USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 17
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Post-Revolutionary Influences-The Revolution over and Independ- ence achieved, the thirteen States entered upon a critical period of diffi- culty and perplexity during which the fate of the Nation-to-be was al- ways dubious. Common dangers had held the Colonies together while their lack of unity had almost lost the war. With the end of the conflict the most farseeing of the American patriots awaited with intense appre- hension the issue of the question which Europe watched with sardonic prediction of failure, the question whether the several new States could be consolidated into a strong and voluntary unity of government, or must fall asunder to become ultimately the spoil of foreign powers. It was not strange that such views should be widely held. Little Holland alone had given the world a successful modern republic. The prevailing British opinion was stated bluntly by the Dean of Gloucester: "The mutual antipathies and clashing interests of the Americans, their differences of government, habitudes and manners indicate that they will have no centre of union and no common interest. They never can be united into one compact empire under any species of government whatever."
Through the years of disintegration which intervened between the Treaty of Peace and the adoption of the Constitution, the chaotic con-
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ditions were reflected in the newspapers of the time. Mobs assailed the Tories and editors lashed them verbally. States bickered and public men wrangled. After that little company of remarkable men had scored their miracle of constructive statesmanship in the formulation of the Constitu- tion, the people had to consider their first great national issue. They divided on the question of the adoption of the new instrument of Federal government. The strife of political parties began. The Federalists ex- tolled the makers of the great instrument as demigods, the Anti-Fed- eralists ridiculed them as humbugs. Hostilities were carried on by broadside and pamphlet as well as in the press. In Massachusetts especi- ally the historic town meeting had developed an intense love for self- government, and the people were devoted to State rights. Boston was predominantly Federalist, but the farmers in the western counties still cherished the anger that had produced the Shays rebellion. On January 21, 1788, the "Boston Gazette" carried this warning :
BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION ! !
The most diabolical plan is on foot to corrupt the members of the convention who oppose the adoption of the new Constitution. Large sums of money have been brought from a neighboring State for that purpose, contributed by wealthy. If so, is it not prob- able there may be collections for the same accursed purpose nearer home?
Extreme as was the partisanship of the newspapers and bitter as was their tone, the press held a higher place in the State after the Revolution than before. Men of authority and influence had looked upon the press as a disturbing factor in the community; they had tolerated the weekly publications of pre-war times as dangerous intrusions, to be endured if necessary, to be censored and suppressed if possible. But after the war the people accepted the newspapers as their own, voicing their views, defending their rights, interpreting the new order of things in their inter- est. Many among the higher classes distrusted the press for the same reason that they distrusted the masses. The press stood for the "rabble" and the "rabble" were not safe. As a rule the men who wrote the news- papers and the men who printed them were the same. Journalism was not a profession but printing was a trade. The papers in 1785 contained many warnings to the people to "beware of the lawyers" and to be on guard against all "aristocrats." The great career of Benjamin Franklin justified journalism as an honorable calling and he recorded upon his gravestone his pride in his craft. The use made of the newspaper by Samuel Adams and John Adams helped much to procure for the press the respect of all classes. The fame of Alexander Hamilton is closely associated with his work as a journalist and propagandist. Early in 1789, in New York, the seat of the new government, there appeared a newspaper designed to be superior in mechanical workmanship to any
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then printed in America, and, as the organ of the government, superior to all others in influence. The prospectus invited the patronage of the wealthy and the educated and intimated also a wish for the goodwill of the "mechanics." A native of Boston was the editor and publisher of this "Gazette of the United States," and John Fenno may have had some newspaper training in the Puritan town. Jefferson more than once ex- pressed his profound belief in the press as an indispensable implement for the rule of public opinion. To meet the situation created by the establishment of Fenno's paper, James Madison, Henry Lee, and Jeffer- son induced Philip Freneau to come to Philadelphia, whence the seat of government had been removed, and to establish there the "National Gazette." Soon the two papers were berating each other violently. Fenno called Freneau a "blackguard" and applied to him many another term of opprobrium, whereupon Freneau, "the poet of the Revolution," and a good satirist, retorted with some verses of which we quote the first stanza :
Since the day we attempted The Nation's Gazette Pomposo's dull printer does nothing but fret ; Now preaching, And screeching, Then nibbling And scribbling, Remarking And barking, Repining And whining, And still in a pet From morning till night with The Nation's Gazette.
