buren. A group of papers, headed by The Enquirer of Richmond, was especially bitter toward Van Buren for not favoring the annexation of Texas and became even more violent in its denunciation when he accepted a nomination of a rival political organization. The sound money doctrines of Van Buren made the Whig campaign organs popu- lar with the masses which wanted "higher wages and lower prices" so readily promised by these sheets in case of victory at the polls. Log cabins were frequently erected to be used as print-shops and the office mascot was invariably a live raccoon chained to the front doorpost or to the rude chimney of the structure. The popularity of the log cabin was due to the fact that Harrison was not only born in one, but also had one attached his house. Rival campaign weeklies existed for the Democratic Party with names as peculiarly appropriate as The Log Cabin. Two favorites were The Coon Skinner and The ​
Dry Cider Barrett. Of the Whig sheets, next to Greeley's Log Cabin, came The Corn-Stalk Fiddle and The Whig Rifle. Never again did the campaign weeklies, or dailies for that matter, play so important a part in presidential elections as in the "Tip and Ty" campaign of 1840.
GREELEY AND HIS DAILY
After Harrison had been elected, largely through the Whig Campaign organs of which The Log Cabin was the leader, Greeley naturally thought that Governor Seward would ask that the position of postmaster of New York be given to the editor of The Log Cabin, but he was unable not only to get this position, but also to get anything "in the scramble of the swell mob of coon-minstrels and cider-suckers which swarmed to Washington for offices." Of the residents from New York, City "no one in the crowd," to quote Greeley's own words in a letter to Seward, had done so much "toward General Harri- son's nomination and election," as the editor of The Log Cabin. Unable to get political office Greeley started The Tribune in New York on April 10, 1841, on the very day of Harrison's funeral. The aim of this newspaper, published at one cent, was that it should be "removed alike from servile partisanship on the one hand and from gagged, mincing neutrality on the other." Though there were already numerous daily papers in New York there was still room for another local Whig paper. The Courier and Enquirer, The New York American, The Express, and The Commercial Advertiser were Whig papers, but circu- lated at the annual subscription price of ten dollars a year: The Evening Post of the same price leaned to the Democratic side of politics; The Journal of Commerce, while primarily a commer- cial daily favored entries approved by the Democrats. The Signal, The Tattler, and The Star were among the cheap papers which sat astride the political fence; The Sun had now achieved an enormous circulation, and while professing neutrality in poli- tics always shone a little brighter for the Democrats; The Herald was still independent and had raised its price to two cents.
In his preliminary notice of publication, Greeley thus out- lined the policy to be pursued by The Tribune : ​
On Saturday, the tenth day of April instant, the subscriber will publish the first number of a new morning journal of politics, literature and general intelligence. The Tribune, as its name imports, will labor to advance the interests of the people, and to promote their moral, social and political wellbeing. The immoral and degrading police reports, ad- vertisements and other matter which have been allowed to disgrace the columns of our leading penny papers will be carefully excluded from this, and no exertion spared to render it worthy of the hearty approval of the virtuous and refined, and a welcome visitant at the family fire- side. Earnestly believing that the political revolution which has called William Henry Harrison to the Chief Magistracy of the nation was a triumph of right reason and public good over error and sinister am- bition, The Tribune will give to the new administration a frank and can- did, but manly and independent, support, judging it always by its acts, and commending these only so far as they shall seem calculated to subserve the great end of all government the welfare of the people.
The success of The Tribune was immediate. The editor's per- sonal and political friends had secured subscribers by the hun- dreds before the first issue of five thousand copies was printed. Though started as a penny paper, The Tribune began its second volume on April 11, 1842, at the increased price of nine cents a week, or two cents a copy. The New Yorker and The Log Cabin Greeley merged into The Weekly Tribune. The Tribune under Greeley's editorship has been commonly classed as a party organ, but he was fairly successful in his determination to " remove it from servile partisanship on the one hand and from gagged, mincing neutrality on the other"; no better illustration of this fact is found than his own words, "The Tribune will accept the party nominee but will spit upon the platform." Though The Tribune continued to be a pulpit from which Greeley preached daily the partisan gospel, according to St. Horace, it was also a platform for the early appearance of such distinguished jour- nalists and publicists as Charles Anderson Dana, Henry Jar vis Raymond, George William Curtis, Carl Schurz, John Hay, Whitelaw Reid, Henry James, William Dean Ho wells, Bayard Taylor, George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Richard Grant White, Richard Hildreth, John Russell Young, Sidney Howard Gay, etc. ​
NEWSPAPER BATTLES
In the competition to be first on the streets with important news, papers spared neither labor nor expense to use a hack- neyed expression. In an age when politics attracted so much attention in the press it was natural that there should be the keenest rivalry in reporting political speeches. As these were often delivered at some distance from the place of publication, papers adopted various methods to rush the reports. If news had to come by boat, compositors and type cases were put on board, and as fast as copy was written on the trip it was put into type and made ready for the press. On the other hand, if news had to come by rail, a reporter, acting under instructions from his paper, hired a locomotive for his exclusive use and made a fast run with only the engineer as a companion. Such methods for the transmission of news were common until the telegraph proved quicker.
