USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 20
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JOSEPH GREEN.1
Samuel Waterhouse (of the customs service, a notorious libeller), Lieut .- Governor Oliver, Daniel Leonard,2 and Jonathan Sewall.3
Twenty years before the battle of Lexington, the Boston Gazette and Country Fournal was established in Queen Street by Benjamin Edes and John Gill. It was printed on a half-sheet crown folio, afterward enlarged to
1 [This cut follows a crayon portrait by Cop- ley, belonging to the heirs of the late Rev. W. T. Snow. Perkins, Copley's Life and Paintings, p. 62. A larger likeness, by Blackburn, is owned by Miss Andrews of Boston. See Vol. II. of this History, p. 429. Green was born in 1706, and graduated at Harvard College in 1726. Ile was a merchant of large fortune, and is said to have had the largest private library in New England. Ile died in England in 1780. - ED.]
2 [See the paper on Leonard, by Ellis Ames,
in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., June, 1873; and Sar- gent's Dealings with the Dead. - ED.]
8 " Did not our grave Judge Sewall sit, The summit of newspaper wit ? Filled every leaf of every paper Of Mills and Hicks and Mother Draper ? Drew proclamations, works of toil, In true sublime of scare-crow style ;
With forces, too, 'gainst Sons of Freedom, All for your good, and none would read 'em ? "
- Trumbull, McFingal.
133
THE PRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.
a whole sheet, the title decorated with rude cuts of an Indian with bow and arrow, and Britannia freeing a bird bound to the arms of France. A little later Minerva appeared in the place of Britannia, holding a spear sur- mounted by the cap of liberty, and just giving flight to a caged bird toward the tree of liberty.1 Edes and Gill were both "men of bold and fearless hearts," and welcomed the co-operation of the wisest and ablest counsellors enlisted in the popular movement. Samuel Adams, Jonathan Mayhew, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Dexter, and others, who had spent their first emotions in writing for the Independent Advertiser, transferred their cager talents to the new Gazette. James Otis, John Hancock, Samuel Cooper, Josiah Quincy, Jr., John Adams, and Joseph Warren joined them a few years later, and resisted through its pages the successive invasions of the chartered rights of the colonies, with rich and varied learning, with argu- ments drawn from the carly conflicts of English liberty, and with fiery and indignant eloquence inspired by a deep sense of injury and lively con- tempt for the instruments employed to inflict it.
The publication of the " Novanglus " essays in 1774-75 was the most in- teresting single event in the annals of this journal. The letters of " Massa- chusettensis," reviewing the questions at issue, in the interest of the Crown, had been printed in the Massachusetts Gasette, one of the names of the Weekly Advertiser, addressed "to the inhabitants of the province." The authorship was long a secret. From the skill with which the letters were written, their singular moderation and breadth of view, they were attributed
to Jonathan Sewall, then attorney-general, a man of learning and talents. It was more than a generation before the true authorship was assigned to Daniel Leonard, of Taunton." They re- viewed the progress of the popular discon- Dan Leonard tent with much ingenuity, with the purpose of showing that the course of the English Government was founded in law and reason ; that the Colonies had no substantial grievance; that they were a part of the British Empire, and properly subject to its authority. They also urged that resistance was useless; that the English nation had power to enforce its right, and would exercise it.