Such party organs thus multiplied throughout the country, and they competed with each other in coarseness and vituperation. "The Aurora," of Philadelphia, said in 1796: "If ever a Nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington." "The Boston Gazette," it must be confessed, was not far behind "The Aurora" in the excoriation of the Father of his Country. Occasions for disagree- ment appeared year after year. The financial policies of the new govern- ment, the Revolution in France and the crusade of Citizen Genet, the long duel between Hamilton and Jefferson, the Alien and Sedition laws, Jay's Treaty, the Louisiana Purchase, the policies which brought about the War of 1812, all were discussed with pens dipped in gall. The press made the most of its freedom. The papers gained wide influence but they printed about as much calumny as news. Franklin himself com- mented sadly on the indiscretions of journalism :
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 government of neighboring states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may be attended with the most pernicious consequences.
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The Sedition Act of July 14, 1798, made it a high misdemeanor, pun- ishable by a fine of $2,000 and five years' imprisonment, for persons to combine unlawfully or conspire against the government, or to write, print, publish, or quote any false scandal or scurrilous writings against the government of the United States, the President, or either House of Congress. The Act was amended, so that the truth of any publication should be accepted as a valid defense, which had been the contention of Andrew Hamilton in the trial of Peter Zenger. In Boston in 1813, so high ran the tide of feeling against "Mr. Madison's War," the papers actually conducted what was really a debate on the dissolution of the Union. The "Columbian Centinel" declared that "we are a divided people, and the lines of our political and geographical divisions are nearly coincident." It probably is true that American journalism descended to its lowest depths in the years immediately following the Second War with England, what has been denominated "the period of black journal- ism." But it was in the opening year of the century that Fisher Ames expressed his opinions of the newspapers of New England in terms that are not without pertinence to conditions in general today. In his article in the "New England Palladium" of October 13, 1801, signed "Hercules," the eloquent orator discoursed at length in the tone indicated by this opening paragraph :
It seems as if newspapers were made to suit a market as much as any other. The starers, and wonderers, and gapers, engross a very large share of the attention of all the sons of the type. Extraordinary events multiply upon us surprisingly. Gazetts, it is seriously to be feared, will not allow room to anything that is not loathsome or shocking. A newspaper is pronounced to be very lean and destitute of matter, if it contains no account of murders, suicides, prodigies, or monstrous births.
Some of these tales excite horror, and others disgust, yet the fashion reigns like a tyrant to relish wonders, and almost to relish nothing else. Is this a reasonable taste? . . . . Is the history of Newgate the only one worth reading? Are oddities only to be hunted? Pray tell us, men of ink, that if our presses are to diffuse information, and that we, the poor ignorant people can get it by no other way than by newspapers, what knowledge we are to glean from the blundering lies or the tiresome truths about thunder storms, that, strange to tell! kill oxen or burn barns, and cats that bring two-headed kittens, and sows that eat their own pigs? .
It was an easy thing to establish a newspaper in the early years of the Republic. It is related of Joel Munsell that while still under the age of twenty and while setting type on a weekly "Masonic Record," he decided to start a paper to occupy his spare time. He secured 150 sub- scribers in one day's canvass of the chief business street of Albany, bought a small font of type, and began business. He set the type in the back room of a book shop, printed the paper at night and delivered it himself next morning. "The Albany Minerva" did not long survive, but the story illustrates conditions even as late as 1827. Newspapers multi-
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plied readily and rapidly during the administrations of the first four Presidents, owing especially to the friction generated by the political controversies of the day. The exciting Congressional campaign of 1794 between Fisher Ames and Dr. Charles Jarvis filled the papers of the day with electioneering material. Boston became a Federalist headquarters and developed almost fanatical opposition to Jeffersonianism. For many years the Federalists had a decided advantage in the number of papers adhering to their policies ; in Isaiah Thomas' list of 1810 they are credited with 66 as against only 23 advocates of Republicanism. Many watched the multiplication of newspapers with alarm. In 1796, John Pickering, uncle of Timothy, lamented the decision of the "Salem Gazette" to be- come a semi-weekly. Once a week was often enough. It was nonsense to disturb the minds of the people by sending newspapers to them twice a week to take their attention from the duties they had to perform. A few years later, Timothy Dwight listed the reading of newspapers among the vices of mankind in newly settled regions. In his "Travels" he said : "To be pert; to gamble; to haunt taverns; to drink; to swear; to read newspapers ; to talk on political subjects; to manage the affairs of the nation and neglect their own . . ' and so on.