Such enterprises did much to develop the instinct for news, for speed soon became the distinguishing characteristic of Amer- ican journalism. Boats on the Hudson river often carried a corps of compositors who could put into type a speech delivered at Albany and have it ready to lock up in a form by the time the boat docked in New York. One of the most remarkable beats in this connection was the report of a speech delivered by Daniel Webster in Boston. Several New York newspapers sent shorthand reporters who took down the remarks of Webster, as the address was an important one. Representing The Tribune was Henry J. Raymond, who, inexperienced in stenography, was somewhat handicapped, but he had provided for the emergency by taking with him a number of Tribune compositors. The latter, with the help of a miniature printing-plant which had been put on board the night boat out of Boston, were prepared to set the speech in type as fast as Raymond could write it. Employees of The Tribune met the boat when it landed at five the next morning and in one hour carriers were distributing copies of The Tribune which contained a full report of Webster's speech delivered in Boston the preceding afternoon. Greeley's paper that morning was the talk of the town, and his rivals on that occasion were simply "also rans." ​
STEAM EXPEESSES OF " THE SUN"
In running steam expresses to obtain early news possibly The New York Sun stood first. Its publisher once asserted that the secret of its success was mainly due to its enterprise in this direc- tion. From 1842 to 1847 it spent over twenty thousand dollars in running such expresses a large sum for the time when finan- cial returns from advertising were not large. In justice to other Gotham papers it must be said that The Sun was not infre- quently eclipsed in this field by The Herald or by The Tribune. A whole chapter could be devoted to interesting accounts of races between newspaper expresses. On one occasion to get the Euro- pean news which was coming by way of Boston both The Sun and The Herald had a locomotive, but on rival tracks. The reporter of The Sun was the first to leave Boston, but he was no sooner out of sight than the reporter of The Herald sent his loco- motive to the round-house and got out a special edition of The Herald in Boston on the press of The Mail. This special edition of The Herald, sent by train to New York, was the first to give the news, for The Sun, thinking that the express of The Herald had been wrecked when it did not arrive, had not rushed the news into type as rapidly as usual. On another occasion a representative of The Tribune, in order to have the exclusive use of an important item of news, deliberately stole an engine especially chartered by The Herald and then ran away with it to New York. In those days newspapers did not bother their heads with the nice questions of newspaper ethics : it was simply a fight to get the news and to get it first in print.
EDITOKIAL COMBATS
During the days of personal journalism a large amount of editorial space was frequently given to abuse of rival editors. Some of these tilts between editors, though often unmannerly, were very interesting.
James Watson Webb, of The Courier and Enquirer, once took revenge upon Horace Greeley, of The Tribune, by attacking what he thought were some of the eccentricities of the latter. Greeley came back with the rejoinder in The Tribune which completely ​
squelched Webb at least for the time being. Webb on Jan- uary 27, 1844, published the following editorial in The Courier and Enquirer:
The editor of The Tribune would have all the world live upon bran- bread and sawdust. He seeks for notoriety by pretending to great ec- centricity of character and habits, and by the strangeness of his theories and practices; we, on the contrary, are content with following the beaten path, and accomplishing the good we can, in the old-fashioned way. He lays claim to greatness by wandering through the streets with a hat double the size of his head, a coat after the fashion of Jacob's of old, with one leg of his pantaloons inside and the other outside of his boot, and with boots all bespattered with mud, or possibly, a shoe on one foot and boot on the other, and glorying in an unwashed and un- shaven person. We, on the contrary, eschew all such affectation as weak and silly; we think there is a difference between notoriety and distinction; we recognize the social obligation to act and dress ac- cording to our station in life; and we look upon cleanliness of person as inseparable from purity of thought and benevolence of heart. In short, there is not the slightest resemblance between the editor of The Tribune and ourself, politically, morally, or socially; and it is only when his affectation and impudence are unbearable, that we condescend to notice him or his press.