John Adams returned from the Congress in Philadelphia while these and other ministerial letters were filling the newspapers in Boston, and were topics of conversation in all circles. He at once devoted himself to the task of answering them in a series of letters to the Boston Gazette, with the signature of "Novanglus." They were written with characteristic ve- hemence of manner, but at the same time with remarkable clearness and method, enforced with abundant illustration, and enlivened with original humor. Mr. Adams showed that the Colonies in resisting taxation by au-
- 1 Buckingham, Reminiscences, i. 166, 120. Dr. fuse of her favors, and pregnant with blessings Eliot, in Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. 69, suggests another for future times." interpretation. The woman with the spear, he 2 | See Edmund Quincy's Life of Josiah Quincy, p. 380; C. F. Adams's edition of John Adams's Works, iv. 70. - ED.] says, "may as well represent America in the character of a female active in doing good, pro-
134
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
thority of Parliament avowed no new doctrine, but were consistent with the course marked out for themselves since the first settlement of the country. He declared with emphasis and fervor that the Colonics were no part of Great Britain, and that the supremacy of Parliament was limited to the dominions represented in it. He scornfully rejected the assumption that America would not maintain her right, or that submission was to be thought of because resistance was perilous. The last of these letters was dated April 17, 1775. Two days later came the fight at Lexington, and the debate was adjourned to the field of battle.
These revolutionary letters, written on the threshold of the war, illustrate on both sides the ascendancy of reason over passion; while they disclose also the impassable breadth and fathomless depth of the gulf which sepa- rated the contestants. Mr. Leonard's letters were reprinted in various forms during the two years following. Nothing else of his composition compares with them in brilliancy and force of statement, in variety of illustration, or in the plausible manner with which he anticipated and parried the argu- ments of his adversary. He was a gentleman of fortune, fond of display, and was the original of Beau Trumps in Mrs. Mercy Warren's Groups. Mr. Adams's letters were also reprinted and widely read during and after the war. Together "they form a masterly commentary on the whole his- tory of American taxation and the rise of the Revolution." 1
Other luminous and fervent writers contributed to the Gazette during these interesting years, whose signatures, " Candidus," " Fervidus," and the like, are all that is now left of them. With such co-operation the Gazette became a great power in the community. Rarely in our history has a sin- gle newspaper, with the ruling powers steadily against it, met a difficult crisis with greater courage, maintained its principles with more splendid ability, or exercised so powerful an influence over the minds of men.
During the occupation of Boston by the British troops the Gazette was printed in Watertown, whither Edes had secretly conveyed an old press and types sufficient for the purpose. He returned to town after the evacuation, and with his two sons Benjamin and Peter, - Gill retiring from the partner- ship, - continued the service with unabated zeal; promptly collecting and publishing intelligence during the war, and, through occasional contributions of especial force and urgency, reviving the drooping hopes or stimulating the flagging courage of the sorely tried Patriots. The great writers, how- ever, who had strengthened the hands of the young printer in the beginning, were drawn into the public service, or had fallen as early martyrs to the cause. In losing them the Gazette lost also the power and influence of its earlier days.
Isaiah Thomas began the publication of the Massachusetts Spy in July, 1770, in partnership with Zachariah Fowle. It was to be printed three times a week, - once on a half-sheet, twice on a quarter-sheet, ---- and was designed for mechanics rather than for commercial or professional readers. The
1 9. Adams's Life and Works, by C. F. Adams. Tudor, Life of James Otis, p. xvii.
THE
A Weekly, Political, and Commercial PAPER ; open to ALL Parties, but influenced by None.
OL. I.]
THURSDAY, March 7, 1771. [NUMB. I.
TUESDAY, Mart S
E
As 's folemn and perpetual Meofutsal Of the Tyisany of the Branth Ad minitiation of Government in the Years 876K. 1769. and 1770. Of the fatat and debructive Confe que mes of quartering Aravea, In Tune af Pesce, in populous CHIes. Of shouldiculous Policy, and is Teams Absurding, of Supporting Giant Corromme by s Military Func
Of the great Dury and Necefity of furaly oppoliog Defpouim in as helt Approaches :
Of the decellable Principles and a. Mary Conduct of those Mierfor in ensin mbo adviled, and of their froh in America who defred, the Introduction of a Standing Arent w. to this Pravinca in the Year 1768
Of the Inétrazable Proat which thofe Minders themlelves thereby reduced shu she Good Government an by them administered, was weak, wicked, and tyrannical .
