USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 15
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
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30, 1776, and the latest known issue bears a date near the close of 1787. "The Independent Ledger and American Advertiser" made its appeal to the public on June 15, 1778, and was discontinued on October 16, 1786. Finally, "The Evening Post; and the General Advertiser" came out on October 17, 1778, and retired into oblivion on May 1I, 1780.
Thus Boston had one newspaper for fifteen years, then two for two years, then three for nine years. In 1731 there were four, in 1734 one more, and in 1735 there were six. In 1755 the number had been reduced to three, but there were six again in 1768, and while the number fell to three in 1777, there once more were six in 1780.
Postmasters and Editors-Not only in Boston but in several other American towns the people associated the postoffice with the newspaper. Five postmasters in succession conducted the "Boston Gazette." The postmaster at New Haven established a "Gazette." A former postmaster founded the Providence "Gazette." A postmaster published "The Vir- ginia Gazette." Andrew Bradford much of the time was postmaster of Philadelphia while conducting the "American Weekly Mercury," and Benjamin Franklin found himself thereby handicapped in competition, as the public thought the newspaper an important accessory of the post- office, furnishing superior facilities both for gathering news and distrib- uting advertisements.
Through a full half-century the Boston postmasters published news- papers, and in that period five of the seven office holders conducted the "Boston Gazette." For two years after the retirement of John Campbell from office there were quarrels and quibbles over the succession. London appointed Philip Musgrave, the Deputy Postmaster General appointed William Brooker, and ere long all three men were mixed up in a squabble into whose merits it were unprofitable to inquire. Brooker held the place about two years, and almost at the end of 1718 he produced the first issue of the second newspaper of Boston. He carried on until September 19, 1720, and the following week, Musgrave, in possession of the postmaster- ship, became publisher, and in his second issue he announced himself to be the sole proprietor. In turn, Thomas Lewis, Henry Marshall, and John Boydell served as postmasters and publishers, and although the last named retired from office in 1734, he continued to conduct the "Gazette" until he died, when the public was notified that the paper would still go on for the benefit of his family. On the death of the widow, Samuel Knee- land and Timothy Green, at the time publishers of the "New England Weekly Journal," became publishers of the "Gazette," and united the two papers. The partnership survived through 1752 when Kneeland alone took control. On April 1, 1755, he turned the paper over to the famous firm of Edes & Gill-Benjamin Edes and John Gill-and on April 7 they published Number I of what they named "The Boston Gazette, or Coun-
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try Journal." Their last issue came out on April 17, 1775, when the part- ners separated and the paper was transferred to Watertown, where it remained until October 28, 1776, and then it was brought back to Boston. We consider the "Gazette" to have been, through this entire period, a single newspaper, not three papers as often has been claimed. The only break in consecutive publication during this long period occurred at the outbreak of the war ; the paper suspended from April 17 to June 5, 1775. The title was modified six times, the day of publication was changed four times, and the list of publishers and printers includes nearly a score of names, every publisher having his own views as to who should do the mechanical work. Brooker assigned the printing to James Franklin, brother of Benjamin, who had been sent to London to acquire the trade.
The beginning of competition was the occasion of a spiteful little newspaper war. Campbell, out of chagrin for the loss of the postoffice, refused to send his paper through the mails, which in itself was equiva- lent to an invitation to his successor to try his hand at publishing a paper. Through most of its early years the "Gazette's" title included the words "Printed by Authority," and it was during this time that the papers began to print anonymous advertisements which were in fact political articles stating the views of those who paid for their insertion. This method of reaching the people would be cheaper than pamphlet publication and per- haps equally effective. Such strategems are to be expected in times when persons have things to say and the press is under supervision. The fre- quency of these political essays and their freedom of expression gave the authorities some concern and Governor Shute sought by threats to teach the publishers caution. The Governor, in 1721, asked the General Court to institute a censorship. The bill failed in the House, whereupon the Governor prorogued the Assembly. Both the "News-Letter" and the "Gazette" printed the documents in full, "and thus it was publicly an- nounced to all that the press of Massachusetts was not in subjection to any licensing authority."
