USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol II > Part 31
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In the first place newspapers have in large measure moulded the thought of the population. This is true whether we consider the more recent era of formal editorials or the earlier periods. In any case, there seems to be a conflict of opinion as to how many readers scan the editorial page and are influenced by it. Even if we disregard the editorials completely, however, the power of the press is great. The newspaper proprietor decides what news will be placed in the paper for the public to read and what will be eliminated. What is often of greater importance, he also decides whether a certain item will be placed on page one with lurid headlines or whether it will be nearly strangled and almost hidden from view on the inside. Publicity, whether of a social, economic, religious, moral or political nature, may be either favorable or unfavorable to particular groups. Certainly no one can find any agency that has exerted such a tremendous influence upon the thought of our population as has the press with its near monopoly of the presentation of news. Today the movies and the radio are strong competitors of the newspaper in this respect, partly because of their emphasis on emotionalism, but in the calmer field of pure intellectual activity the press still has no equal.
In the second place the press has always provided an exchange for the commerce of this region. It has been a valuable medium of advertising and acquainting the people with new and better things.
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General business conditions have been reflected in its pages both by such items as stock market quotations and by news from the broad field of industry and agriculture.
Aside from the influencing of minds, the press has provided stimu- lation to thinking as well. The other man's point of view may be very helpful, even though you do not accept it. The average newspaper really is a forum of public discussion. It does much to teach an indi- vidual a better understanding of the world in which he lives by show- ing him that there are many sides and angles to most questions. If the press converts a blind follower of prejudice and superstition to rational thinking that by itself is a valuable achievement. There can be no progress with intellectual sterility.
One of the most valued contributions of the press is that it offers us one of the best records possessed of our past development. As Dr. Dixon Ryan Fox has declared, "it keeps the diary of the commu- nity." It preserves past achievements from oblivion and provides a measure of human progress. Newspaper files constitute an invaluable field for the historian bent on research. Although, as we have already demonstrated, the thought of the population is in considerable meas- ure influenced by newspapers, the press nevertheless is a mirror of our civilization. Regardless of what decade we choose, if we open the pages, we find there an indelible replica of the hopes, aspirations, ideas, and achievements of the men and women who lived in that age. Altogether the printer's profession has been and is a noble one. Let us now examine the printer, his methods, his evolution, and his suc- cess in solving the problems confronting him, and determine how well the newspaper men of this area have met the needs of their communities.
In the early days, printing, like most other business propositions, was a very hazardous occupation. Newspapers leaped into existence only to sink swiftly to oblivion. The chief difficulties responsible for this precarious situation in addition to the sparsity of population and to competition were the scarcity of cash, the unwillingness of debtors to pay even if they had money, and in any case the general low income possible from subscriptions. Although Ballston Spa's "Saratoga Patriot" claimed at that time a circulation greater than any country paper in New York State, its printer complained in 1813 that he did not earn enough to adequately support his family. We can then
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readily estimate the condition of less fortunate newsmen. Numerous are the cases of printers appealing in their own papers for mercy, beg- ging their customers to pay their debts with wood, butter, cheese, wheat, feathers and, in fact, any article at all. Even with the aid of such appeals, it seems to have been very difficult to keep the wolf from the door. In those times apparently two could live as cheaply as one, for printers lost little time in finding brides. In fact, their days as printers were likely to be numbered briefly if they did not marry. As a rule their wives were called upon not only to assist in the printing of papers, but to board and clothe all the office help as well. Thus an unmarried printer was at a decided disadvantage.
The chief income of the newspapers was from advertising, the standard rate being one dollar for a square a column wide for three weeks' insertion. The more this crowded the room remaining for news, the greater was the income received by the printer. If, as sometimes happened, the customers complained of the lack of news, the printer could retort that they only had themselves to blame because of their failure to pay subscriptions. The most remunerative variety of advertising was of a legal nature, and it sometimes hap- pened that three-quarters of a paper was made up of these notices.
Job printing was, of course, another important source of income. Sometimes the lack of it resulted in failure. Much of this was of a political nature, won by partisan favoritism, and certain to result in more or less political control of the policies and content of the press. To eke out their slender subsistence, printers were forced to accept this situation. They also sold books and lottery tickets, and acted as agents for a wide variety of products including patent medicines, fire insurance and shrubs. Sometimes a venturesome printer went forth into the newly settled territory to seek a location for his printing press ; sometimes a paperless community sought him, but in either case the result was much the same. The several hundred dollars which was generally necessary to set up even a small office was very much of a gamble. Even if debts were paid there was as a rule only a profit of approximately 15 per cent, the cost of delivery being 50 per cent, paper 20 per cent and publishing costs 15 per cent.
