USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 18
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In the grandiloquent manner of the day Young and Minns had thus announced their intention :
Conscious that the low ribaldry and personal defamation which frequently disgrace European publications, and sometimes contaminate the purer effusions of the American press, have a most certain tendency to depreciate its worth, obstruct its utility, and sap the foundations of everything dear and valuable to mankind, the editors of the "Mer- cury" will ever strive, with the most cautious attention, to avoid the rocks on which but too many of their contemporaries have been shattered.
The editors also expressed their intention to strive for the impossible ideal of "immutable impartiality." They did mix in controversies to some extent nevertheless and they did have trouble in pleasing all their readers. Not only did Fisher Ames write for the "Mercury," but George Cabot was an occasional contributor, and John Lowell discussed in its columns many of the issues of the day. Writing to Thomas Dwight from Dedham on New Years Day, 1801, Fisher Ames said of the political policies to be advocated : The 'Mercury' or 'Palladium' is to be a Federal paper, and pains must be taken to spread it, and gain readers and patrons in all parts of New England. It languishes hitherto for pecuniary funds. But literary help will be considerable in the begin- ning, and unless (this in confidence) K., J. L., and F. A., will work for it, the tug will soon become hard. One of the three is very lazy . For his own contributions Ames used such titles as "Americanus," "Equality," "Laicus," "The Political Whip-Top," "Aristomanes," "Nov- anglus," "Quintilian," and several others; he displayed his powers of eloquence in the defense of the doctrines of Federalism and he used all his rare powers of invective in the denunciation of the principles of "the Jacobins." The publishers early became the State printers and it is to be noted as an indication of the increasing acceptance of the right of the press to freedom of expression that, whereas Young and Minns in 1805 published in the "Palladium" an alleged "indecent and libellous" criti- cism of "the personal character of the President of the United States,"
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and the Massachusetts House of Representatives took cognizance of the fact, a committee of the House reported that it was inexpedient to rescind the printing contract and gave their reasons for this liberal decision.
The "Palladium" was conspicuously successful in the management of its marine department, and this was largely due to the genius and energy of Henry Ingraham Blake-"Harry Blake" to all Boston-who is called by one historian "the first star reporter of America," and who is credited by all writers of that period as the best authority in the town on the mercantile marine. He began as an ambitious journeyman printer. He saw how imperfect was the ship news of the period and practically invented the method of reporting the clearances and arrivals of vessels, and incidents of every kind associated with crews and cargoes. For years he had no real competitor in accumulating the news of the sea. He knew every owner and every captain. He remembered the history of every ship that traded at the port of Boston. He carried in his head a calendar of expected arrivals. The value of shipping news depends on complete- ness and accuracy. Its reputation for reliability is its chief recommenda- tion. In every issue the department must be represented by a long series of detached and prosaic facts. Harry Blake did not wait for the news to come to him, either at Topliffs or in some other way. He went after the news, always to the wharves, often down the harbor. Bad weather never troubled him. He carried no notebooks, but scribbled an occasional item, in characters he alone could read, on the margin of a paper, on his linen, even, so it is said, on his fingernails. He would wait up all night for news and it was quite a common thing to see him run up State Street with some precious bit of information in his possession, quite likely to stop the press on arrival at the office. His separation from the "Palladium" was a distinct loss to the paper, and the cause of his seeking employment elsewhere is obscure. He continued for some years with the "Courier," and then removed to New York, where, under very different conditions, he failed to win success; even "Harry" Blake could not cover all the piers and carry in his head all the facts about the commerce of that city.
The partnership of Young and Minns enjoyed the remarkable longev- ity of a third of a century. On their retirement from the "Palladium" in 1828 the journalists of the city gave them a complimentary dinner at which the speakers made many allusions to that new "spirit of urban- ity" which made it possible to maintain differences of opinion without "descending" as in former years "to personal abuse." Adams and Hud- son continued the "Palladium" for some years, issuing it on Tuesdays and Fridays, while the "Centinel" was published daily; the contents of the papers were largely identical, however. With these two papers was merged another in April, 1836, the "Boston Gazette," to whose story we now must attend.