Greeley, equal to the occasion, on the next day printed the following reply in The Tribune:
It is true that the Editor of The Tribune chooses mainly (not entirely) vegetable food; but he never troubles his readers on the subject; it does not worry them; why should it concern the Colonel? It is hard for phi- losophy that so humble a man shall be made to stand as its exemplar, while Christianity is personified by the hero of the Sunday duel with Hon. Tom Marshall; but such luck will happen. As to our personal appearance, it does seem tune that we should say something. Some donkey, a while ago, apparently anxious to assail or annoy the Editor of this paper, and not well knowing with what, originated the story of his carelessness of personal appearance; and since then, every block- head of the same disposition, and distressed by a similar lack of ideas, has repeated and exaggerated the foolery, until, from its origin in The Albany Microscope, it has sunk down at last to the columns of The Courier and Enquirer, growing more absurd at every landing. Yet, all this time, the object of this silly raillery has doubtless worn better clothes than two-thirds of those who thus assailed him, better than any of them could honestly wear if they paid their debts otherwise than by bankruptcy; while, if they are indeed more cleanly than he, they must ​
bathe very thoroughly not less than twice every day. The Editor of The Tribune is the son of a poor and humble farmer; came to New York a minor, without a friend within two hundred miles, less than ten dol- lars in his pocket, and precious little besides; he has never had a dollar from a relative, and has, for years, labored under a load of debt. Hence- forth he may be able to make a better show, if deemed essential by his friends; for himself he has not much time or thought to bestow on the matter. That he ever affected eccentricity is most untrue; and cer- tainly no costume he ever appeared in, would create such a sensation in Broadway, as that James Watson Webb would have worn, but for the clemency of Gov. Seward. Heaven grant our assailant may never hang with such weight on another Whig executive! We drop him.
In order to understand the latter part of Greeley's comment about Webb, some mention should be made of the latter's will- ingness to defend his opinions, not only in the columns of his paper, but also on the "field of honor." One such duel had in- volved Webb in legal difficulties and he had only escaped a jail sentence through the courtesy of Governor Seward.
For the sake of the contrast of juxtaposition, an editorial tilt of a later period, when journalism had become impersonal, may be inserted. As The Tribune had the better of it in the edi- torial controversy just recorded, an illustration may be used which reverses the honor. Long after The Courier and Enquirer had become a part of The World, a Democratic President made a very poor appointment to an office at his disposal. The Tribune, thinking that it might embarrass its neighbor, asserted that it would leave the explanation of this appointment to the official Democratic spokesman, The World. The antiphonal rejoinder of The World, after reprinting the comment, was, "It would be a great deal better for the readers of The Tribune if that news- paper left all matters to The World to explain." Nothing shows more the tremendous advance which American journalism has made than the two editorial controversies just given.
FIKST NEWSPAPER CORPORATION
William Leggett, in summing up the newspaper press of 1835, made a special plea for the corporational newspaper a prophecy of what the coming newspaper in America was to be. Mr. Leggett thought that newspapers thus established would ​
then be able to stand "the assaults of prejudice, now fatal in the unassisted hands of single and comparatively indigent in- dividuals." He pointed out that in England the principal news- papers were joint-stock property, many having hundreds and some thousands of owners whose interests are attended to by a committee of directors of their own selection. By way of con- trast, Mr. Leggett added :
Among us, the newspapers are the property of single individuals; and it is found that administering to the depraved tastes and appe- tites of the community, consulting the passions and caprice of the hour, and guiding their course by the variable breath of the multitude, is a more profitable, as well as an easier task, than steering undeviatingly by fixed principles, referring all subjects to the touchstone of truth, and addressing themselves with inflexible constancy to the judgments of men. It is not to be wondered at, however much it is to be deplored, that they adopt the readiest and most lucrative mode of discharging their functions, and forego the glorious opportunity their vocation af- fords, of effectually advancing the great interests of mankind.
The first paper to be thus published by a stock company was The New York Tribune. On January 1, 1849, a meeting was called for the purpose of distributing the stock among its em- ployees. Every one was placed on a salary from editor-in-chief down to printer's devil. This system of association ownership was especially pleasing to Greeley because of its socialistic aspect.
PRESS MODESTY OF POLITICIANS
During the first half of the nineteenth century, even the ablest statesmen delivered their speeches primarily for home consumption. They did not care to have their utterances given widespread publication. They were to be reported in the friendly organs of the political parties. Henry Clay, for example, when he was about to make a speech at Lexington, Kentucky, was told that a reporter of the Associated Press was present. The great Kentucky statesman then promptly refused to go on with his address until the reporter had folded up his paper and left the grounds. Clay was deeply insulted and did not hesitate to say so in picturesque language that a writer for newspapers unknown to him should have the audacity to report ​
his speech without first securing special permission to do so. The reporter, fortunately, was Richard Smith, who later became associated with The Commercial Gazette of Cincinnati. Being a good newspaper man, he hung around until the speech was over, and then obtained an excellent resume* of the address from a friend who knew the politics of the State and who remembered the salient points of the speech. Until the politician learned that he must speak to a larger audience than that around the stump, the reporter was regarded as an impertinent intruder.