The first printing presses used in America were made in England, but after 1800, in the Champlain Valley area at least, most of them seem to have been of domestic manufacture. They were crude in
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structure, not radically different from the type used by Gutenberg. There is no advantage to be gained from describing minor technical features. It is sufficient to note that in their construction the upright frame, the central screw, the platen and bed were fundamental ( Ham- ilton, M. W .: "The Country Printer"). During the eighteenth century they were made chiefly of wood, but as time passed metal parts were gradually added. After 1813 the lever began to replace the screw and inventions were made to increase pressure. Even if the presses were capable of satisfactory work, poor type often made good printing impossible. Both tools and methods were decidedly primitive.
Perhaps the most important source of paper supply in this area in the early days was at Bennington, Vermont. Other stock came from Troy and from the Saratoga township of Moreau. Here, as else- where, the paper supply was always a problem, whether we consider quantity or quality. In the winter, cold weather might stop the manu- facture of paper altogether ; while in the spring the mud of the primi- tive roads sometimes made deliveries impossible. Printers were known to have borrowed paper from communities one hundred miles away. Most all paper in the early days was made from rags and these were both scarce and expensive. Not only were cotton and linen rags used, but sometimes paper manufacturers were forced to substitute such unsatisfactory articles as cotton waste, bags, woolen rags, nets and sailcloth. At Bennington it has been reported that the main reliance of the paper manufacturer was on rags cast off by Indians. It can easily be understood why paper was not always of the best quality even for those times. Since it was very difficult for the paper maker to secure an adequate supply of rags and since the printer found it equally hard to wheedle cash from his customers a rather quaint situation was apt to develop. On many occasions printers inserted amusing yet tragic appeals in their papers urging readers to pay their indebtedness in rags, if not in cash, these being turned over to the paper manufacturer as payment for stock. Thus it was neces- sary for the newspaper men of early days to deal in rags to keep in business themselves and provide material for the paper maker.
As a rule the printer was first an apprentice upon entering the pro- fession. As such he was bound to a master printer for a term of from five to seven years. Generally he was from thirteen to sixteen years of age when he began this service. A legal document was executed
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stating the duties and obligations of both parties to the agreement. Among promises often made by the apprentice were the keeping of professional secrets, faithful service, obedience, celibacy, good moral behavior, and pledges not to frequent ale-houses nor to absent himself from his master's service without permission, night or day. In return the master agreed to instruct the neophyte concerning the mysteries of printing and sometimes also to teach such rudimentary subjects as reading, writing and arithmetic. He also, of course, promised ade- quate food and drink, while often washing, mending, nursing and medical aid were also pledged. At first there was no financial remu- neration for the apprentice, but as time went on this condition gradu- ally changed. In Vermont, in 1826, it was stipulated that Horace Greeley was to receive the munificent sum of forty dollars per year after the first six months, although the printer originally offered only half that amount. The duties covered a wide range from common family chores to the actual labor of printing, but whatever the work laid out for the apprentice it always consisted of the dirtiest and most disagreeable tasks. As a result of his obnoxious labor he was called "printer's devil." Extremely long hours were then in vogue, appren- tices in some localities habitually working until nine o'clock in the eve- ning and occasionally until midnight, while in the winter months they ate breakfast by candle light. Sometimes they were well treated while on other occasions their life was extremely unpleasant. It was not unusual for apprentices to violate their contract and run away, in which case they were generally exposed to undesirable advertising by their former masters. From these notices, apprentices would seem to have been horrible and ungrateful wretches. Unfortunately for us the press did not print the runaways' opinions of printers.
When an apprentice served out his indenture or attained the age of twenty-one he became a full-fledged journeyman. As such he could now work for wages wherever he wished, or could establish himself as a master printer with his own business. For some reason or other the early journeyman was apt to be a more or less unprepossessing character. He was often a shiftless drifter, moving haphazardly from place to place, ready to make any kind of a deal with scheming politicians. His chief defect seems to have been his addiction to liquor. Thurlow Weed, who knew a great many of the early journey- men, stated that half of his acquaintances in that field drank them-
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selves to death or worse. Of profanity there was no limit. Their economic situation did not tend to help matters. Work was uncer- tain and, although by 1815 the wage scale had increased in some places to nine dollars per week, their income was menaced by competition from runaway apprentices and other cheaper but poorly-trained labor. In any case, while apprentices, they had frequently developed bad habits due to inadequate supervision of youths of their tender age. On the other hand the early journeymen and printers were not always dubious characters, and several of them were really heroic figures.