Meanwhile a national consciousness is developing in America. There are ten or more newspapers in the Colonies when the press begins to express this nationalistic sentiment and to discuss political topics. The papers by the dissemination of news and the diffusion of public opinion over the entire seaboard bring home to the people a sense of common interest and foster a community spirit. Democratic tendencies grow in strength year by year. Strong men in various centers see the possibility of utilizing the press for the unification of ideas and ideals throughout the country. Foremost among these men is Samuel Adams. By 1775, the number of newspapers has multiplied threefold, thirteen of these are in New England, and in the papers of Boston the cause of independence finds its most formidable expression.
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The office of the "Gazette" becomes the club room of the patriot leaders. To that office come Samuel Adams, James Otis, John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy, Thomas Cushing, Oxenbridge Thacher, Joseph Warren, and several others, all effective controversialists, and all made free of the columns of the paper by those staunch liberals Edes and Gill. As early as 1760 the cut at the head of the "Gazette" omits the fig- ure of "Britannia"-said to have been a portrait of the handsome Duch- ess of Richmond of the dissolute court of Charles II-and substitutes a "Minerva," wearing a liberty cap, holding a spear in one hand, and with the other a cage from which a bird escapes to a safe refuge in a Liberty Tree. The "Gazette" relates the proceedings of the town meetings and details the protests of committees and individuals against the arbitrary measures of the government. Every grievance provokes the printing of a fresh shower of criticisms. The "Gazette" fairly earns its reputation as a radical sheet. Its publishers are deep in the counsels of the Sons of Liberty. All the publishers in the Colonies find a common ground for anger in the passage of the Imperial Stamp Act. Its enforcement will burden them heavily. They have business reasons for encouraging gen- eral resistance to the measure. The Boston publishers boldly circulate their papers without stamps and without the use of any devices to evade the law; they simply defy it. Chief Justice Hutchinson in 1767 decides to fix officially the legal limits of the freedom of the press. In the Supe- rior Court he tells the Grand Jury that "the Liberty of the Press is doubtless a very great Blessing; but this Liberty means no more than a Freedom of everything to pass from the Press without a License. . Unlicensed Printing was never thought to mean a Liberty of reviling and calumniating all Ranks and Degrees of men with Impunity, all Authority
with Ignominy. . . ," Governor Bernard denounces the "Gazette" as an enemy of the Province. Several incidents nevertheless betray the futility of restraining action. An anonymous contributor in 1768 vehe- mently assails Lord Shelburne, the British Secretary of State, but when the Governor brings the offending article before the House he obtains only an elusive reply. At a banquet in celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act, a toast is offered to "'The Boston Gazette' and the Worthy Members of the House who have vindicated the Freedom of the press." The "Gazette" is accepted as the organ of the revolutionary movement.
What a remarkable group of able contributors the "Gazette" pos- sessed under the administration of Edes and Gill! John Adams wrote much for it, using various signatures, and maintaining under his own name his argument with William Brattle with respect to the appointment and salaries of judges. In January, 1775, he began his celebrated series of communications as "Novanglus," called out by the letters of Daniel Leon- ard of Taunton, whose "Massachusettensis" articles defended the policy
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of the British Government with skill and abundance of information. The Adam replies were peppery but powerful, enlivened with humor, and simple and direct in statement. Two days before Lexington the last of the series was given to the public. Charles Francis Adams justly found in these letters "a masterly commentary on the whole history of Amer- ican taxation and the rise of the Revolution." Josiah Quincy, Jr., as "Hyperion" began to write for the "Gazette" at the age of twenty-four. Quite in the manner of "The Biglow Papers," a writer of 1765 assumed the idiom of the uncultured countryman and the name of Humphrey Ploughjogger, and wrote freely of the conditions of the time. For ex- ample : "I can't sleep a nights one wink hardly of late, I hear so much talk about the stamp act and the governor's speech, that it seems as if 'twould make me crazy." And again: "I don't believe our young folks would love to dance together at husking frolics and to kiss another a bit the less, if they wore woolen shirts and shifts of their own making, than they do now in their fine ones. I do say, I won't buy one shilling worth of anything that comes from old England till the stamp act is appeal'd." In the "Gazette" some writer declared in 1768 that the Colonists would prefer to take their lives in their hands, "and cry to the Judge of all the earth," than be slaves. And an "American Solon" said in 1772: "The true plan of government which reason and the experience of nations point out for the British empire is to let the several parliaments in Brit- ain and America be (as they naturally are) free and independent of each other . . . And as the King is the centre of union the various parts of the great body politic will be united in him . There were times when these articles descended to scurrility but never did they lack either pith or point. Indeed, through the final years of the great debate real freedom of discussion vanished. The patriots held the field. The radicals turned intolerant. Only the "News-Letter," by the protection of the government, survived as a Royalist organ.