JOURNALISM IN THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
When Texas, being dissatisfied with Mexican rule, revolted in 1835, its most important newspaper became The Telegraph and Texas Register which first appeared at San Felice, October 10, 1835, published by Gail Borden, Joseph Baker, and Thomas H. Borden. It was not only one of the foremost papers devoted to the revolutionary cause, but also practically the official organ of the Provincial Government : it continued to be published at Austin until March 24, 1836, when General Santa Anna sent forward an advance guard which forced the staff to take the press apart, break up the forms, pack the type, etc., and to flee to Harrisburgh, where another attempt was made to print an- other edition of The Telegraph. As a matter of fact, one issue was put into type and six sheets had been actually taken off the press when another advance guard from Santa Anna entered the place, seized the press, pied the type, and held the printers as prisoners. Later, the troops from Santa Anna threw the press and type into the Buffalo Bayou, from which they were later taken, cleaned, and used in Houston to print The Morning Star, which first appeared on April 8, 1839, and boasted of being the first daily paper in the Republic of Texas.
After the battle of San Jacinto, Gail Borden went to Cincin- nati, where he bought another printing outfit which he used in resuming publication of The Telegraph on October 2, 1836, at Columbia on the Brazos, then the temporary seat of the Government. On April 11, 1837, The Telegraph was moved to Houston, at that time the seat of the Government, where Dr. Francis Moore became its editor. On June 20, 1837, Gail Borden ​
sold his interest to Jacob W. Cruger and the publishers now became Cruger and Moore: they were also Public Printers and continued to hold that office even after the Capital had been removed to Austin. At the latter place they established, on January 15, 1840, The Texas Sentinel, but continued The Tele- graph at Houston. Gail Borden, after selling his interest in the paper, eventually returned to his native State and founded in New York City the great milk company which bears his name. Of the journalism conditions in Texas while a Republic the following re'sume* has been left by "an emigrant, late from the United States": "That the Texians are a reading people is manifested by the fact that there are now twelve newspapers published in the Republic. One of these is a daily paper pub- lished at Houston, and one or two others are, during the sessions of Congress, semi-weekly ones. In a population so small, and with such imperfect post routes, to sustain so many papers must be admitted to be an astonishing circumstance."
TOPLIFF'S ' ' NEWS-BOOM "
Possibly Samuel Topliff made the first attempt to gather news to be retailed among several newspapers. Establishing his headquarters in a "news-room" in the Coffee Exchange in Boston he made a specialty of the reports of the market and the commercial news of Boston Harbor. He kept a logbook in which captains of boats which had just arrived wrote the news they had picked up at foreign ports. This logbook was available to the Boston newspapers for a consideration. Mention has already been made of how The Boston Transcript availed itself of such an opportunity when it brought out its first issue in 1830.
PRESS PIGEONS OF CRAIG
While Topliff was busy in Boston, Arunah S. Abell, of The Baltimore Sun, and D. H. Craig were busy experimenting the possibility of using pigeons to carry news. Headquarters were established in Baltimore and here the pigeons were trained: at one tune over four hundred were kept in a house on Ham- stead Hill near the Maryland Hospital for the Insa ​pigeon express first ran—or rather flew—from Washington to Baltimore: later, Washington dispatches were carried by pigeon relays to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. The headquarters at the last place was a coop on top of The Herald building. Incidentally, it may be remarked that it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that The Herald did away entirely with its carrier pigeons: until fifteen years ago that newspaper had one of the best cages of these remarkable birds for exigencies.
D. H. Craig also experimented in Boston with pigeons as carriers of news. Securing a number of African carrier pigeons, he kept them in a special building near his house in Roxbury until they had become thoroughly domesticated. Upon the expected arrival of an English mail steamer in Halifax he, with his winged carriers, would go there, get the latest British papers, and then take passage to Boston. While at sea he would write on thin manifold paper a summary of the most important European news. Then when the steamer was about fifty miles from Boston he would liberate his pigeons with the news fastened to wing or foot. They would reach home several hours before the steamer docked and the news they carried would, after being promptly put into type, be published as an extra of The Boston Daily Mail. When the edition had been run off, the title of The Daily Mail was removed and that of The New York Herald Extra was substituted and the press again started. The second edition, after being promptly forwarded to New York by Sound steamers, was put into the hands of newsboys by James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of The New York Herald. Because of the intense rivalry between The Herald and The Sun, Bennett at one time offered five hundred dollars an hour for every hour that Craig could furnish The Herald with news ahead of rivals. So bitter became this fight for the honor of being first in the news that questionable methods of interference were often adopted: even the pigeons which carried the news were shot by men hired by newspapers outside the service of the winged carriers. Craig later became connected with the Associated Press of New York.
