The Salem Gazette. 125 then, at the earnest Request of that Grand Council of Patriots, without Hesitation, left all the Pleasures of his delightful Seat in Virginia, and the Affairs of his own Estate, that through all the Fatigues and Dangers of a Camp, without accepting any Reward, he might deliver New-England from the unjust and cruel Arms of Britain, and defend the other Colonies; and who, by the most signal Smiles of Divine Providence on his Military Operations, drove the Fleet and Troops of the Enemy with disgraceful Precipitation from the Town of Boston, which, for Eleven Months had been shut up, fortified and defended by a Garrison of above Seven Thousand Regulars; So that the Inhabitants, who suffered a great variety of Hardships and Cruelties while under the Power of the Oppressors, now rejoice in their Deliverance, and the neighboring Towns are freed from the Tumult of Arms, and our University has the agreeable Prospect of being restored to its antient Seat. Know ye therefore, that We, the President and Fellows of Harvard College in Cambridge, (with the Consent of the Honored and Reverend Overseers of our Academy) have constituted and created the aforesaid Gentleman, GEORGE WASHINGTON, who merits the highest Honor, DOCTOR OF LAWS, the Law of Nature and Nations, and the Civil Law; and have given and granted unto him at the same Time all Rights, Privileges, and Honors to the said Degree pertaining. In Testimony whereof, We have affixed the Seal of our University to these Letters, and subscribed with our Hand writing this Third Day of April in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-six. SAMUEL LANGDON, S. T. D. Præses. JOHANNES WINTHROP, Math. et Phil. P. Hol. LL.D. SAMUEL COOPER, S. T. D. JOHANNES WADSWORTH, Log. et Eth. Pre. Thesaurarius. Socii. On the appearance of the paper in Boston the second title was omitted. Shortly after the Chronicle was sold to Powers and Willis. Willis was the father of Nathaniel Willis, who has the reputation of having established the first religious newspaper in the United States, and grandfather of Nathaniel Parker Willis, the poet and editor, the associate of George P. Morris in the New York Mirror and Home Journal. Hall, subsequent to the sale of the Chronicle, still retaining the name of Gazette, returned to Salem, where he found, in 1781, a paper of that name which had just been brought out by Mrs. Crouch. She had issued thirty-five numbers. On the arrival of Mr. Hall in October of that year the two Gazettes were united, and the publication of the consolidated paper, under the title of the Salem Gazette, was continued by Hall till November 22, 1785, when he returned to Boston in consequence of the obnoxious tax on newspaper advertisements, and the general decline in trade, which deprived him of nearly three fourths of that necessary branch of newspaper business. But the Gazette still lives, as our pages will show. There is an old English press in the attic of the Gazette office that is covered with the dust and cobwebs of tradition. It was a part of Mr. Hall's material, and the story is that the Essex Gazette was printed upon it over a hundred years ago. There is a legend in the office that Benjamin Franklin had worked on that press; but Franklin left Massachusetts fifty years before the establishment of the Gazette. Still, the story may be true, for Samuel Hall had worked in the office of James Franklin in Newport, and had married his daughter, a niece of Benjamin Franklin. On that event he became the publisher of the Mercury, in which was the old material used in Boston when Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice with his brother. But, in the face of this, the original press on which Franklin worked is now in possession of the Mechanics' Society of Boston. Yet, if we believe all the newspapers, there are now no less than seventeen old presses in different parts of the country on which Franklin originally worked when he was a printer! The pre-Revolutionary newspapers were so few in number that it is our desire to mention each one. A paper called the New York Chronicle was issued in 1768 by Alexander and James Robertson. It did not long survive, and very little is known of its affairs. On the 13th of October, 1769, the third paper in North Carolina was published. It was printed by Adam Boyd, at Wilmington, and named the Cape Fear Mercury. The Massachusetts Spy. 127 CHAPTER VIII. THE REVOLUTIONARY CRISIS. THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY. -ISAIAH THOMAS. - RIVINGTON'S ROYAL GAZETTE.-MAJOR ANDRÉ AND THE COW CHASE.-ETHAN ALLEN'S INTERVIEW WITH RIVINGTON.-FRENEAU'S SATIRES. IMPORTANT events were now culminating in America. All the leading minds had become editors, pamphleteers, and agitators. All others readers and believers. The Press was the power and the fulcrum. Quite a remarkable newspaper came into existence at this time, which, with the Gazette, and others then in circulation, gave great aid and comfort to the prevailing sentiment of the people. In July, 1770, Isaiah Thomas, in connection with Zechariah Fowle, issued the Massachusetts Spy, named after several of the earlier papers in England, which bore the title of Spye. We annex their prospectus : TO THE PUBLIC. I has always been customary for Printers and Publishers of new periodical and End of their Defign. We, therefore, beg Leave to observe, That this small Paper, under the name of THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY, is calculated on an entire NEW PLAN. If it meets with a favorable Reception, it will be regularly publifhed THREE Times every Week, viz. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, (on two of which Days no News-Paper is published in this Town) by which Means, thofe who favour this Undertaking with their Subfcription, will always have the moft material of the News, which may from Time to Time arrive from Europe and from the other Parts of this Continent, on the Day of its Arrival, or the next Day following, (Sundays excepted) which will be fooner through this Channel than any other. Great Care will be taken in collecting and inferting the freshest and choiceft Intelligence from Europe, and the material Tranfactions of this Town and Province: Twice every Week will be given a Lift of the Arrival and Departure of Ships and other Veffels, alfo a List of Marriages and Deaths, &c. and occafionally will be inferted felect Pieces in Profe and Verfe, curious Inventions and new Difcoveries in Nature and Science. Those who choose to advertise herein, may depend on having their ADVERTISEMENTS inferted in a neat and confpicuous Manner, at the most reasonable Rates. When there happens to be a larger Quantity of News and a greater Number of Advertisements than can well be contained in one Number, at its usual Bignefs, it will be enlarged to double its Size at fuch Times, in order that our Readers may not be disappointed of Intelligence. This is a brief Sketch of the Plan on which we propofe to publish this Paper, and we readily flatter ourselves the Public will honour it with that Regard the Execution of it may deserve; and doubt not, it will be executed with fuch Judg. ment and Accuracy as to merit a favourable Reception. Three months' experience led to a dissolution of the partnership, and Thomas carried on the paper alone, increasing its size to four pages, and publishing twice a week. With three months more of trial it was changed to a weekly paper. On the 7th of March, 1771, it adopted for its motto, "Open to all parties, but influenced by none." Although the editor apparently made an effort to be neutral and impartial in the political character of his columns, and published communications from each side, it was evident to his readers that Thomas was a Whig, and with the people heartily and cordially. This soon became patent to his Tory patrons, and they withdrew their support. The Spy then came out fully and boldly for the Revolutionary Party. Mean attempts were made to crush the paper by threats of libel suits and personal violence, and the government officers refused to allow Thomas the privileges of the Custom-house to obtain the arrivals and departures of vessels. There were no newsboats or steam yachts in those days. In noticing this folly on the part of the authorities, the Spy contained the following card: TO THE PUBLIC. A Tyrant may be justly compared to a Polypus, of which the smallest portion broken off becomes almost immediately as big, as voracious, and as deformed a thing, as the original; entangling, plaguing, and engulphing every thing within its reach and power. How applicable this may be to our petty lords, the customhouse officers, every one is left to judge, after being informed that THEY, to discourage this paper, as they phrase it, have denied THIS Press the SHIP LIST, notwithstanding, according to the title, pieces from all sides have been inserted in it. The Printer conceives himself in no wise to blame if the Court side are now at a loss for writers, it being his province only to publish. The office of the Spy was styled "the sedition foundery" by the Royalists, and Joseph Greenleaf was dismissed from the office of justice of the peace for writing for the paper. On the 8th of October, 1772, nearly three years before the fight at Concord, he closed an article in this bold manner: Should the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our invaluable rights and privileges! We may next expect padlocks on our lips, fetters on our legs, and only our hands left at liberty to slave for our worse than Egyptian taskmasters, or-or-FIGHT OUR WAY TO CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM. The government made great efforts to counteract the influence of the Boston Gazette, and such writers as the Adamses and the Quincys, and the Spy, with its staff of contributors equally bold and resolute. After the failure of the Chronicle, another paper, called the Censor, with Ezekiel Russell to manage it, was started, but it scarcely survived the year. The authorities then fell back entirely on the old News-Letter, which was called the Massachusetts Gazette and Weekly News-Letter. All the Tory writers concentrated their power on this paper. Andrew Oliver, William Brattle, Daniel Leonard, and Jonathan Sewall opened their batteries on the Whigs. Sewall and Leonard, in a series of articles over the signature of "Massachusettensis," were considered the smartest and most important of their The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. 129 66 contributors. These articles, as we have already stated, were answered by John Adams in the Boston Gazette. Some of the contributions in the Spy were very powerful. "Centinel," "Leonidas," and "Mucius Scævola" were terribly severe on the Tories. The Spy, as early as 1771, urged a recourse to arms. "Mucius Scævola" denounced Governor Hutchinson as an usurper, and should be punished as such," and showed Lieutenant Governor Oliver to be a "recorded perjured traitor." Attorney General Sewall was directed to prosecute the printer for libel, but the grand jury refused to find a bill. So the thunders of the Spy continued to roll and mutter over the heads of the doomed authorities. It was in 1774 that Thomas introduced the device, borrowed from the Constitutional Courant of 1765, which represented a snake divided into nine parts, one part denoting New England, and each of the remaining parts denoting the other colonies- the Immortal Thirteen in all. Over this, in large letters, extending the entire width of the page, was the motto, "JOIN OR DIE." This device had created a sensation in the streets of New York nine years previously. It increased the excitement in 1774. More British troops having landed in Boston, the place became too warm for Thomas. Threats of personal violence were uttered against him by some of the red-coated soldiers. He was on the list of twelve, with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were to be summarily executed when taken. To avoid this difficulty and unpleasantness, and to do more good with more safety, he sent his type and press across the Charles River one night preceding the eventful day of the affair at Lexington and Concord, and had them conveyed to Worcester. The last number of the Spy printed in Boston was on the 6th of April, 1775. It was Isaiah Thomas, the bold journalist, who was, on the 18th of April, 1775, concerned with that modest and determined patriot, Paul Revere, in conveying information, by his "midnight ride," to the inhabitants of the interior towns, of the crossing of Charles River by the unfortunate British troops, under Major Pitcairn, on their secret expedition to destroy the military stores which had been gathered by the rebel authorities, and stored at Concord. Thomas's own types and press had only a short time previously passed over the same historic stream. It was the opening incident of the Revolutionary drama, and is thus celebrated by Longfellow : Listen, my children, and you shall hear Who remembers that day and year. I |