Yet how meagre were the news reports of those days and how belated. Boston did not know of the death of Washington until eight days after, and the"Centinel" admitted on March 15, 1800, that it had been without news from Europe for 83 days. Mr. Duniway in his work on the "Free- dom of the Press in Massachusetts," relates with much satisfaction how the debate on the ratification of the Federal Constitution by the Massa- chusetts Convention, on vote of the delegates, was reported regularly for the press, "the first instance of such action by any deliberative official body in Massachusetts and a striking proof of the revolution that had taken place in the relations of representatives to their constituents and of the press to both the government and the people." The Convention did more; it "passed an order instructing the secretary to furnish an account of the proceedings to any printer who should apply for it." This did not prove a satisfactory arrangement, and reporters were then as- signed places in the hall for taking minutes. This was in response to a petition signed by Benjamin Russell and Adams & Nourse, dated Janu- ary 14, 1788, asking for a place "within the walls," as the making of min- utes in the gallery was impossible because of "the great numbers who attend" there.
A surprising number of Boston papers of the period now under sur- vey became merged after years of separate publication in the "Adver- tiser." To that famous journal other papers seemed to tend as tribu- taries to a great river. Let us proceed with the record of the six or seven papers that were thus consolidated. In their feuds, as well as in their
PARK SQUARE BUILDING
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more peaceful debates, we shall find abundant illustration of the intensity of political feeling in that era, and how quarrels persisted long after the original differences had disappeared.
We have noted heretofore that the weekly "New England Chronicle" was a continuation of the "Essex Gazette," founded at Salem, transferred to Cambridge, and established in Boston by Samuel Hall on April 25, 1776, when the 40Ist number was issued from quarters "next to the Oliver Cromwell Tavern in School Street." Edward Eveleth Powars and Na- thaniel Willis took over the paper the following June with an office "opposite the new Court House in Queen Street." The first issue with the style "The Independent Chronicle" appeared on September 19, 1776, and the following November this title was expanded to "The Independ- ent Chronicle. And Universal Advertiser." The Powars-Willis partner- ship lasted until the end of February, 1779, when the former withdrew and the latter continued alone until New Year's of 1784, when Thomas Adams and John Nourse acquired the paper. Nourse died in January, 1790, and Adams became sole publisher until July II, 1793, when Isaac Larkin acquired an interest in the paper. The new partner died in De- cember, 1797, and Adams again carried on alone until May 13, 1799, when it was announced as "printed by Ebenezer Rhoades for the Pro- prietor," and this owner was stated to be James White. However, on May 15 of the following year White retired, and Abijah Adams and Rhoades succeeded as publishers. During this time there had been sev- eral changes of title, and in September, 1793, the paper had become a semi-weekly. In October, 1808, with the admission of Davis C. Ballard, the firm became Adams, Rhoades & Company ; Ballard quit the firm with the first issue of 1814, only to return in June, 1817, as joint owner with Edmund Wright, Jr., when he consolidated it with the "Boston Patriot." This partnership now issued two papers of the same name: one, the "Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot" "for the country" as a con- tinuation of the semi-weekly "Chronicle," the other of identic name as a daily. For some time this duality of title was maintained, but in Decem- ber the style of the daily became "Boston Patriot & Daily Chronicle." Both were continued for some years, only to be absorbed by the "Daily Advertiser" in 1831.
