Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1862-11-20
T9e gntelligentetr.
THE PRESS OF AMERICA.

A late number of the New York
Tribune concludes lengthy article
upon the "Decennial Progress of the
Union, as exhibited by the census of
1860, as follows: ... ......
In the olden time long ago, when
the Privy Council of England cast it's
mellow rays across the Atlantic to
brighten up Plantation matters, Gov.
Berkley of Virginia, in reply to cer-
tain questions of the Council, among
other happy remarks devoutly said
''But thank God there are no free schools
nor printing, and hope we shall not have
these hundred years for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects i'm the
world, and printing has divulged them, and
libels against the best Government. God
help us from both !! "
The Berkleys of 1860 had no such
cause for thankfulness.
And here we cannot but regret that
in his preliminary report, designed for
the people, Mr.. Kennedy has not a
single table upon the schools, semina.
ries and colleges of the country.
Thirty pages are taken up with NOR
tality tables, to some extent confess
edly untrustworthy, and upon the same
we have a long and learned disquisi-
tion which will no doubt be appreci-
ated by the doctors. To the subject
of education a Pathological half page
is devoted. Our people are not so
desperately mortal as most other peo-
pie, and are a vast deal more intelli-
gent. ...- .s.
1t appears, however, from the ex-
made, that about 100000
persons received instruction in the
various educational institutions of the
different States in lS59-60, or about
one-fitth of the whole free population.
But the facts as to the public press
are stated in tabular form not only,
but commented on by the superintcnd
ent in his best heroics, which does
amends for the poor way in which
education is treated The public press
is the great educator of our grown-up
people, as the system of frec-schools
adopted in many of the States is of
the majority of those growing up to
The very great increase
in the circulation of newspapers and
periodicals during the last ten years
is an evidence at once of high de-
gree of popular intelligence, and of a
high standard of journalistic ability.
There is no doubt that this country has
the best, and the best sustained, pub
lie press in the world-the best, we
mean for the people, and not merely
for the learned few. Newspapers pen
citrate to every part of the country,
and throughout the North at all events
reach even the most obscure hamlet,
and regularly find their way to almost
every household. Printing Offices 60
with the vanguard of civilization to-
ward the west, and in the /" new coun-
try F" are about as numerous as the
mills. The dailies of the great cities
cannot be carried by the Government
have created, during the
decade, an entirely new line Of busi-
ness, supporting thousands offamilies
ON issues fairly joined they have
defeated many of the most maturely
measures of Congressional
But Of the influence of
the public press Of the country this is
not the place to speak.
Ofnewspapers and periodicals there
were, at the date of the census, 4,05l
Of which 3,242 were political in their
29s literary, 277 religious,
and 234 miscellaneous that is,
Agricultural, commercial, scientific,
etc. In 1850, the number of papers
and periodicals of all kinds was 1925
with circulation 6,409,97S copies.
The circulation in 1860 was 927 $751;
54S, being a ratio of increase in cir
culation nearly twice the ratio of in
crease in number of papers, and more
than thrice the ratio of increase in the
population of the country.
The number of daily papers publish
ed at the date of the enumeration was
Ss7 ; of weekly, 3,l73 semi-weckly,
10; tri weekly, sc !; monthly, $50;
quarterly, 80 ; yearly, Is. In point
Of circulation the weeklies might seem
10 be first, the monthlies second, and
the dailies third for of wecklics the
was 1881 $50 of mothlies
3, 4 $50 and of dailies, l,4TS, ABS.
But of the dailies, 3l2 editions of each
paper arc issued during the year, ma
king the total number OF copies print
ed 45S,3l4 $50; Of the weeklies, So
editions, making the total number
394, ,260, $500 and of the monthlics, IL
making the total number
40, ,943, sos. In fact the total number
Of daily papers thrown from the press
during the year is about half that Of
all the other papers and periodicals
Surprising each one to
weigh an ounce, the weight of the
whole number of daily papers printed
in the year of the census was 1854
6IS pounds enough to
load 1892 wagons with ton each,
or to make train Of them 20 miles
in length. Were all the papers and
periodicals printed in 1860 placed in
such q train, itwouid reach from New
York to Richmond Should they be
pasted into one vast sheet, they would
make covering for the continent, and
leave a remnant large enough to shut
out the sun from the British Islands.
But not to dwell upon the material
aspect of the public Press of America
it will suffice to say that, if, its rec
ords shall be preserved, the Historian
Of two thousand years hence who
shall narrate the events which are
now taking place, will find upon their
dingy pages his best authorities aud
most trustworthy sources ofphilosoph-
ical generalization. Not all that is
left Of Grecian literature, not all the
grand works of the fine old Romans,
give so correct a picture of the great