Watchmen, and others employed by the authorities of Boston, annually issued addresses in rhyme, but without reason, and received considerable sums of money. The New York Herald was the first to put a stop to those of the Carriers in New York. The Journal of Commerce followed. The Philadelphia Ledger, instead of an address in rhyme, got out, in 1870, a very useful and valuable Almanac, which Mr. Childs, its proprietor, sent to each subscriber free. He printed ninety thousand of the Almanac in 1872.

But Bradford deserved well of his country. His family was one of patriots. He served the nation well and boldly in his newspaper, and he served it well and nobly on the field of battle. He was a major of militia at Trenton. He came out of the affair at Princeton a colonel. He was at Fort Mifflin. He fought for his principles, and aided in gaining splendid victories for the Press and the country.

Another family of printers made their mark in the ranks of journalism during this interesting epoch. One of the Greens, famous in New England as far back in the annals of time as 1649, revived the Maryland Gazette, the original of which closed its career under Parks in 1736. It was revived in 1745 under the proprietorship of Jonas Green, who had, for many years previously, a printing-office in Annapolis. The Gazette, thus re-established, continued, with the exception of a brief suspension in 1765, in consequence of the odious Stamp Act, under the same name, and was published weekly by Mr. Green and his descendants until the year 1839, nearly a century, when, while in the hands of Jonas Green, the great-grandson of the original proprietor, it was discontinued, and the St. Mary's Gazette took its place. Any one can see a copy of this Century Newspaper in the Maryland State Library. Its original shape was quarto.

The Gazette was printed on the same press throughout its long On October 30, 1848, the St. Mary's Gazette said:

career.

But few of our readers are aware, we expect, that the press upon which our little sheet is printed, is the oldest now in use in the United States, and probably in the world. Yet such is the fact. The press now used by us has been in almost constant service for more than a hundred years. Upon it was printed the Maryland Gazette, the earliest paper published in the province of Maryland, and one among the very first in America. Upon it, also, was printed the first volume of the laws of Maryland that ever appeared. It is constructed somewhat on the Ramage principle, and requires three pulls, though two were originally sufficient to produce a good impression. It is truly a venerable object.

The next in order of time, and the last in this epoch, was the New York Evening Post. Henry de Forrest issued the initial number in 1746. This paper lived about a year only.

Two newspapers, printed in German, appeared in Pennsylvania during this period. One was published by Sower, in Germantown, in 1739, and the other by Ambruster, in Philadelphia, in 1743. The

The First German Newspapers.

ΙΟΙ

German newspaper literature of the country has since increased to one hundred and forty-two superior journals printed in that language, some of which have daily circulations, like the Staats Zeitung of New York, of thirty, forty, and fifty thousand copies. They are now a political and literary power in the United States.

This closes the colonial period of newspapers. They were imperfect and incomplete in a journalistic, as the colonies were in a national point of view. Only here and there, as in the case of Franklin and Fleet in Boston, of the Bradfords in Philadelphia, and Zenger in New York, did they exhibit any fire or vitality, and in these few instances the sparks were nearly smothered in persecutions and imprisonment. But, happily, these sparks were only smouldering. They brightened up in the next epoch, and kindled the revolutionary fire of 1776, which made this a great nation of popular sovereignty and popular rights.

THE THIRD EPOCH.

1748-1783.

CHAPTER VI.

THE REVOLUTIONARY PRESS.

THE SONS OF LIBERTY.-OUR PATRIOTIC Editors and Publishers.-WHO WROTE FOR THE NEWSPAPERS.-OPENING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY BALL. —The Progress of Journalism.—THE Independent Advertiser.—New YORK MERCURY. - HUGH GAINE'S GAZETTE. THE BOSTON GAZETTE of EDES AND GILL. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE. — NEWPORT (R. I.) MERCURY. THE FRANKLIN PRESSES. - IMPRISONMENT OF ALEXANDER M'DOUGALL.

REVOLUTION! A.D. 1748 opened the campaign for 1776. The Revolutionary Press dawned upon the colonies. This was an important era in journalism and liberalism every where., Newspapers had been in existence for less than half a century. They were few in number. They were published in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. Nowhere else on this continent had a newspaper appeared. These news centres had now become the revolutionary centres of America. The arbitrary acts of the agents of the home government, the Stamp Act, the persecutions of the Franklins and the Zengers, began to react upon the people. The vigorous growth of a spirit of independence among the colonists began to develop itself in clubs and in newspaper offices. Sons of Liberty were active in Boston, New York, and elsewhere. Men of brains became constant and fearless contributors to the Press, and the result-the gun at Concord," which was heard around the world"-was to startle the crowned heads of Europe.