Of ibe wile Ingratande and abo- minable Wickednes of every der Pues, who abetted and encouraged, ruter in Thought, Word or Deed. the Effablishment of a Standing As thy among his Countrymen .
Of the unaccountable Conduct of Thole Cruel Coiervers, the immediate Reprelenianors of hus Majetty, who, while the Military' were wumpbant ly aufating the whole Leg face Au thority of the State, and while the Blood of the mallaciod lababi "ang was flowing in The Streets, per Coded an repesiediy dillaiming atl Au- thority of seheving the People, by any the seaft Removal ofthe Troops : And of the lavage Cruelty of the Immedire Perpetrators
That the day, the Fith of March, 13 the Anniverfary of Prefton's Maf. lacre, in King-Street, Boflop, New. England, 1770 ; in which Fire of huis Majety's Subjects were flam, ane Sia wounded, br the Difbarge of & Number of Mulkets froar I Pany of Solden under the Command of Cape. l'homss Pretton.
how 'the murdernan handa al the infamous marmer Rabada; and under u. this couple.
Sender's pale that freth bleeding hands. And vengeance for his death demands In the mulike window was a Inn of the maf. lacie in King flies. In the north window fat the genius of America, holling the tap of Tubesty roeft, and trampling underfoot a fullvet hvaging & terpent, the emblem ol i chory tyranny.
An Oranon ennraiming a tunel account al the maffecte , of the inputarons of ie sfon and rebelhon with which the tno's of power endeavoured 10 brand the inhabitants, and & dalcani upon the nature of wrafans, with fome confiderations on the ihreals of the Bestich Minsttry to take away the Mafiasha. falls chiner, was also defineret that evening u the Fedory-Had by Dr. Young
Above a jew has now elapied face poor Untla innocent Seider received a maderaus, ' ipoit ol a repubbe being a ipers al rqua'ny morral wound, which foon put se cad in abhors fucb Ierocions bigotry The fam the lifs, which ONE only has a righe to Charles among whole tyhur god · ules w & take away The fappoled murderer hat laund " Touch sa fett meters," alle proh.b. bol a fair thal agreeable to the good laws 'red all difpetting. abear robgiom. The wal if the land, and been found GUIL T.Y, trath & und religion and civil poluy s'e le Sul not yer punofbed ; and ftill
Young Seudre's Mood fram thẻ vị ning grand Cinci. Juliuse. Julice . Hear the fund! · bene hme aga two Teaghes From adif- ont land, cuma bng doà sách mhệy ma thế Tendonthan the w Nog pad Jagiben.ng of the days ... Al Trich, lopt one, a is the pleafame& place I ever low in my life . -where much of the year is menter, the ther fin ws furamee Ahundred, fand the other, " is much pleslanter now the degi are te months lenger.
A fresh of an Earthquake was Fels one chan town, Marb'shead, &c. laft Sunday morning I he thaking wsa but juf perceptible.
For the MASSACHUSETTS SPY de ACROSTIC.
A s Negenes and L. ---- rs - judgement agree ! N'a wonder that vice with her ar a lottes ! Device and low cunning do commonly fand! Related in friendihop and join hand ma band 1 E aperience omh teach & tbet poor blach and white !
When blended together, as one, will write !