HALE AND HALLECK
In New York the first pretentious step to gather news while it was news was made by Arthur Tappan who had founded The Journal of Commerce as a semi-religious newspaper to com- bat the growing evil influences of the theater. To get the Euro- pean news he used to meet the incoming vessels with a rowboat and thus save time in getting the news into print. Later, he sold his paper to the Boston newspaper men, David Hale and Gerard Halleck. These men, familiar with the news enterprise of Samuel Topliff, built a fast news-yacht which they called "The Journal of Commerce" after their newspaper. The Courier and Enquirer, not to be outdone, promptly put into commission another news-boat, "The Thomas H. Smith." The Journal of Commerce, true to the principles of its founder, refused to collect the news on the Sabbath and appealed to the more provincial subscriber to excuse lack of news on Monday. The Journal of Commerce also built a semaphore telegraph at Sandy Hook by means of which it relayed news from its news-boat to Staten Island where items were promptly taken to its New York office. In this way the paper was able to be first in maritime news for some little time. Whenever important items arrived it got out extra editions in order that it might be first on the streets. Aroused by the enterprise of the penny press, the conservative blanket sheets called "our bed-quilt contemporaries" by the penny papers were not always beaten in the publishing of notable news.
PRIMITIVE PONY EXPRESS
While other papers shared in the honor of its development, the pony express was really started by The Sun, of Baltimore, Maryland. Local newspapers had supplied their customers with the President's messages as follows: they purchased sup- plements previously printed in Washington, but bearing the title of their papers, and then distributed them upon their arrival to their readers. In December, 1838, however, The Sim hired a representative to bring, with the help of "a Canadian pony as nimble as a goat and as swift as the wind," a copy of the message ​
to The Sun office on Light Street. Within five minutes after its arrival forty-nine compositors were hastily putting it into type and in two hours this newspaper had the message on the streets of the city. This was the beginning of the famous pony express of The Sun.
From that time forward, until the invention of the telegraph, the pony express was used to bring the messages of the Presi- dents to Baltimore; from this point they were relayed by fresh expresses to New York and other cities. Through the help of its horses The Sun was enabled to give its readers President Harrison's Inaugural Address on the same day that it was de- livered. But it was in the war with Mexico that the pony express reached its highest development.
FIRST FLIGHT OF " BROOKLYN EAGLE" When Harrison was elected President, politicians of the rival party at once began to make preparations for the defeat of the Whig Party at the next presidential election. Many papers were established for the sake of influencing votes. Among those thus founded for political causes was The Eagle, of Brooklyn, New York. For some years previous to 1841 the county in which Brooklyn is located had been Whig: the Democrats sought an excuse for being in the minority by asserting that they had no party organ to represent them. A few of the leaders, there- fore, in the hopes of wresting control of the county from the Whigs, formed a company to start a new daily newspaper : the re- sult of their efforts was the establishment of The Brooklyn Eagle and The Kings County Democrat on October 26, 1841, with Isaac Van Anden as its first editor and publisher. After the county had been swung into the Democratic ranks, most of the men who had started The Eagle thought that, as the object for which the journal had been founded had been obtained, the paper might be well discontinued. Mr. Van Anden, however, thought otherwise, and as a protest against discontinuing the sheet he offered to purchase the interest of the others in the paper. In this way he became its sole owner and conductor. Though founded as a party organ, The Eagle both in national and local campaigns has supported in its editorial columns both ​
Republican and Democratic candidates when these candidates stood for a policy that best represented the interests of the people. As Brooklyn grew, The Eagle shared in its prosperity: it has carried an amount of advertising which has been ex- ceeded by only two other newspapers in the City of New York. Among its distinguished editors has been the poet, Walt Whit- man, and the late St. Clair McKelway. In spite of the competi- tion of the penny papers of New York, The Eagle succeeded in keeping the home field to itself, even though it charged three cents per copy.
COOPER'S WHOLESALE LIBELS
The only man who has ever sued the newspapers for libel on a wholesale scale was the distinguished American novelist James Fenimore Cooper. Returning from a long residence abroad, he retired to the old homestead at Cooperstown, New York. During his absence, the villagers had used a piece of property belonging to the novelist as a sort of recreation spot. It was one of those numerous points which run out into Otsego Lake and was near enough to the village to be ideal for picnic purposes. Acting strictly within his legal rights Cooper forbade trespassing upon this piece of property. The resentment of the village was so bitter that it attracted the attention of the many newspapers of the State, including that of a Whig organ at Norwich, New York, which told how the Cooper books had been removed from the village library and burned. The local Whig organ at Cooperstown reprinted the item from its Norwich contemporary and was promptly sued for libel by Cooper, who "recovered the verdict and collected it by taking the money through a Sheriff's officer from the editor's trunk." Various Whig papers, not only in the vicinity of Cooperstown, but also New York City, promptly took up the fight. Not content with merely criticizing Cooper's action in his home town, it proceeded to criticize very severely Cooper's criticism of American ways and manners found in his two books, "Homeward Bound" and "Home as Found."