Now to fit into this framework a few facts about the life and character of the paper. It became an exponent of the ideas of the Jeffersonian Re- publicans and their most important organ in New England. Through almost its whole existence the paper represented extreme views of democracy and liberty. England it derided, the French it extolled. It resisted strenuously the return of the Tory refugees to their original rights of citizenship and property. For instance, in 1783, we find this effusion :
Met. Bos .- 31
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As Hannibal swore never to be at peace with the Romans, so let every Whig swear -by the abhorrence of Slavery-by liberty and religion-by the shades of those departed friends who have fallen in battle-by the ghosts of those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board of prison ships and in loathsome dungeons-by the names of a Hayne and other virtuous citizens whose lives have been wantonly destroyed-by every- thing that a freeman holds dear,-never to be at peace with those fiends the Refugees, whose thefts, murders, and treasons have filled the cup of woe; but show the world that we prefer war, with all its direful calamities, to giving those fell destroyers of the human species a residence among us. We have crimsoned the earth with our blood to purchase peace,-therefore are determined to enjoy harmony, uninterrupted with the contaminating breath of a Tory.
Adams & Nourse began their régime by similar violence of opposition to the new Society of the Cincinnati. It was an exclusive organization. It was designed to become the opening wedge for an hereditary aris- tocracy. The separation of this country must be complete from the effete political systems of the Old World. "The institution of the Cin- cinnati is concerted to establish a complete and perpetual personal dis- tinction between the numerous military dignitaries of their corporation and the whole remaining body of the people, who will be styled Plebeians through the community.
Through the intermediary period of the Confederation the "Chron- icle" was gradually transformed into an advocate no less vehement of the somewhat milder political views of Jefferson. Many vigorous and witty writers aided the editors in their vindictive disputes. Benjamin Austin, Jr., a ropemaker, wrote for almost every issue for twenty years, using such signatures as "Honestus" and "Old South." He was under fire constantly during the 1798 agitation because of his defense of the policy of John Adams in opposing war with France. An attack in the "Mercury" described Austin in this charming fashion :
"HONESTUS"-A hungry, lean-faced fellow, A mere anatomy, a rope-maker, An envious, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch; This living dead man, this incessant scribe, Forsooth, took on him as a chronicler, And, with no face, outfacing federal foes, Cries out, They are possessed.
Other contributors were Perez Morton, later to become Attorney- General of the Commonwealth, and Thomas Greenleaf.
The agitation of 1798 was produced by the passage by the Federalist majority in Congress of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the one providing for the deportation of "dangerous" aliens, the other for the limitation of freedom of publication. The "Chronicle" boldly fought both these laws and objected to the viewpoint of the Massachusetts Legislature respect- ing them. Secretary of State Pickering became an attentive reader of newspapers that he might attract the attention of district attorneys in
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the several States to the alleged seditious material he uncovered. The obnoxious laws, while producing much commotion throughout the coun- try, produced only about twenty-five arrests, and not all the offenders were editors. Four leading papers were attacked by warrant of the Sedi- tion Act, but action against the "Chronicle" was based on the English law of seditious libel. The offense was this, that the paper charged both Houses of the Massachusetts General Court with "wilful perjury," because that in their constitutional oath they had sworn that Massachusetts is a free, sovereign and independent State, and yet that by voting to reject the resolutions of the Virginia Legislature against the Alien and Sedi- tion laws, "they had disclaimed the right to decide the constitutionality of any law of Congress." Both Thomas Adams, the editor, and Abijah Adams, his brother, bookkeeper for the paper, were indicted, but the former was sick and in bed, and the latter stood trial alone. Attorney- General James Sullivan prosecuted the case under the doctrine of libels according to the Common Law of England, and Judge Dana charged the jury that this law was the common birthright of all Americans. Adams was found guilty and duly sentenced to go to jail, to pay the costs of his trial, and to give bonds for future good behavior. During his thirty-days confinement he was visited by no less a personage than the venerable Samuel Adams. Thomas Adams meantime announced that although the bookkeeper was in jail and the editor in bed, the cause of Liberty would not languish.