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On September 7, 1795, John and Joseph N. Russell, brother of Ben- jamin Russell, produced the first number of the "Boston Price-Current and Marine Intelligencer" as a weekly quarto, increased after six months to folio size. The contents corresponded faithfully with the title, and the little paper became one of the first strictly commercial publications in the United States. The heading carried a bird's-eye view of the port of Boston. The price was $3 a year, postage additional. At the end of June, 1796, the partnership was dissolved, and John Russell went on alone with the paper, subsequently making it a semi-weekly at $4 a year. On June 7, 1798, it was enlarged to the size of the "Chronicle," the "Cen- tinel," and the "Mercury," and the name became "Russell's Gazette, Commercial and Political." On making this change Russell offered this address to the public :
The portentous aspect of our political horizon, connected with the important events which are daily passing on the great theatre of the European world, designate the pres- ent period as one which loudly calls for the virtuous energies of all good citizens; and ought to inspire in the breast of every man a solicitude to contribute his efforts in sup- port of the cause of virtue, freedom, and independence. Under this persuasion, and influenced by the advice of many valuable friends, the editor, in the humble hope of being able to extend the sphere of its utility, has deviated so far from the plan which he adopted in originating the "Commercial-Gazette," as to enlarge its dimensions, thereby to afford an opportunity of rendering it an important and useful vehicle of political information, as it is admitted to be of commercial and maritime intelligence. He con- fesses to have been stimulated to this alteration by the ambition he feels to take a share (he hopes it may be a conspicuous one) in the dissemination of those important political truths and opinions which the fertile genius and talents of our countrymen, urged by the critical state of the times, daily produce in such rich exuberance. To the friends and supporters of the constitution, and those who administer it, he declares his paper exclu- sively devoted. To the enemies of either he avows himself an enemy. These are his sentiments; and, on these terms does he solicit the patronage of the public; for, on no other, does he think himself deserving it, or could he expect it to be permanent.
Having thus delivered himself in the stately manner of his time, Rus- sell followed onward until early in 1800, when ill health compelled him to resign his printing and publishing department to the care of James Cutler, a young man who had been in the office from the outset. Their partnership was announced on October 9, 1800, when the first half-title became the "Boston Gazette," and then, in January, 1803, the latter half was dropped. In September, 1813, Simon Gardner was taken into the firm, and the style became Russell, Cutler & Co. A few years more and the word "Commercial" found a place again in the title. At the end of April, 1818, Cutler died, and two months later the firm became Russell & Gardner. Russell himself withdrew from the firm at the end of 1823, addressing the public again in an interesting valedictory, from which this excerpt is taken.
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More than 40 years have passed away since the undersigned commenced the duties and labors of the editor and publisher of a periodical paper. . . . We leave our duties as editor in peace with everyone, feeling a conscious pride that we have never made the "Gazette" a vehicle of malice or a chronicle of pitiful slanders. In truth, we ask no praise but this, which no one, we think, will deny us, our enmities were easily appeased, and our friendships seldom forgotten.
Gardner, who now became the sole proprietor, procured as editor a well -known lawyer of the day, Samuel L. Knapp. Russell had included in his farewell message a complimentary allusion to James L. Homer, as "a young gentleman who has been long engaged in this establishment and for several years past the assiduous collector of the marine depart- ment." Homer now was continued in this capacity and William Beals was made treasurer. Prospects were excellent, when, on April 19. 1824. Gardner died. The three survivors continued publication on account of the widow until July, 1826, when Beals and Homer bought the outfit and made Alden Bradford editor. On May 5, 1828. the paper became a daily. There were several other changes in the next few years. Beals sold his interest to Joseph Palmer and entered into a partnership with Charles G. Greene of the "Morning Post." while the "Gazette" was sold to Adams & Hudson, then the owners of the "Palladium" and the "Centinel." Another short interval and Nathan Hale acquired them all, and these long-established and popular papers were merged with the "Daily Advertiser."