Among the New York newspapers which thus criticized Cooper were The Courier and Enquirer, edited by James Watson ​
Webb, and The Commercial Advertiser, edited by William L. Stone. Cooper promptly brought suit against them both. In his action against Colonel Webb, his suit was for criminal libel and the jury returned the verdict of not guilty. Cooper found that it was much harder to send a man to jail for libel than it was to collect monetary damage for a reputation. Cooper therefore had better success when he brought suit against Thurlow Weed, the editor of The Albany Evening Journal, who published several unfavorable notices about Cooper and his books. Weed at the time of the suit was unable to be present on account of sickness in his family and a verdict of four hundred dollars against him was given to Cooper. Weed sought in vain to have the case reopened. Finding himself unsuccessful, he proceeded to set forth his case in a letter to The New York Tribune published on November 17, 1841. For the publication of this letter Cooper brought suit against Greeley for libel. The jury, after several ballots, finally returned the verdict of two hundred dollars. Greeley having attended the trial in person proceeded to re- port the event for his own paper. The report came within three quarters of a column of filling the entire inside of The Tribune, which he headed "The Cooperage of The Tribune" Extracts were printed in more than two hundred papers and the novelist proceeded to bring suit for a new libel several of them, in fact. Greeley, now thoroughly aroused, prepared to take the suits more seriously and hired the Honorable William H. Seward as his attorney. The latter, by various hearings on demurrer and by numerous expensive interlocutory proceedings, pre- vented the case coming to trial.
PRESS RESTRICTIONS OF THE SENATE The Senate in 1841 attempted to exclude reporters from its Chamber on the ground that the regulations provided only for the admission of representatives from Washington newspapers. This attempt of exclusion was the last stand to favor the party organs of the Capital. For years these organs had been making enormous sums for printing the reports of Congress. Henry Clay asserted that $420,000 was thus paid to the three Washington organs, The Globe, run by Blair and Rieves, The National In​
telligencer, run by Gales and Seaton, and The Madisonian, run by Thomas Allen. James Gordon Bennett, of The New York Herald, promptly attacked this favoritism and announced that he was willing to give daily reports at the Senate without any remu- neration. Out of his efforts grew the "freedom of the press" for all newspaper correspondents at Washington.
SENSATIONAL NEWS OF THE PERIOD
In 1843 The United States Gazette published the statistics of the murders and other crimes recorded in its pages from January to July of that year. The account showed over nine hundred accidental deaths, of which fully one half came from drowning. There were two hundred and fifteen murders by guns, pistols, bowie-knives, etc.; there were fifty-six deaths by firearms which were imprudently handled; forty-five died from clothing taking fire; forty-six were struck by lightning; forty-three were killed by falling from horses or by the upsetting of carriages, etc.; eighty-three committed suicide. From this account, which was copied by many newspapers to show that they had not been beaten in recording such catastrophes, it is evident that the news- papers even at this time were not neglecting the so-called sen- sational news.
PARTY PATRONAGE VS. "THE POST"
As late as 1835 the National Government still exerted a tre- mendous influence through its patronage in moulding American newspapers. Party organs were kept strictly in line by the threat which continually hung over them of "Stop the Govern- ment advertising." Bribes for party support were fairly num- erous. Criticism of any department of the Government was dangerous. For example, because The New York Evening Post criticized the seditious doctrines of the Postmaster-General in the matter of the destruction of Northern papers circulated in the South, the official list of letters uncalled for in the New York Post- Office was transferred to The New York Times (not the paper which bears that name to-day). Because The New York Evening Post believed the tone of a letter of the Secretary of the Treas- ury to the President of the United States Bank was undignified, ​
the Treasury Department withheld its advertising in The Post. Because The New York Evening Post thought the Secretary of the Navy had acted with gross partiality in a naval court-martial, advertising from that department in The Post was promptly can- celled. Because The Evening Post exposed the duplicity of the Collector of the Port of New York, it lost the advertising supplied by the Custom House. In view of the "Government patronage" of the day, independence of the press was very expensive in 1835, but William Leggett hewed to an upright line in his Evening Post and let the Government patronage chips fall where they would.