Samuel Adams-Samuel Adams must have a paragraph by himself. Long before the term was in common use he took rank as one of the most prolific and successful propagandists in history. He had a knack for journalism. The extent to which he used the press is amazing. One historian finds him to have been, next after Benjamin Franklin alone, "America's greatest journalist." Anonymity added to his influence. He multiplied himself into a regiment. Seldom using his own name, he wrote through a term of years under different aliases, maintaining run- ning debates with several opponents at the same time. One biographer detects twenty-five signatures employed by Sam Adams, among them "Alfred," "An American," "A Tory," "A Son of Liberty," "An Elector," "A Bostonian," "Candidus," "A Chatterer," "An Imperialist," "Deter-
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minatus," "Populus," "Cedant Arma Togae," "Sincerus," "Valerius Pop- licola," "A," "E. A.," "T. Z.," "A Layman," and "A Religious Politician." He poured suggestions into other men's ears and induced other writers to enter the fray. In the "Gazette" office he met his fellow workers and there they read the exchanges and corrected their proofs, much in the manner of an editorial council. Samuel Adams submerged his personality in his cause. He belongs among the very earliest of American politicians to appreciate to the full the power of the newspaper in moulding public opinion. Not himself but his ideas did he strive to keep before the people. The most watchful and industrious of all writers for the press through the score of years that ended with the affray at Lexington, he is also the least identified. He had to maintain his opinions against formidable opposition. Admitting that seven-eighths of the Boston populace read only the "Gazette," Governor Hutchinson tried hard to obtain a hearing for his own side in the "News-Letter." He paid contributors well, but circulation tarried. Hutchinson himself, Attorney General Jonathan Sewall, and Daniel Leonard were the strongest of the defenders of the Crown.
The story of "The Boston Gazette" is a brilliant page in the history of Boston journalism. Benjamin Edes and John Gill were bold publishers and brave men. They never hesitated to exploit the Boston Massacre, the Tax on Tea, the Closing of the Port, in such manner as to rouse the wrath of the public. John Adams penned a glowing encomium of these publishers in phrases that warm the blood even when read today in the cold pages of a long-gone periodical.
The partnership having ended, Edes with an old press and a small supply of type slipped away to Watertown, and when he came back to Boston he took his two sons, Benjamin, Jr., and Peter, into partnership and enlarged the title to "The Boston Gazette, and the Country Journal." In 1784 Peter withdrew from the business, and the two Benjamins, Senior and Junior, signed the issues, changing the title again with the first number of 1794 to "The Boston Gazette, and Weekly Republican Journal." At the end of June this son also retired and during the remaining four years of the existence of the paper the old editor was the sole owner. Through these years he took up the cudgels for the French Revolution and against our Federal Constitution. His fierce tirades against the Alien and Sedition laws subjected him to arrest. In the first issue of 1797 he intimated his intention to retire: "The aged editor of the 'Ga- zette' presents the compliments of the season to his generous benefactors, and invites all those who have any demands on him to call and receive their dues," and then he proceeded to ask subscribers in arrears to settle their debts to himself. The paper, the last which dated back to the days
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before the war, ceased to appear on September 17, 1798. The venerable editor ended his valedictory thus :
And now my Fellow-Citizens, I bid you FAREWELL! Maintain your virtue- cherish your Liberties-and may the Almighty protect and defend you. -B. EDES.