In its best days the "Gazette" was an important and influential pub- lication. It defended Federalist policies with vigor and frequently with violence. William Charles, the cartoonist of the War of ISI2, called the "Gazette" the chief spokesman of the Tory press. Russell ably cham- pioned the policies of John Adams. He inveighed against the French Directory and ridiculed Napoleon. He denounced Jefferson and Madison and all the opponents of Federalism, whatever their name. He unlim- bered the whole battery for broadsides of vituperation against the French consul in Boston, Citizen Mozard, and even censured the selectmen for inviting that officer to attend a public school examination. Russell wielded a formidable pen and he had able correspondents. Knapp was a Dartmouth graduate, Bradford was in the Harvard class of 1786. For the "Gazette" Robert Treat Paine wrote elaborate criticisms and reviews. The marine news was carefully presented and for many years the work of its collection was performed with fidelity and enterprise.
And now the "Centinel." William Warden and the redoutable Ben- jamin Russell established the "Massachusetts Centinel: and the Repub- lican Journal," as a semi-weekly of quarto size. on March 24, 1784. War- den died two years after. and Russell went forward alone as publisher, and enlarged his paper to folio dimensions. A few months after its
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founding the name of the paper had been cut in half by dropping the secondary title, and with the issue of June 12, 1790, Russell changed its style from "Massachusetts Centinel" to "Columbian Centinel." On Octo- ber 5, 1799, this name was amplified to "Columbian Centinel & Massachu- setts Federalist," a style which was retained with minor changes for nearly twenty years. The name was shortened again in 1818, but only for a fortnight, at the end of which it appeared as "Columbian Centinel. American Federalist." In November, 1828, Russell sold the paper to Joseph T. Adams and Thomas Hudson, and the printers and editors of the city accepted the opportunity to honor the long distinguished veteran who now was retiring from the profession with a testimonial dinner at which Nathan Hale presided. It was in 1840 that the "Centinel" was merged with the "Advertiser."
"Ben" Russell must have been an interesting and picturesque char- acter. Born in Boston in 1761, he learned as a boy to set type while · frequenting the printing shop of Isaiah Thomas. With the removal of Thomas to Worcester the lad began life as an apprentice, sleeping over the shop, and, like Franklin before him, slipping anonymous paragraphs under the office door. Towards the end of the war he served some time as a soldier, having entered the army as a substitute for his drafted employer, and thus he witnessed the execution of Major André. Although his indenture bound him until he should reach his majority, the appren- tice insisted that this army service entitled him to release at the age of twenty, and Thomas allowed the claim. The young man thereupon decided to set up for himself, and, with a letter of credit in his pocket, he trudged afoot the eight days' journey to New York to buy the plant of a Tory printer. In that time type had to be obtained from Europe; there was no foundry in America. He arrived just as the British were evacuat- ing the city, and found that the press and type he intended to purchase had been sent on ahead to Halifax. Returning to Boston he managed to procure "a small font of Long Primer, another of Pica, with a few alpha- bets of larger size, and immediately issued a proposal for a publication to be known as the 'Massachusetts Centinel.'" His exordium filled the greater part of the first page of the first number. In part it read thus :
TO THE CANDID PUBLIC.
When the benign and cheering influence of the cherub Peace is daily spreading her delectable blessings over this New World :- when arts and sciences (its ever-attending guests), the foster parents of liberty, are dispelling the gloomy atmosphere of war, and enlightening mankind with liberality of sentiment, every vehicle propitious to the design should be put in motion, and every exertion strained to second the undertaking.
There was a good deal of that kind of elegant writing in the early numbers of the "Centinel." The publishers stated that they would "use
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every effort to obtain, and the most scrutinous circumspection in collect- ing whatever may be thought of public utility or private amusement." Further, they declared that "uninfluenced by party" they would "aim only to be just."