Samuel Adams, of whom Napoleon borrowed the epithet he applied to England as a "nation of shopkeepers," established the Independent Advertiser in 1748. He was assisted by a club of ardent young rebels. It was full of free thought and free speech. The first number was printed on the 4th of January by Rogers and Fowle. Among its contributors was Jonathan Mayhew, the founder of Unitarianism in America. We have seen it somewhere stated that the Advertiser reproduced Mayhew's sermons as the Boston

The Poet Freneau and Hugh Gaine.

103

Traveller now publishes those of Henry Ward Beecher. This pioneer of the revolutionary Press was managed with great skill and good sense for several years. Notwithstanding the spirit with which the paper was conducted, it did not come in direct and dangerous collision with the government till 1752. In 1750 Rogers and Fowle dissolved partnership, when David Fowle became the printer for these early rebels.

One of Mayhew's sermons, on the occasion of an election, strongly advocated the republican form of government. It was published. Shortly after the Legislative Assembly passed a bill imposing certain custom duties. This bill was severely denounced in a pamphlet from the office of the Advertiser, in which it was called the "Monitor of Monitors," and the Legislature somewhat tartly handled. This onslaught, immediately after the publication of such a sermon, was too much for the authorities to overlook. Fowle, the printer, was arrested, and, for refusing to divulge the name of the writer of the newspaper article, was sent to jail, where he was confined for several days, and harshly treated while there. This decided action on the part of government checked the originators of the Advertiser for a time, but a fresh impulse was soon given to the vigorous young writers of that eventful period.

Sandwiched between the Advertiser and the next newspaper enterprise in New England was the New York Mercury, the publication of which was commenced by Hugh Gaine on the 3d of August, 1752. With a short intermission it was continued in existence for thirty-one years, having been published till after the Revolution. After John Holt revived the Journal in 1767, Gaine added the name of Gazette to his paper, and it was called Gaine's New York Gazette and Mercury from that time.

Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution, had very little affection for Gaine. When he was editing the Freeman's Journal in Philadelphia, he overflowed with verses on the public characters of that era, and, among others, Hugh Gaine, a vicar of Bray in newspapers, "who lied at the sign of the Bible and Crown," came in for his share. Freneau published "Gaine's Life" in rhyme. Here is an

extract:

Now, if I was ever so given to lie,

My dear native country I would n't deny;

(I know you love Teagues) and I shall not conceal,
That I came from the kingdom where Phelim O'Neil
And other brave worthies ate butter and cheese,
And walked in the clover-fields up to their knees:
Full early in youth, without basket or burden,
With staff in my hand, I pass'd over Jordan,
(I remember my comrade was Doctor Magraw,
And many strange things on the water we saw,

Sharks, dolphins and sea dogs, bonettas and whales,
And birds at the tropic, with quills in their tails,)
And came to your city and government seat,
And found it was true, you had something to eat!
When thus I wrote home: "The country is good,
They have plenty of victuals and plenty of wood;
The people are kind, and whate'er they may think,
I shall make it appear I can swim where they'll sink;
And yet they're so brisk, and so full of good cheer,
By my soul! I suspect they have always New Year,
And, therefore, conceive it is good to be here."

So said, and so acted: I put up a press,
And printed away with amazing success;
Neglected my person and looked like a fright,
Was bothered all day, and was busy all night,
Saw money come in, as the papers went out,
While Parker and Weyman were driving about,
And cursing and swearing and chewing their cuds,
And wishing Hugh Gaine and his press in the suds.
Thus life ran away, so smooth and serene-
Ah! these were the happiest days I had seen!
But the saying of JACOB I've found to be true,
"The days of thy servant are evil and few!"
The days that to me were joyous and glad,
Are nothing to those which are dreary and sad!
The feuds of the stamp act foreboded foul weather,
And woe and vexation, all coming together.
Those days were the days of riots and mobs,
Tar, feathers, and tories, and troublesome jobs-
Priests preaching up war for the good of our souls,
And libels, and lying, and liberty-poles,

From which when some whimsical colors you waved
We had nothing to do, but look up and be saved!
But this was the reason that I must lament;
I first was a whig, with an honest intent-
Yes, I was a whig, and a whig from my heart-
But still was unwilling with Britain to part.
I thought to oppose her was foolish and vain,
I thought she would turn and embrace us again,
And make us as happy as happy could be,
By renewing the era of mild sixty-three;
And yet, like a cruel, undutiful son,
Who evil returns for the good to be done,
Unmerited odium on Britain to throw,

I printed some treason for PHILIP FRENEAU !

Hugh Gaine was an Irishman and an industrious journalist. He not only collected his own news and set up his own types, but he did his own press-work, folded his own papers, and delivered them to his subscribers. No man could now accomplish so much.

After the Advertiser ceased to exist, the Boston Gazette, or Weekly Advertiser, made its appearance. The first number was published January 3, 1753, and lived till March, 1755, and was then stopped in consequence of the provincial Stamp Act. It was printed by Samuel Kneeland after the dissolution of the firm of Kneeland and . Green, mentioned in our preceding chapter.

Symptoms of the approaching political storm now began to show