Mr. THOMAH
WITHOUT Inodon of thought, faye Alı. Gordon, there can be no fucb thing as wisdom, and no fuch sting as put hit Laverty wahous freedom of Speech. Thu 11 the right of every man, which ought to know no bounds but the injury of others. Licenciou(ness in Speech extends to the decual GOD Save the PEOPLE ! Salem March S. 1771. of the being of a God, bis jufhice of provi. dence, and our accountabiench 10 lum for our actions ; na: obligations to moissan the | of the pretended patriot, who would will at. "' HURSDAY, March 7. BOSTON. tranquilles and promote the felicity of the ty forego any opportunity of intruding all cenmundt; to which we join ourleless 3. members, to do ano every one, es by cre- "On Turlday Ist ibe anniversary of the Bolloy Mallacre, at noon, and after nine in the evening, a'l the hclle in town tolled ; and w dark Was rabbited in the chamber win. Bowl of Mir Revere in the Old. Norib Square, · Set at transparens paintings, representing, In the fuch window a monumental obelifik, bearing in host the bull of young Seiders and oo the front of the pedeltel, the names of the five performs cuidered by the foldery on verfr of condition ure could realchably . a . ISe merbero of the commonwealth to wbkcb LE belonged in avety needed article of pre- ferralne knowledge. ped them to do unto ut. To make light of thefe fundamental principles of the law and An absolute authority, so indispensable fandard, soft raif: fomewhere ; other wih consell must be perpetual. To whogame thu authority reported many being lobyed in er. rot w Gntter defign, is too abfurt for the he peittusign of a papift : he therefore cinesh Atp Supreme pontiff with a perfecthon of which the fopremas Jehoosb alone,a worthy. 11 therefore in the nature and contrution of Unngi, dwelled by his woerring wifiom, or meaning no mott tha .. the modelt and ler oui rafonings of man with man,upon rqual lerms ; the latter an overheating dogmatidm are so lock for the iru of noite, the alle bør, perfec and unchargeable avlt of God. The immoderne love of cafe which brusifies too many of nur fpecare, engages them to religion of nature, in a public injury, reading to deltroy that reverence for vinve, and ab- horience so nice and immorality, which are indeed the principal fecurities ar haft lor the good behavior of mankind. Between the freedom of Speech heracontended for and the injurious ufurpation, there form to be evr- .the Ffib of March, and all interred in ett, dent marks of diffiruimatos, The former Line grave with him: On the back ground of ile pontiog on hoely drawn a heure de Signed for the ghost of Seides, in the altitude Die floud When he Iscervel bes fotel wounds | or domineering uhrtule, Moming gorat a if-
dom in the quest, and pulling the wheel
mep appeal to meters of deber, Reason an a minority. Realm is commonly applies to by perties who would endesrout 10 lenke manter among thea.felees Authority h. shake whole capacities are runde hely dishes
In which of thate chaffe a mạn af fende ane
le ive ell men ca deieraune. In which fest the proud. garrone, naughty and tell con cene ste an be bond, » well known. Na ny pretend fui the lapport al cind and re'age our hbelly. while at the same time there has Come bươn anh ondignaline açtın't any ces sho can take the freedom là cải om el
clofety connected char whoever picoipro a Seperate them nofallbly 'deffraye borb, are the law witch would illoblaze decent in quines anto the foundation, sature and ien. debey of either will make fery tod, becsuk
God bettymed gym mon han se afon i'm form bom of the Megun, sad delgn r bu be ang . of the relayon he luftuses to has cres tor, and every buborduante loperos, equal and nfenot ; ard the duties which saturally A ··· hem and accompany thele selatinne The being the foundation and hope of atı laws ered and focred, the fykeme intetuaw ly deduced from thele cordderations are con ed the ty hems ed natural law. of nacoral seh tion, mesmog the law and relgion uhoch force themfeires upon the minds of ever) honef and luber man ohs fertouly lets bom (etf about a candid and rational etyquit) me the nature, raton and relanon of things. The fame fill forall voice obich senden a inan a true los of bbeny an politicky wol render him a calm, patient and dilpallionate reafaner upon religione lohych , oulier sa Derbo meguffi a the infcriptuma of the deal, with which he impresos all the wings. Red though confciom of he everfion to de- ceive, he warm people to number, weigh and measure after himtlf. In the theme great fafety, for nane can'tell when God may take away the most important Eljoh, and much witi fach o one be ottocted as het departure, if he reflects that any part of bu matter's counted has been kept back from the fanhful fom of the prophets he is aves bekund The perfon who could icave a number of people un s defart enhout a poho, or ar lea without a compels, would acht en adly the port
"of the deser minowane of the, sighe, she pole ·As Longur able to arteries whom they plot» ·mplen cualdeose.and fcorpong na be thought 0.4d, sod confrquemly của andher taplau
La li um tha condition of thing: the .burro of anblom cry out for liberty of Speech, to defend the bottomen el then fo- Notre partno ! But from the days of John ha celeDial kingdom her foffered inle ett, and musling In ficience will cour defend No more than lortr -, Human học to mácd & aufme, sed he wbe mål sol erpole en un- Pader, mal league to become · bewer of mund and disuel of waves for the windle
the security of propeny and the berderg. of Speech, faço an einigen ores, awar po angriber, and a thats attached communes hạ, can lace call any thing che bi own. Whoever would overture the libe ty of the 1104, mel bepe by delsoping the freedom "d Grech & a thing serbie in public tractors Le. to all the enemies of cred and rehgwas iteng. ELEUTHERIUS.
