decorum as they were defined at that day. The paper combated the stamp-act, and with several contemporaries throughout the colonies, appeared in mourning on the 21st of October, 1765, on account of the passage of that law. The "New York Evening Post" appeared in 1746, but was soon discontinued. The "New York Mercury" was commenced by Hugh Gaine, and was discontinued at the close of the revolutionary war, after an existence of thirty-one years under the patronage of its founder. William Wyman, in 1759, established the "New York Gazette," which, after a fitful existence, expired in 1767. The "American Chronicle was commenced by S. Farley, in 1761, and discontinued the next year; and the "New York Packet," begun in 1763, had only a brief existence. In 1766, John Holt issued "The New York Journal and General Advertiser;" and in 1768, "The New York Chronicle" was commenced by Alexander and James Robinson, and continued until 1772, when the printers removed to Albany, and established there "The Albany Post-Boy," which continued until 1776. James Rivington, in 1773, commenced his newspaper career with a large and handsome sheet bearing the comprehensive title of "Rivington's New York Gazetteer, or the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson's River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser;" and in January, 1776, the publication of the "New York Packet and American Advertiser", was begun by Samuel Loudon. At the advent of the Revolution, therefore, there were only four newspapers in existence in the colony, to wit, Gaine's Mercury, Holt's Journal and Advertiser, Rivington's Gazetteer, and ' Loudon's Packet; and as these reflected the spirit of that epoch, and were characteristic of the phases of the mighty struggle, a few facts in relation to them may not be devoid of interest. Gaine, who was a native of Ireland, continued to print and sell books in Hanover square until his death in 1807, a period of nearly sixty years. Exact, punctual, and industrious, he acquired a large estate, and transmitted a reputation for personal honesty, thrift, and tact, not often disturbed by excessive aspirations of patriotism. Approaching the Revolution, he was ostensibly neutral; but with a desire to keep the strongest side, he alternately printed for the people and for the loyal authorities, as each seemed to preponderate. Although he removed with his press to New Jersey on the approach of the British army, he re turned when they had gained possession of the city; and emboldened by their successes, pursued the natural impulses of his mind, and gave to the royal cause the best efforts of his pen and press. His request to be allowed to remain in the city after its evacuation by the British army was granted; but his traits of character were happily hit off in a poem which appeared on the 1st of January, 1783, professing to be the humble petition of Gaine to remain in the city, in which his early profession and attachment to the cause of the country, his subsequent adhesion to the royal cause, and his final appeal, were humorously and satirically described. It concluded: "As matters have gone, it was plainly a blunder, The Mercury, of course, did not survive the Revolution. Rivington was an English bookseller, a man of the world, and of good talents, who established his business in New York in 1761, and in 1773 commenced the publication of the Gazette on a large medium sheet folio. The paper surpassed its contemporaries in enterprise, and in its original essays and its various intelligence; and soon came to be extensively patronized in all the principal towns. But when the king's arms were substituted for the early vignette, and the descriptive words in the title, "ever open and uninfluenced," were erased, and the paper gave unequivocal demonstrations of hostility to the popular cause, a body of armed men from Connecticut, in November, 1775, entered the city on horseback, beset the printer's habitation, destroyed his press, and threw his types into heaps, or converted them into bullets. Two years afterward, he returned from England with new materials, and renewed his paper, which now appeared twice a week on a sheet of royal size, surmounted with the royal arms, and entitled "The Royal Gazette, published by James Rivington, printer to the king's most excellent majesty." This paper was conducted with exceeding virulence against the "rebels." It was the leading royal press in the colonies, issued from the chief seat of British power, and attained precedence as the acknowledged official organ, and necessarily became very obnoxious to the prevailing party. At length, foreseeing the result, Rivington sought to conciliate the whigs, and succeeded so far as to insure the toleration of his residence in the city; but his paper, although it discarded the emblems and appendages of royalty, expired in 1783. The wits and satirists of the revolutionary press conferred an unenviable immortality upon its editor. But there are more grateful aspects in the history of the republican press devoted to the cause of the country. The "New York Journal and Advertiser," published by Holt & Parker, bore a conspicuous part in the discussions and agitations of the day, animating the people in their resistance to tyranny, and preparing them for the trials and sufferings of the great struggle. At the memorable period of the stamp-act, Holt, who then conducted the paper, added to its title the significant motto: "The united voice of all his majesty's free and loyal subjects in America, Liberty, property, and no stamps." In 1774 Holt discarded from the Journal the cut of the king's arms, and substituted in its stead the device of a snake severed into parts, with the motto "unite or die."