Very soon Major Russell proved his possession of the knack for jour- nalism which is the prime requisite for success in that exacting occupa- tion. He may have aimed to be just, but there was nothing diffident about his expressions of opinion. He could be enthusiastic and he could be truculent and always he was forceful and incisive. He sought in every way within his means to catch the public eye. He used crude pictures, he arranged his type in odd and ingenious ways. He strewed capitals and punctuation marks in reckless profusion all over his pages; as editor, he employed allegories, travesties, extravangances in verse as well as prose, and a great amount of downright abuse, to enforce his arguments. He adopted the space-filling practice of the period and printed much of the poetry of Gray, Cowper, and Goldsmith, and a large part of Cook's Voyages. For years he inserted in the Saturday issues an article of religious character in "Preparation for Sunday." He early assumed and steadfastly maintained a protectionist position in behalf of domestic manufacturers. For example, on January 5, 1785, he said : "That no nation can ever be rich or powerful whose imports exceed their exports is a fact not to be controverted. It is a melancholy truth that at present our imports far exceed our exports; and should this con- tinue to be the case cold poverty will soon stare us in the face, and the gaudy trifles we now import from Britain (which we are foolishly fond of and for which we pay solid coin) will leave us and vanish like a vapor before the rising sun. Rags, or nakedness, must supply their place, and we too late must mourn our folly." Disposed at first to oppose the Society of the Cincinnati, he reversed his position at once on learning that Washington was a founder of what was intended to be simply a patriotic organization. Nobody could surpass Russell in reverential devotion to the great Virginian. The "Centinel" inveighed against the return of the Loyalists. While objecting to several measures of the Massachusetts Legislature, the paper approved one which it might have been expected to oppose, namely, the act imposing a duty on advertise- ments of sixpence an insertion. Most of the papers denounced the tax. Russell declared it implied no infringement of the liberty of the press, and accepted it because it would "contribute thousands to the exigencies of the State."
Throughout its life the "Centinel" and Russell were synonymous names. In the fullest sense the paper was a personal organ. The issue for March 22, 1786, announced the death of Warden at the age of twenty- five. Russell gave his main attention to the editorial work of the paper,
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but he was entirely competent to look after all mechanical details. When Daniel Shays took the field in rebellion against the government of the Commonweath, the "Centinel" employed all the varied talents of its editors for direct argument, scathing sarcasm, ridicule, and outright coarseness, in support of the cause of law and order. One just claim of "Ben" Russell to the gratitude of his countrymen is his able campaign for the ratification of the new Federal Constitution. On September 26, 1787, he printed the document complete, which was no mean feat for those days. Valiantly he fought in its behalf. With true journalistic enterprise he obtained a seat in the Massachusetts Convention and reported the debates on ratification. He employed in his paper an effec- tive device to illustrate the familiar principle, "United we stand, divided we fall." The Federal edifice as a mighty dome must be supported by thirteen pillars. As the States one by one ratified the Constitution, he put the pillars in place in the simple drawing which graphically enforced his argument. In 1788, when only North Carolina and Rhode Island still held aloof, for instance, the cartoon was drawn to show eleven pillars in line and two aslant, but with mottoes predicting the ultimate destiny of the lagging States. This "Federal edifice" cartoon is not unworthy to hold a place with Franklin's "Join or Die" device of an earlier time of crisis.
In the middle of the year 1790 the "Centinel" came out with improved typography and thenceforth it held a leading place among the newspapers of the new Republic. When Congress met for its first session, Russell, realizing the poverty of the new government, offered to print the public laws and other public documents gratuitously. Reference to the files will show that the astute editor appreciated the value of his generosity for advertising. The "Centinel" was published by Benjamin Russell," "Printer of the Laws of the Union." On being asked in later and more
prosperous years for a bill he forwarded a recipt in full, but Washington insisted on the payment of this debt of honor amounting to $7,000. While Russell's paper probably surpassed all others in the early years of the century in the accuracy and extent of its information, its abounding per- sonalities several times involved its editor in physical encounters. Hos- tilities between the "Centinel" and the "Chronicle" continued until after the War of 1812.
Russell, like most of the Federalists, looked upon the accession of Jefferson to the Presidency as a National calamity. In 1799 the doughty and industrious defender of Federalism took up the challenge for a brisk affray with William Cobbett of Philadelphia, whose pen-name of "Por- cupine" fairly suggested the sting of his quill. In the coarse and fero- cious campaign of 1800 Russell bore a conspicuous part, and when Jeffer- son's inauguration day arrived the "Centinel" came out with an epitaph
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on the end of the Federal Administration, its "death occasioned by the Secret Arts and Open Violence of Foreign and Domestic Demagogues," with much more to the same purport.