Boston, Sept. 17, 1798- and in the Forty-fourth Year of the Independence of the BOSTON GAZETTE.
Three years later he was found in Temple Street "setting type for show bills" while his elderly daughter "beat and pulled the press," and in 1803 in poverty he died.
The third Boston newspaper furnished the town with five years of excitement and diversion. It was "different." Its publisher, James Franklin, announced that, "encouraged by a number of respectable char- acters, who were desirous of having a paper of a different cast from those then published," he "began publication at his own risk . . . of 'The New England Courant.'" These "respectable characters" were members of a group which had been dubbed "the Hell-Fire Club," and they did produce a paper "of a different cast." They filled it with imitations of "The Tatler," "The Spectator," and "The Guardian." The Harvard library contained no copy of Addison or Steele, nor of Swift, Pope, or Dryden, but James Franklin had all these authors in his printing office, together with Milton and Shakespeare, and Butler's "Hudibras." Their presence no doubt is to be accounted for by his apprenticeship in London. The "Courant" refers to "The Tail of the Tub"; the spelling is original but the allusion is unmistakable. The club of "respectable characters" used these books and made their pages look and read in some degree like the periodicals that had fixed a new literary form in England. These Boston adventurers raised a deal of commotion. They criticized that austere exponent of the Puritan theocracy, Cotton Mather. They derided the postmaster. They censured the government. They ventured upon actual discussion of public affairs in a manner so outspoken as to horrify the community. Mather declaimed against the "wicked paper" which printed things "so vile and abominable." The editor made acquaintance with the inside of a jail, and during its entire existence the paper was near to, or actually involved in trouble with the law.
The early issues were devoted largely to matters other than news. Timothy Touchstone makes game of Justice Nicholas Clodpate. Tom Penshallow signs a squib. Tom Train jibes the postmaster. Ichabod Henroost alludes to his gadding wife. Abigail Afterwit has a fling at the "Gazette." Homespun Jack dislikes the fashions of the day. Cer- tainly it was a paper "of a different cast," something so novel as to be a portent to that Puritan community. Original wit supplied much of the copy, some articles obviously were rewritten from the London models,
OLD CUSTOM HOUSE
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and occasionally a "Spectator" paper was "lifted" entire. To the con- servatives the "Courant" seemed seditious. It heaped ridicule on Harv- ard College. It scornfully opposed Mather's plea for inoculation against smallpox. The grandson of Increase Mather, the much-lauded Mather Byles, couched his pen against the "Courant" as the organ of a club which seemed to rejoice in its profane name, and Franklin answered the pam- phlet in the columns of his paper. Naturally the publisher could not long pursue such a course without a collision with the authorities. On June II, 1722, the "Courant" insinuated slyly that the government was not overzealous in its efforts to capture a pirate vessel reported to be off the coast. The Governor of Rhode Island had invited Massachusetts to cooperate in an expedition against the marauder and Governor Shute had arranged for the impressment of a vessel with 100 men and six guns to cruise off Block Island and for an advance of £100 on account of wages. But under a Newport date line the "Courant" printed a "fake" news story with this finale: "We are advised from Boston that the Govern- ment of Massachusetts are fitting out a ship to go after the pirates to be commanded by Captain Peter Papillon, and 'tis thought he will sail some time this month, wind and weather permitting." Under such conditions as then prevailed any intimation of slackness against pirates, or of con- nivance with their depredations, was bound to produce quick and intense resentment. The government was exasperated. Both houses denounced the "Courant," and ordered the sheriff of Suffolk to "forthwith committ to the Goal in Boston the body of James Franklyn Printer . . . there to remain during this session." Franklin in close confinement fell ill and presented an humble petition for release. Liberty of the jail yard was granted but no discharge until the adjournment of the General Court three weeks thereafter.