At the Intelligence Office,
Kept by GRANT WEBSTER; There w to be fold,
Philadelphia Flour and Lron, Maryland Floor and Bread, Wet-le- hus and New· England Rom, Dragi, Ma- dewa and other Wines, Broflol beef, race and ground ginger, French Indign, Rots duck; new and Iccond. hand Yelele of dfwest Sorry, Second hand Such and A ochgin, lagrad complea few of luge Scales and Wdd General general Houfos to work and litoral good Farms in the Countryfans in particular shritel ten miles hom thn town, very agreet- Uy Muated for & Gemiemsn's Seat, anh & rood boule and baru tu ir, which mitt Le fold under the velse for heady money .) port of a very valuable Land Mine te the county of Suffolk, a few Enghi Gonde and kundry or ther utorige very cheap for sha cod.
WANTED. Several Sums of Money for diferent perfon, who will give good futeray wde, Both of Exchange, foi abech the road)
N. 8. GOODS of my for are tsken la and full, but of Exchange negorimed, and any kind of Brokerage done of land Odber on restonsbie commons.
MUSICK, and Mutical Initru. ments, via. Humphparte, Spotnets, Violou, Prava Furie, Gutmust, and Gar- Gan Flutes ; on he fold by Mr. Pourant, 11 Mr. Holbrook's upon the Comemai
A FEW Cafkı of Choice Den RICE, and fevera! harrete of Souls Carolina Plech, to be fol on board the loop Molly, lying N Grero's whel .
MR JOAN's Concert, which
-
A PROFESSOR An bar ở Noer M
-
136
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
second number appeared early in August, and regularly thenceforward for six months, meeting with good success. Thomas, however, was ambitious to undertake a larger paper than had yet been printed in New England; and on March 7, 1771, the Spy was issued on a whole shcet, royal folio, as a new weekly publication. The title of the first number was as given in the ac- companying fac-simile ; but it appeared later between two rude cuts, - the Goddess of Liberty on the left; and on the right, two children with a basket of flowers,,- and this was followed by the lines from Addison's Cato : -
" Do thou, Great Liberty! inspire our souls, And make our lives in thy possession happy, Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence."
Thomas was then in his twenty-second year. His paper was at first open to Whigs and Tories alike, but his own partialities were so pronounced that the friends of the Government one by one withdrew from him. The au- thorities, failing to win him to their service, used all their powers to cripple and discourage him; but their threats and blandishments were alike un- availing.1 His group of writers grew steadily bolder and more defiant. One of them, whose name has never been known, in a series of forty letters with the signature of " Centinel," discussed the issues between Parliament and the people with learning and spirit, taking for his motto the warning lines from the ballad of Chevy Chase : --
" The child that is unborn Will rue the hunting of that day."