Throughout both the administrations of the man from Monticello the "Centinel" denounced his policies and berated his measures. The War of 1812 was held to have been brought about by the "infatuated policy of the rulers of the American people." Every naval or military success was hailed with enthusiasm, but no words of commendation for the gov- ernment in its conduct of the war ever appeared in the "Centinel." The story of the origin of the word "Gerrymander" is now well known, but the connection of the "Centinel" therewith is not so well remembered. The Constitution of Massachusetts required that the State Senate should consist of forty men to be elected from districts arranged by the Legis- lature and to be chosen by counties until such time as the districts should be designated. What was intended to be a temporary provision came in time to have the traditional force of law, for the General Court neglected to exercise this Constitutional power. But in 1812 the Jeffersonian Republicans decided to use that provision to secure control of the Senate. They disregarded natural boundaries entirely, cut counties asunder, allotted Federalist strongholds to districts containing such a preponder- ance of the opposite party as to reduce the Federalists to a minority, and, having thus "districted" the State, they elected 29 Senators out of 40 in the next election.
One day Gilbert Stuart, the painter, so the story runs, saw on the wall of the "Centinel" office the curious map which the editor had made to illustrate what the Legislature had done to make sure of the election of a Democrat from the Essex District. A glance showed how unnatural and absurd were the new boundaries which produced a district shaped roughly like the letter "S." Stuart seized a pencil and added a head, wings and claws to the figure, remarking that now it might pass for a salamander. Russell looked up and instantly perceived his opportunity. "Call it a Gerrymander," said he, and a new and apt term thus was added to the permanent political vocabulary of the Nation, for Elbridge Gerry was the Governor who had signed the Districting Act. Some evidence of the truth of the tale is furnished by the fact that the new word was applied first to the obnoxious law in the pages of the "Centinel."
But the power of the Federalists now was on the decline, and the influence of the "Centinel" waned in consequence. Conditions during the "Era of Good Feeling"-a phrase which Russell is said to to have originated-were not favorable to his type of journalism. By slow degrees his authority dwindled and at length disappeared. When he sold the paper to Adams and Hudson he presented his successors to his con- stituency with a neat complimentary notice in which he thanked his own
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friends for their long-enduring support and praised the patriotism and intelligence of the new owners. The old warrior surely deserved his eulogies at the testimonial banquet. "Ben" Russell was a public char- acter in more ways than one. John Quincy Adams in his Memoirs noted that both Isaiah Thomas and Russell "made fortunes ... by their types," that of Thomas "a very large one." Also that they "made Free- masons of all their apprentices and journeymen." Russell helped to found the Charitable Mechanics' Association, he served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court, and he held many offices in Boston. He survived until his eighty-fourth year and found a final resting-place in the Old Granary Burying-ground.
Multiplicity and Variety of Newspapers-Any investigator who undertakes a thorough examination of the history of journalism in Bos- ton is bound to be surprised by the multiplicity and variety of news- papers which claim his attention, although most of them had but a frail hold on life and soon gave up the struggle for existence. However cheap the appearance of most of these papers may be under modern scrutiny, and however marked by crudities and vulgarities which were inevitable in view of the shifting social conditions amidst which they were pub- lished, they did express the vitality of the communities in which they were published, and they are important if only because they were a genuine manifestation of the spirit of the raw young democracy of the New World. A score or more of these more or less ephemeral publica- tions now require attention.
Edmund Freeman, a native of Sandwich, who had been reared as a printer, and Loring Andrews, on September 15, 1788, established as a semi-weekly "The Herald of Freedom, and the Federal Advertiser," which after one year was conducted by Freeman alone, and on April 5, 1791, was sold to John Howel; the title had been cut in half on March 16, 1790. Howel published it as the "Herald of Freedom" until July 19, 1791, when without any change in numbering he substituted the name "Argus." In his notice of the change he said: "The public are now respectfully informed that This Paper will Die today, and that, on Friday next, like the Phoenix from her ashes, will arise the 'Argus'. " On October 25 Edward Eveleth Powars became publisher. He made the paper a weekly in the following July, but reverted to the original schedule in April, 1793. The last issue now known is dated June 28 of that year.
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