This experience does not seem to have tamed the pens of the "Cour- ant's" contributors. The paper continued to comment freely on men and affairs. In January, 1723, it again contained material too objectionable to be overlooked. Governor Shute had gone to England. Lieutenant Governor Dummer was in charge. The absence of Shute removed the chief cause of dissension between the two bodies of the General Court, and in consequence an order for the supervision of the paper which had failed the year before was now adopted. Franklin had intimated that religious hypocrisy was prevalent in Boston, that political contentions were rife, that the Governor had gone away in an "extraordinary man- ner." Whereupon the authorities recommended that the General Court should forbid Franklin "to print or publish 'The New England Courant,' or any pamphlet or paper of a like nature, Except it be first Supervised by the Secretary of this Province," and that he be required to give bonds for obedience. A joint order to this effect was duly passed.
Met. Bos .- 30
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Nevertheless, the temerarious editor issues his paper as usual, without license, and alters not a whit his policy of ridicule and aspersion. His arrest is ordered. To evade the impending penalty he resorts to a strat- egem which introduces to the world the illustrious name of Benjamin Franklin. In his "Autobiography," written fifty years after and naturally containing some memory slips, the younger Franklin tells the story thus :
I too was taken up and examin'd before the Council; but, tho' I did not give them any satisfaction, they content'd themselves with admonishing me, and dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice, who was bound to keep his master's secrets.
During my brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the paper; and I made bold to give our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother took very kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavourable light, as a young genius that had a turn for libelling and satyr. My brother's discharge was accompany'd with an order of the House (a very odd one), that "James Franklin should no longer print the paper called 'The New England Courant.'"
There was a consultation held in our printing house among his friends, what he should do in this case. Some proposed to evade the order by changing the name of the paper ; but my brother, seeing inconveniences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better way, to let it be printed for the future under the name of BENJAMIN FRANK- LIN; and to avoid the censure of the Assembly, that might fall on him as still printing it by his apprentice, the contrivance was that my old indenture should be returned to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the remainder of the term, which were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme it was; however, it was im- mediately executed, and the paper went on accordingly, under my name for several months.
The success of the ruse is well known. Ben Franklin at the time was sixteen years old, a precocious lad, who already had been contributing to the "Courant" without the knowledge of his brother. He would alter his handwriting and slip his letters under the office door at night. Had his brother known the truth these offerings would have been jeered out of existence. But in the emergency the bound boy became the nominal editor, and Sewall jotted down in his diary the fact that "The Courant comes out very impudently." Benjamin Franklin left Boston in October, 1723, but his name was continued in the imprint of the paper until its final issue.
This episode is of importance in the history of the press, for it repre- sents the last attempt in this Commonwealth to enforce a censorship. As to Benjamin Franklin-in his long life he honorably earned his fame as the father of the American press ; he managed to make the publication of a newspaper a profitable business and to fill the columns of his paper with entertaining reading. From his sanctum he mounted to a secure place among the men of his era who determined the course of history in the Old World and the New. As Nantucket always has lamented the
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accident of his birth in Boston, so Boston must regret his determination to seek his fortune in Philadelphia.
However, the "Courant" could not long survive in the Boston of the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The Hell-Fire Club admired the "Spectator," but these Franklinians never quite perceived the secret of the popularity of the genial essayist whom they sought to emulate. He was urbane, kindly, a master of quiet and impersonal humor, while they were waspish, fond of irony, excessively personal, and intolerant in their tirades against intolerance. Had not the editor started his lively career with a fling at John Campbell we might not be able to ascertain the date of the first issue of the "Courant," for no copies of the early numbers are known. The postmaster thought it necessary to reply at length to Frank- lin's allusions to the "very, very dull" nature of the "performances" of the "News-Letter," and from that retaliation we calculate the initial ap- pearance of the "Courant" to have been dated August 7, 1721. The paper continued through 252 issues, of which 26 are now unknown; the last number located is of June 4, 1726.
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