In the words of Jabez Hammond, "newspapers are to political parties in this country what working tools are to the operative mechanic." Sometimes they have been deliberately started for politi- cal purposes as was the case with the "Plattsburgh Republican," whereas on other occasions their origin was not political although eventually they generally drifted in that direction. Thus we generally find that newspapers were more concerned with political indoctrination than with the dissemination of news. So bitter and slanderous were most of the early papers printed a century ago that the situation is almost unbelievable to the present age. Zenger's trial had furnished a great impetus to a free press so far as governmental restrictions were con- cerned, but much of this important freedom was later misused in making the most scurrilous and libelous attacks on personal and politi- cal enemies. Even wives and sisters were included, and no epithet in the English language was overlooked. Some of these editors led a stormy existence, one of them alone being driven out of Montreal, Burlington, Rouses Point and Plattsburgh in that order. After being indicted by the Grand Jury at the latter place, he gave up his enter- prise and moved to Canada.
Libel suits, of course, were extremely common, most printers on one occasion or another being prosecuted, while the absence of any such cases in a court session was considered to be unusual. The "Glens Falls Observer" printed the following interesting article on the sub- ject in 1827:
"The editor of the Sandy Hill Herald mentions it as a little remarkable, that the grand Jury in the county of Warren, at the late terms of the General Sessions of the Peace, should have been dis- charged without finding a general bill of Indictment. It is not so
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remarkable as Mr. Wright may imagine. The same thing has occurred before; but not lately.
"Mr. Wright can easily account for the fact, why Warren county has been for the last two years troubled with libel suits, and indictments for libels, when he reflects, that the handbill out of which most of the prosecutions have grown, was written in Washington county, and printed by himself, and sent into Warren county to set our citizens by the ears for the amusement of our neighbors in adjoining counties."
As a rule damages were fixed at a reasonable figure. within the ability of the defendant to pay. Because of the poor economic status of printers generally, assessments were frequently under fifty dollars and seldom over five hundred. Often such actions were settled by compromise outside of court, while retractions were sometimes printed. Naturally such minor punishment for libelous articles did lit- tle to bring an end to systematic defamation and unrestrained license. In fact, printers frequently attempted to prod their enemies into court action.
In 1813, the "Saratoga Patriot," although one of the largest then in all of New York State, had but 1,200 subscribers. It is obvious that at that time the loss or addition of a few subscribers meant the difference between success or failure for many printers. Papers were generally delivered by the post riders, although sometimes the printer himself distributed copies of his sheet. Considering the condition of the roads and the slow means of transportation, a wider area was often served by newspapers than we would readily expect. For exam- ple, the "Troy Gazette" in 1806 apparently had customers on both sides of the Champlain Valley as far north as the Canadian border. It also went as far west as New York's boundaries, and into Massa- chusetts.
Deliveries were uncertain, however. A Plattsburgh printer com- plained in 1826 that "the conveyance of the mail seems to be farmed out with reference to accommodating the contractor, instead of the public." Mail from the south, in 1821, was supposed to reach Platts- burgh three times a week, but a trip was sometimes skipped altogether; while on other occasions the riders came with empty bags. Another annoyance to the printer arose from the occasional changes made in the routes followed.
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As time passed the choice preserve of the country printer was to be menaced by increasing competition from the more populous areas. When city firms began to disseminate news twice a week their country cousins, when at all possible, attempted to duplicate this action, but when metropolitan dailies made their appearance it was no longer possible to match this achievement except in the more populous rural communities. As a result the country printer became more and more relegated to the background as a moulder of public opinion and, there- fore, of less consequence.
In the day when the country printer was at the height of his power, however, this section contributed a number of newspaper men who exerted tremendous influence, in some cases nationally. Chief among these, in my opinion, was Matthew Lyon, an impetuous, pugnacious Irishman who lived in the Rutland County town of Fair Haven. Reference will again be made to him in our chapter on politics, our pres- ent appraisal being limited as far as possible to the part he played in the development of an American free press.
Lyon was the founder of a newspaper known as "The Scourge of Aristocracy and Repository of Important Political Truth." In its pages he attacked the powdered, perfumed princes of privilege, gen- erally composing the Federalist party, with all the savage invective so characteristic of the press in his day. It will be recalled that in John Adams' administration the aristocracy, in a desperate effort to stem the rising tide of democracy, secured the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws. The latter forbade criticism of the government, and being a restriction on a free press was directly contrary to the Con- stitution. Lyon was not one to meekly submit to any such restriction at the hands of his political opponents, and it is not surprising that he was the first notable victim of the aristocrats. He was convicted and sentenced to spend four months in jail, in addition to paying a fine of a thousand dollars, in spite of the fact that some of the evidence on which he was convicted preceded the date of passage of the Sedition Act. The jail at Rutland was considered to be too good for him so he was taken to a loathsome pen at Vergennes, where he was denied the simplest comforts. Naturally the Green Mountain Boys were not the type to allow one of their number to be thus unfairly treated by a despotic government. Lyon himself was forced to plead with angry mobs not to free him by breaking in, while he was soon reelected
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to Congress by a vote of 4,576 to 2,444 for his nearest competitor. His huge fine was paid by willing friends. Once released he became a symbol of democracy and the leading exponent of a free press. The wrath aroused in the Vermont foothills by Lyon's experience, together with similar incidents happening elsewhere, spread like wildfire throughout the states of the Union and swept Thomas Jefferson into the White House in the political revolution of 1800.