ADVEETISING OF THE PERIOD
Before the advent of the penny press the advertiser usually took a "square" in the newspaper for which he paid thirty dol- lars a year: this amount also included a subscription to the news- paper. After the first year the advertiser sometimes paid and not infrequently he neglected to do so. As the number of adver- tisers increased, the size of the sheets was enlarged until they became too bulky to hold conveniently in the hands. For this reason they were called by the penny papers "our bed-quilt contemporaries. ' '
The first penny papers asked the same rate of thirty dollars per year for advertising, but the squares were smaller, and the sum did not include a subscription to the paper. Later, the penny papers adjusted their prices for advertising according to a more modern rate card and insisted that advertisers change their copy more frequently. They developed a new field with the small ad- vertiser: what is now called "classified advertising" began to make its appearance.
In their first issues penny papers reprinted somewhat more desirable advertising, such as railroads, steamboats, stage- coaches, etc., and inserted a notice similar to the following taken from The New York Daily Bee :
The advertisements inserted in this number we insert gratuitously, hoping to obtain the patronage of the advertising public, as this will be our greatest support. We would respectfully request those persons whose advertisements are inserted, if they wish to have them continued to call
ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE PHILADELPHIA AURORA
Showing free use of Cuts before the Invention of Cylinder Presses (Enlarged)
PHILADELPHIA
STOVE
MANUFACTORY,
No. 189 N Second street, t\vo doors below the sign of the Barley Sheuf, between ll'Ce and Vine streets. HENRY J. FOUGERAY re- spectfully informs the citi- zens of 'the U. States that he continues to manufacture .an extensive assortment of his Patent Stoves, for burn- ing Lehigh and Schuylkill Coal, for Churches, Halls, Parlours, Kitchens, Offices, &c. together with Nine Ptote, Open and Cabin Stoves, Cambouses, Backs, Jams, &.c. AH of which he will dispose of at low prices.
N B.~ Cash given for Old Stoves and Scrap Iron, or taken In exchange. aug 18-6m
Approved Cook Stoves Perpetual Oven, dec.
No. Ill North Second street, Phi ladelphia.
GKO J.FOUGE- B'AY informs the citizens of the United States that he continues to. manufacture his approved Cook Stoves, to burn coal and wood, with stoves for churches, Jialls, offices, stores, &c.
Also, Perpetual Ovens.
N.H. All kinds of old Stoves and
Irpn taken in
(Enlarged)
Legal notices found in six-penny contemporaries were reprinted by the cheaper papers and bills mailed to county officials. Al- though unauthorized, these bills were paid because politicians did not dare to offend the penny sheets who were in a position to expose the petty grafts of the period. Before the type-revolving cylinder press made its appearance, many of the newspapers were so profusely illustrated that they resembled catalogues rather than newspapers. Some of the more fastidious sheets seriously objected to the use of these cuts which gave such a black appear- ance to the newspaper, and charged extra for their insertion even though no extra mechanical labor was involved.
EPIDEMIC OF MEDICINAL ADVERTISING During the Colonial Period the newspaper publisher was often a seller of medicines. There were several reasons for this; one was that the colonial printer was forced by necessity to supple- ment the income from his press by that from other sources; medicinal preparations, then, as now, allowed large profits. In the second place, the early settler was forced by isolation to be his own doctor. What was more natural, therefore, than that the post-rider who brought The Gazette should also bring house- hold remedies for cases of emergency. It made matters easier when both these items could be purchased at the same shop. The American, forced by necessity to be his own doctor, soon came to be his own doctor from choice. All that was needed to increase the sale of pills and powders was an epidemic of bodily ills. This " curse" came at about the time that the masses were getting the penny press. An epidemic of dancing swept across the country. Previously, balls had been confined to the more aris- tocratic gatherings, but dances became popular with the me- chanics, the gatherers of ashes, the clerks in shops, etc. Econo- mists who have studied this period of American history say that the amount spent on balls by all manner of society was simply enormous. Dancing was prolonged into the morning hours. Ventilation of ballrooms was then so poor that the result was a flood of almost all ills to which the human body is heir. Manufacturers of proprietary medicines found they could reap a fortune by advertising their nostrums in the public ​
press. They did so and on the profits of the sales of such medi- cines were founded some of the large fortunes of later years. Some of the concoctions of this period were simply colored water and were absolutely harmless; but others contained absolute poisons. The injurious effect of such widespread doping was checked by threatened legislation by various States. In this way the worst of the positively injurious "remedies" were eliminated from the advertising columns, but the press, not only in the rural sections, but also in the cities, continued its partnership in dosing the American people. Many newspaper men actually wrote the advertisements; for instance, Henry Jarvis Raymond, who later became the distinguished founder of The New York Times, increased his income by writing daily advertisements of medicinal pills for a quack doctor for which he received a re- muneration of fifty cents for each piece of copy.