James White, bookseller in Court Street, during his long connection with the paper, wrote incessantly for it, and his articles were usually brief and always vigorous. While politics was keeping the community at high temperature in 1806, there occurred the tragedy which clouded the subsequent life of Benjamin Austin and caused sad and wondering comment throughout the country. Jefferson had made Austin a Com- missioner of Loans. Came July 4 with a celebration by the Federalists in Faneuil Hall and another by the Republicans on Copp's Hill. There were acrimonious exchanges subsequently about the payment of the bills for these festivities. Austin for one committee and Thomas O. Selfridge for the other led the dispute. One day in the "Gazette" Selfridge posted Austin as "a coward, a liar, and a scoundrel." The same day in a portion of the edition of the "Chronicle" Austin posted a reply to this "insolent and false publication." In the early afternoon of that same day Austin's son, Charles, 19 years old and a Harvard senior, met Selfridge in State Street. There was a verbal flurry. Selfridge drew a pistol and killed the youth. Able arguments were offered in the ensuing trial. Chief Justice Parsons charged the jury. And the jury acquitted Selfridge. Hardly another event in the newspaper history of the city had produced so great a sensation. For many weeks after the trial the "Chronicle" anathe-
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matized the Federalists. Their papers in Boston maintained silence for the most part, but there were letters mailed from Boston for publication elsewhere which provided a measure of justification for the conduct of the "Chronicle."
Through the balance of its career the paper maintained its old doc- trines of democracy, zealously supporting the policy of the President during what the majority of the community called "Mr. Madison's War." The responsible editors through these years wrote relatively little, but they rallied to their cause the chiefs of their party and commanded the services of many able pens. The most formidable adversary of the "Chronicle" was Benjamin Russell of the "Centinel," as will duly appear.
"The "Boston Patriot," mentioned above, was established on March 3, 1809, by David E. Everett and Isaac Munroe. After a year the found- ers separated as partners and Everett arranged to serve under Munroe as editor. Another year and Munroe formed a partnership with Eben- ezer French, and Everett continued as editor. At the opening of the year 1814 Davis C. Ballard became owner and publisher, and on March 9, 1816, he adopted the style "Boston Patriot and Morning Advertiser." The last semi-weekly issue appeared on the last day of May, 1817, and the establishment of the daily was followed immediately by the purchase by Ballard and Wright of the "Chronicle."
The "Patriot," like the "Chronicle," fought the Federalists and sup- ported Madison. In the first issue there appeared a lively article against the "Essex Junto." In spite of his advanced age, John Adams, then 75, wrote for the "Patriot" an important series of letters containing much of defense and interpretation of his active political career. The publication of the collected works of Fisher Ames gave the editor an opportunity which he was not slow to seize, and for months there appeared in the "Patriot" reviews, so-called, which in reality were bitter criticisms in- tended to promote the cause of democracy.
The "Centinel" Group-Let us now trace in outline the records of several papers which may be called the "Centinel" group. First, the "New England Palladium," founded as the "Massachusetts Mercury" on January 1, 1793, by Alexander Young and Samuel Etheridge. This tri- weekly quarto after was increased to folio size and reduced to a semi- weekly in frequency of publication. Young became sole owner in Au- gust and so continued until April 8, 1794, when he admitted Thomas Minns to partnership. In the following few years there were several small changes of title, until with the first number of the new century, dated January 2, 1801, the name became "The Mercury and New-England Palladium." Two more years and the first half of this double name was dropped, and the second was retained until the year 1815, when the paper
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became the "New England Palladium and Commercial Advertiser." Warren Dutton of New Haven had acquired the ownership in January, 1801, but his name seldom appeared in the pages of the paper, and the date of his withdrawal therefrom is not accurately known. In Septem- ber, 1828, however, the paper was taken over by the editor of "Zion's Herald," described in the announcement as "for some time advantage- ously known" as the editor of "a very respectable and useful paper of this city." This was G. V. H. Forbes. He relinquished control after a single year to a Washington correspondent, E. Kingman, and Kingman in turn, seemingly a better reporter than publisher, sold the property in 1830 to Adams and Hudson, owners of the "Centinel."
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