He startled even the Whigs, and alarmed not a few of them, by the bold- ness with which he challenged all rulers whose authority did not rest upon the natural rights of man. Other writers of like spirit poured oil, not upon the troubled waters, but upon the angry flames. Joseph Greenleaf, over the signature of " Mucius Scævola," denounced the Governor and Lieut .- Gov- ernor by name as usurpers, and invoked resistance to their authority. His letter was pronounced "the most daring production ever published in America." Thomas was prosecuted for libel, but the grand jury refused an indictment. Greenleaf was summoned to answer before the Governor and Council, but he ignored the summons, and his commission as justice of the peace was publicly cancelled. Meanwhile the Spy grew more bitterly hos- tile to the Crown and its agents, and its defiance of all restraint attracted the attention of the continent.2 Thomas was hung in effigy in many places,
1 " The Government hoped to buy the young printer : he was not in the market. It tried to drive him : he could not be driven. It tried to alarm him: he was without fear. It tried to suppress him ; but he baffled and defeated every attempt to this end, and gained new strength and influence by every conflict." - B. F. Thomas, Memoir of Isaiah Thomas, p. 31.
2 This excessive zeal was not wholly ap- proved by the elders. John Adams, writing to
his wife, July, 1774, quotes Mr. Winthrop, his companion on the eastern circuit, as complaining of the Boston press for printing accounts of every popular commotion or disturbance, while in other provinces such occurrences were very properly concealed. "Our presses in Boston, Salem, and Newburyport," he says, "are under no regula- tion, nor any judicious, prudent care. .. . The printers are hot, indiscreet men; and they are under the influence of others as hot, rash, and in-
I 37
THE PRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.
and his paper was burned by the hangman. Letters scattered among the people and the soldiers in the early autumn of 1774, mentioning Adams, Bowdoin, Hancock, and others as marked for speedy destruction in the event of an outbreak, also named "those trumpeters of sedition, the printers Edes and Gill and Thomas," as not to be forgotten.
The writers for the Spy were more abusive and exasperating than those in the Gazette, but both were pursuing the same end. Thomas took his ground not merely upon the rights of the Colonies under the Charter, but upon the rights of human nature. Hancock, writing to him April 4, 1775, from the Provincial Congress, then sitting at Concord, superscribed his letter : " To Isaiah Thomas, Supporter of the Rights and Liberties of Man- kind." From the time the Spy took its position it was resolute and un- compromising. With abstract discussions of the questions of law and right involved in the struggle, its writers mingled unsparing denunciations of Crown and Parliament, until the country was made familiar with the pur- pose of resistance, and in the fulness of time was eager to accept the appeal to force. The writers for the Gazette were more deliberate, more elaborate, and, as a rule, more highly cultivated. Their illustrations were more learned and copious. Many of them hesitated before declaring openly for independence, toward which their logic compelled them. Others, filled with fiery zeal, blazed with equal fervor.
The temper of the Spy, and its incessant activity, made Thomas a marked man; and he prosecuted his work at great personal peril. Just before the battle of Lexington the town became too hot even for his ardent spirit. He sent his family to Watertown early in April, and prepared to follow them. He packed his presses and types, with such movable effects as could be hastily gathered together, and on April 16 " stole them out of town in the dead of night." They were sent to Worcester, where the Spy reap- peared on May 3 following, with the title again changed to the Massachu- setts Spy, or American Oracle of Liberty. In its new field, separated from the great spirits who gathered round it in Boston, the Spy lost something of its carly fire; but its influence was to the end of the contest undimi- nished.1
judicious as themselves, very often." - Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife, p. 11.
Dr. Eliot, in his Narrative of Newspapers, is still more censorious : "The writers [for the Sty| were most of them young men of genius, without experience in business or knowledge of the world ; some of whom, perhaps, had no prin- ciples to actuate them, or were enthusiasts if they had principles, and wanted judgment where their virtue did not fail. . . . The same spirit and principles lead to a dissolution of all society, and, like more modern publications on equality and the rights of man, are direct attacks at all authority and law; and, being carried into effect, would have made confusion here, as they have since dissolved the government and desolaled
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