As late as 1881 Charles Dudley Warner complained that the newspaper columns "outshine the shelves of the druggist in the display of proprietary medicines." Many excellent newspapers, for thirty years after this remark, continued to be, so far as the advertising columns were concerned, directories of patent medi- cines until Samuel Hopkins Adams, in a series of articles in Collier 1 s Weekly, entitled "The Great American Fraud," exposed the chicanery of patent medicine manufacturers and the worth- lessness of many of their concoctions.
FEDERAL SUPERVISION ADVOCATED
By a ruling of the Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, in 1835, the coaches having mail contracts were not permitted to carry passengers on their Western trips until provision was made for all the mail matter addressed to the West. Similar restrictions were placed upon the mail routes along the Atlantic seaboard. When the newspapers in the North began to advocate the aboli- tion of slavery it raised a howl of protest in the South. Charles- ton, in South Carolina, particularly objected to the circulation of such newspapers. The postmaster in that city held such news- papers in his office pending instructions from the Postmaster- General. The latter side-stepped the question by saying that he had no legal authority to issue instructions on this technical ​
point. Before the Department handed out a ruling, a public meeting was held and a resolution unanimously adopted that all incendiary newspapers held at Charleston should be burned and that the mails in the State should be searched and every attempt be made to suppress inflammatory newspapers, and suggested the propriety of passing a law that would prohibit under severe penalties the circulation in Southern States of news- papers which tended to instigate the slaves to insurrection.
President Jackson, in his Inaugural Message, advocated the right of Federal supervision of newspapers. This recommenda- tion by President Jackson was referred by the Senate to a com- mittee of which the chairman was John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Speaking for the committee, Calhoun reported on Feb- ruary 14, 1826, that it was not up to Congress to decide when newspapers were incendiary, for they might also decide they were not, and thus laden the mails of the South with papers advocating abolition. He insisted that it belonged to the Southern States and not to Congress to determine what news- papers should circulate in that section. He also proposed that it should not be lawful for any postmaster in any State or Territory of the United States knowingly to deliver to any person any newspaper touching the subject of slavery. Cal- houn 's recommendations were put in a bill which was ordered to a third reading in the Senate by a vote of 18 to 16, but it failed to pass.
STATISTICAL
The Postal Department requested The Globe to publish the fol- lowing information doubtless to be paid for at regular rates
about the newspapers and periodicals published in the United States, July 1, 1839:
Maine .............................................. 41
New Hampshire ..... ................................. 26
Vermont ............................................ 31
Massachusetts (at Boston, 65) ......................... 124
Rhode Island ........................................ 14
Connecticut .......................................... 31
New York (at New York City, 71) ..................... 274
New Jersey ................................ ​.......... 39
Maryland (at Baltimore, 20) 48
Pennyslvania (at Philadelphia, 71) 253
Delaware 3
District of Columbia (at Washington, 11) 16
Virginia (at Richmond, 10) 52
North Carolina 30
South Carolina 20
Georgia 33
Florida Territory 9
Alabama 34
Mississippi 36
Louisiana (at New Orleans, 10) 26
Arkansas 4
Tennessee 50
Kentucky 31
Ohio (at Cincinnati, 27) 164
Michigan 31
Wisconsin Territory 5
Iowa Territory 3
Indiana 69
Illinois 33
Missouri 25
1555
The account then went on to say that of the above publica- tions, 116 were daily newspapers, 14 tri-weeklies, 30 semi- weeklies, and 991 weeklies. The rest were semi-monthlies, monthlies, and quarterlies principally magazines and reviews. Mention was also made of the fact that many of the daily papers were also publishers of the tri-weeklies, semi-weeklies, and weeklies. Of the newspapers, 38 were in the German language, 4 in French, and 1 in Spanish. Attention was also called to the fact that several of the New Orleans papers were printed in French and English.
The statistics of the newspaper press made an interesting feature in the returns of the Seventh Census. From that it appeared that the whole number of newspapers and periodicals in the United States, on the first day of June, 1850, amounted to 2800. From calculations made on the statistics returned, it appeared that the aggregate circulation of these 2800 papers and periodicals was about 5,000,000.
The following table, taken from an abstract of the Census Report, shows the numbers of daily, weekly, monthly, and other issues with the aggregate circulation of each class in ​1850:
Number
Circulation
No. of copies printed annually
350
750,000
235,000 000
Tri-weeklies
150
75,000
11 700 000
Semi- weeklies
125
80,000
8 320 000
Weeklies
2,000
2,875,000
149,500 000
Semi-monthlies
50
300,000
7 200000
Monthlies
100
900,000
10800000
Quarterlies
25
20,000
80000
2,800
5,000,000
422,600,000