Another extremely important figure who was at one time con- nected with the press of this region was Horace Greeley. He ulti- mately acquired a national fame greater than Lyon's and exerted a great influence in our political development in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, but the major portion of his reputation was earned after he had moved away from this area. Although born in New Hampshire, he began his newspaper career as an apprentice in East Poultney, Rutland County, in 1826, and remained until 1830. Here in the formative period of his life were built the foundations of the career of one of America's greatest journalists. From the rural slopes of Vermont he gained valuable experience that helped him on the road to fame.
Bennington County was identified to a certain extent with another journalist who was to enjoy a national reputation. This was none other than William Lloyd Garrison, the radical Abolitionist. He secured his early training in Massachusetts, but from October, 1828, to March, 1829, we find him editing the "Journal of the Times" at Bennington. Here he conducted a militant crusade for the sup- pression of intemperance and associated vices, for the emancipation of all slaves and for peace. Garrison was ahead of his times, however, and his radicalism was unpopular with the Vermonters. His efforts were not crowned with financial success, with the result that he soon moved on. Later, in the 186os, he was the symbol of righteousness to those who had repulsed him a third of century before, as the citi- zens of the Champlain Valley marched against Richmond at Lin- coln's call.
In addition to these three well-known figures, there have been a number of lesser personalities who have made niches for themselves in American journalism, but space forbids further intrusion into this entertaining field. Thurlow Weed was an extremely important figure in journalism in New York State and exerted considerable influence over
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the Champlain Valley from Albany, but he was not directly involved to any great extent in the newspapers farther north. In the five New York counties of this research it would be difficult to find any group of newspaper men possessing as much influence as Melancton Smith and his associates exercised through the "Plattsburgh Republican." This paper became, in the 1820s, a chief bulwark of the "Albany Regency," a group headed by Van Buren and Marcy; and with Aza- riah Flagg as editor it helped these masters of politics to acquire a national reputation and prestige.
The pioneer journal of Vermont west of the Green Moun- tains is said to have been the "Vermont Gazette," published at Bennington in 1783. According to C. Eleanor Hall there were four newspapers established in Vermont before the first on the New York side of the Champlain Valley was started at Plattsburgh. Crockett is authority for the statement that at the beginning of 1816 there were eleven newspapers in Vermont, six Republican and five Federalist. There was no paper published at Burlington before the "Mercury" in 1797. The earliest paper in our six Vermont counties which today remains in business is the "Rutland Herald," started in 1794. One of the founders was the Rev. Samuel Williams, author of the first history of Vermont. Today, after a record of continuous publication covering nearly a century and a half, it is Vermont's sec- ond largest newspaper, being exceeded only by Burlington's "Free Press." Politically it is classified as independent. The "Free Press" was not founded until 1827, but it became a daily in 1848, making this transition earlier than the "Herald." It is the oldest daily in the entire State of Vermont. According to Ayer's directory, it had in 1937 a circulation of 17,718, which made it not only the largest newspaper in Vermont, but also in the eleven counties covered by this research. Politically it is independent Republican.
Before the Revolution, the only press in the Empire State, outside of New York City, was at Albany. In the period from 1791 to 1795 there was but one newspaper in our five New York counties, according to Hamilton, and that was located at Salem. A second was started before the end of the century at Ballston Spa; two more between 1801 and 1805 at Waterford and Cambridge; and a fifth between 1806 and 1810 at Plattsburgh. Because of his exhaustive
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survey there is good reason to accept this chronology, although other authorities disagree with him and also among themselves.
According to Ayer's directory the oldest paper in our five New York counties still in existence is the "Washington County Post," of Cambridge. Politically it is Republican. The "Ballston Spa Jour- nal" is the oldest of our present-day dailies, with a history back as far as 1798. It is a Republican paper with an evening circula- tion of 1,318. In 1937 the "Saratogian" of Saratoga Springs still retained a slender margin (9,390 to 9,185) over the "Glens Falls Post-Star" to have the honor of being the largest newspaper in our New York counties. It is exceeded in this entire area only by the "Burlington Free Press" and the "Rutland Herald." The "Sarato- gian" is a Republican paper, published in the evening, whereas the "Post-Star" is Independent Democratic, circulated in the morning. The honor of being the first newspaper in New York State north of Albany published as a daily is claimed by the "Glens Falls Times," which was started in 1879 by Addison B. Colvin.
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