* If Rivington suffered at the hands of the exasperated colonists, Holt was visited with the royal vengeance in forms scarcely less ruinous. On the approach of the British army in 1776, he was obliged to quit the city and leave his property to be destroyed by the enemy. After a short interval, the Journal re-appeared in Kingston. Driven thence by the capture and destruction of that place in the same year, Holt continued the paper at Poughkeepsie until the termination of the war, when he returned to New York. He died in 1784. IIis paper, continued by his widow and descendants several years, at length passed into the hands of Thomas Greenleaf. Early in the present century, the well-known "American Citizen," edited with distinguished ability by James Cheetham, appeared. The "New York Packet," by Samuel Loudon, a native of Ireland, was a spirited auxiliary of the popular cause. That Journal was published at Fishkill while the city of New York was in possession of the enemy. During the same period, Robertson & Co. of the "Royal American Gazette," and Lewis of the "New York Mercury and General Advertiser," made such an arrangement with the publishers of the other papers as to form a daily publication. But these newspapers were all discontinued at the peace of 1783. *Thomas's History of Printing. There were, therefore, at the close of the revolutionary war, nearly one hundred and fifty years after the introduction of printing in Massachusetts, and nearly a century after its establishment in Pennsylvania, only three newspaper publications in the state of New York. These were Holt's and Loudon's, then respectively published at Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, and the "New York Gazetteer," which was commenced in Albany in May, 1782, by Valentine & Webster, and was succeeded two years afterward by the "Albany Gazette," published by Charles R. Webster, and has been continued by him and Websters & Skinners until the present date, 1842. Thirty-nine newspapers were printed at the commencement of the Revolution in all the American colonies. The earlier newspaper press was extremely circumscribed in its scope and powers. A newspaper rarely exceeded in size half a sheet of foolscap. It was a mere compilation, often crude enough, with "the freshest advices foreign and domestic." How "fresh," the reader, in this day of railroads, steampackets, and second and third daily editions, will learn not without amusement, from the fact that sixteen years after a newspaper was established in Boston, it proposed to issue a half sheet every other week; by which hazardous enterprise it was hoped that the time between the paper and the latest European news, then thirteen months, might be reduced to five. For many years the "Boston News-Letter" contained no more than two advertisements. Until the close of the Revolution, no newspaper was issued oftener than once a week; but with the progress of political events, the press assumed a higher position, and put forth greater energies. It was yet restricted, its rights scarcely understood, its power not appreciated, and its freedom curtailed by judicial decisions; nevertheless, it was advancing in character and importance. The trial of Zenger, the passage of the stampact, the claim of parliamentary right to tax the colonies without representation and without consent, and the resistance to those claims on great principles, called forth the patriotism of the colonists; and the press, having then become the organ of an indomitable spirit of freedom, assumed a more elevated tone, and exerted a powerful influence in carrying the cause of the Revolution to its triumphant consummation. So rapid was the increase of newspapers, that in 1810 the VOL. II.-3 number of such publications in the United States amounted to three hundred and fifty-nine, of which sixty-six were printed in this state.* These journals, like those published during the Revolution, with rare exceptions, were controversial, and of a political and partisan character. The ability displayed in their columns exceeded that which the press exhibited during the Revolution, in a proportion equal to the sphere to be supplied; but the public taste had not yet become sufficiently refined to reject invective, and to choose always facts and arguments in preference to scandal and recrimination. One or more newspapers were then published in the capital of each county, and their names will recall quite vivid recollections of the civil and political divisions of the state, as they then existed. In the city of New York there were seven daily newspapers: The New York Gazette and General Advertiser, by Lang & Turner; the New York Evening Post, by William Coleman; the Commercial Advertiser, by Zachariah Lewis, all of which supported the federalist party: the Public Advertiser and the Columbian, edited by Charles Holt, devoted to the republican party; and the American Citizen, by James Cheetham, and the Mercantile Advertiser, which were neutral as to politics. There were also published in the city one semi-weekly and five weekly papers; these were the New York Herald, the Spectator, the Republican Watchtower, the New York Journal, the Columbian for the country, and the Price Current. In the city of Albany, there were three semi-weekly newspapers: The Albany Gazette, by Websters & Skinners, the Balance and New York State Journal, by Croswell & Frary, engaged in defending the policy of the federalists; and the Albany Register, by Solomon Southwick, maintaining the republican cause. All the other newspapers in the state were published weekly, and were as follows: at Sag Harbor, the Suffolk Gazette, a republican paper, by Alden Spooner; at Brooklyn, the Long Island Star, of the same politics, by Thomas Kirk; at Saratoga, the Saratoga Gazette; at Watertown, the American Eagle, by Henry Coffeen; at Peekskill, the Westchester Gazette, a republican paper, by Robert Cromble; at Somers, the Somers Museum, a federal journal, by Milton F. Cushing; at Goshen, the Orange County Gazette, a *In 1850 the number in the United States had increased to 2,800. |