conservative leanings in a mutually pensable source of reliable news and December 1773, the Battle of Lexington in By Joseph F. Nunes respectful but often intensely competitive advertisements, and it quickly began to May 1775, and the signing of the relationship that ended when the Times champion principles that resonated with Declaration of Independence in July 1776. folded in 1976. readers. There was no better cause for the And he published in full such influential After that turning point with Burr, The early Courant to identify with than the anti- revolutionary tracts as Thomas Paine’s Courant (as it was commonly known British groundswell that triggered the “Common Sense” in February and March through the ages) became one of the American Revolution. “This journal has 1776. The Political Fires that Fueled nation’s preeminent Republican journals been acknowledged as one of the forces During the height of the Revolution in for much of its history before adopting a that led to the separation of the colonies,” September 1777, Watson contracted more centrist editorial policy in modern Charles Hopkins Clark, who would himself smallpox and died at age 33, leaving the times. And it was principally George serve as Courant editor (1900-1926) wrote paper to his 27-year-old widow, Hannah B. Goodwin who built The Courant into an in Memorial History of Hartford County, Watson, who quickly made 20-year-old enduring stronghold of conservative Volume 1 (edited by James Hammond George Goodwin a business partner. THE COURANT Yankee values that found deep roots in the Trumbull, E.L. Osgood, 1886). Despite continued crises—including a mill Land of Steady Habits. While The Courant was Thomas Green’s fire that destroyed their paper stock and The Hartford Courant’s 250th anniversary in October 2014 is a brainchild, he returned to New Haven after threatened to close the newspaper for just three years to start yet another paper. good—they found ways to continue The meaningful milestone in Connecticut history. Here Courant historian (There his Loyalist leanings became overt Courant ’s flow of patriotic war news. Joseph F. Nunes, a former Courant city editor and copy chief, looks at the The Courant’s enough that Yale University President Ezra In January 1778, Watson married her BEGINNING Stiles pulled Green’s printing commission widowed next-door neighbor, business - key role politics has played in that newspaper’s evolution. According to J. Eugene Smith’s One in 1781 because “the press in New Haven man Barzillai Hudson, who took over her Hundred Years of Hartford’s Courant (Yale is a Tory press,” as recounted in a Courant ownership stake in a new partnership with University Press, 1949), George Goodwin retrospective, October 25, 1914.) He left Goodwin. While Hudson focused on the started work at The Connecticut Courant less The Courant to Watson and his now business, Goodwin handled both the It was a pivotal moment in Hartford Federalist to Whig to Republican principles, sold to the politically more compatible than a year after Thomas Green founded it teenage protégé Goodwin during what printing and editing duties, becoming “the newspaper history: In early 1836, George as J. Bard McNulty chronicled in Older John L. Boswell, 26, a Norwich native, for - in Hartford on October 29, 1764; that would prove to be extraordinary, often first printer of The Courant to call himself an Goodwin, the venerable 79-year-old Than the Nation (Pequot Press, 1964). mer Courant apprentice, and steadfast would have made Goodwin, born January desperate times. Through their tireless editor,” noted Smith. owner of The Hartford Courant , was looking Young Burr, on the other hand, supported Whig and Congregationalist. Burr stayed 7, 1857, a mere eight years old. Goodwin’s efforts, the newspaper became the leading With the rise of Thomas Jefferson’s to sell the paper. He badly wanted the new the states’-rights principles of Gen. Andrew on long enough to oversee production of tasks in those early years included carrying voice for the patriot cause after the British Democratic-Republican Party in 1800, proprietor to be Alfred E. Burr, The Jackson, whose election as president in the debut issue of The Hartford Daily Courant buckets of water to the second-floor print shut down larger papers in New York and The Courant ’s editorial tone tilted toward Courant ’s precocious composing-room 1828 gave rise to the modern Democratic a year later, on September 12, 1837, before shop above Mooklar’s barbershop, wetting Boston. The Courant ’s circulation was scurrilous rage, at a time when many foreman, who was just 20 years old. Party. “It broke the heart of old George seizing an opportunity at the rival but the sheets before they went to press, hang - reported as being “equal to, if not greater, newspapers had evolved into mouthpieces Goodwin and his partners had become Goodwin … that Mr. Burr was bound to struggling Hartford Times . ing them to dry, then peddling the paper. than that of any other paper printed on the for their owners. A regular contributor immensely fond of Burr since hiring him as join the Jackson party,” noted The New York In 1841, Burr began publishing the The Courant office became the perfect Continent,” according to historian and named “Burleigh,” one of the many pseu - a 12-year-old printer’s apprentice. Not only Times in a profile of Burr (January 2, 1894). Hartford Daily Times , which he quickly classroom for the otherwise unschooled publisher Isaiah Thomas in History of Printing donyms commonly used before bylines was Burr unusually talented and industri - The article recorded Goodwin’s entreaty: molded into a major force in local and state child. Working with Green and his in America Vol. II (Isaiah Thomas, 1810). became commonplace, on September 15, ous, he had a strong moral compass that “‘Alfred, Alfred,’ said he, with deep feeling politics. Thus was born one of the most assistant Ebenezer Watson, Goodwin soon Watson fanned the revolutionary fervor 1800 warned of an apocalyptic collapse if resonated with the conservative Courant in his voice, ‘how can you become enduring rivalries in American newspaper mastered the art of setting type, which with riveting accounts of the independence then-Vice President Jefferson were elected owners, as noted in the Commemorative a Jackson boy after being brought up in history. For the next 137 years, the Times ’s would become a lifetime love. movement, despite a chronic paper short - president: “Murder, robbery, rape, biographical record of Hartford County (J.H. this office?’” mostly liberal editorial stance provided a Under Green and Watson, Goodwin age that forced him to constantly plead for adultery, and incest will openly be taught Beers & Co., Chicago, 1901). There was Goodwin proposed to sell him the stark counterpoint to The Courant ’s also learned first-hand the keys to The “Patriot rags”—old cloths needed to make and practiced, the air will be rent with cries just one hitch: his politics. paper on favorable terms, under two con - Courant ’s remarkable success at a time the rag paper on which the newspaper was of distress, the soil soaked with blood, and Under Goodwin, The Courant had ditions: that Burr join the Whig party, and Joseph Nunes, who worked at The Hartford when early colonial newspapers were printed. He ran rousing accounts of what the nation black with crimes.” established a staunchly conservative edito - that he attend the Congregational Church, Couran t for 37 years, was city editor from 1984 to 1986 and copy chief from 1986 until 2011. struggling to survive. From the start, the came to be known as the Boston Massacre The Courant ’s anti-Jefferson rhetoric soon rial course that would guide its owners for noted the Commemorative biographical record . He is currently working on a history of The paper sought to become a regular, indis - in March 1770, the Boston Tea Party in got the attention of federal authorities, generations to come, evolving from Burr turned it down, and Goodwin instead Courant.

CT Explored / 38 (c) 2014 CONNECTICUT EXPLORED. Vol.12 No.4, Fall, 2014. www.ctexplored.org Copying and distribution of this article is not permitted without permission of the publisher. CT Explored / 39 who in 1806 indicted Hudson and Americans,” referring to native-born paper his longtime friend Charles Dudley Goodwin on charges of criminal libel for a colonials. He also promoted white suprema - Warner, who would emerge as one of the story, published April 16, accusing cist views not uncommon at the time in dia - finest writers of his time. The Evening Press Jefferson of secretly shipping 60 tons of tribes that the Hartford Times dismissed as soon outshone The Courant with its literary silver to France as a bribe for Napoleon to “vapid twaddle” and “driveling, puerile elegance and intelligence, although it stop seizing American ships. The Courant ’s inanity.” Day published an editorial on struggled to stay afloat financially with the popular agriculture columnist Oliver March 6, 1856, titled “Sam and Sambo,” outbreak of the Civil War. Ellsworth of Windsor (who had recently that stands as one of the most racist tracts in The Courant , by contrast, was enjoying retired from his post as the nation’s third Courant history. In it, Day misreads the continued prosperity as the demand for chief justice) helped the paper win a nascent Republican Party as “the white war news caused circulation to boom, seminal decision in United States v. Hudson man’s party. … The Republicans mean to peaking at 30,000 by war’s end in 1865, and Goodwin (1812), in which the high preserve all of this country that they can, according to Older Than the Nation . But as court rejected the use of English common from the pestilential presence of the black the paper struggled with a series of man - law as a basis for federal charges. race. Some people think themselves witty agement changes that decade, the new Under Hudson and Goodwin, The and smart, in calling this cause the Black owners in 1867 made a pivotal decision. Courant also became widely viewed as Republican cause; to our minds it is intrinsi - They agreed to merge with The Hartford pandering to the rich and powerful while cally aristocratic; it aims to save the country Evening Press . That essentially led to a coup belittling the growing population of immi - to the white man….” by Hawley, Warner, and a third Evening grants as “rabble,” according to Smith. The Day gradually toned down his Press partner, Stephen Hubbard, as they paper firmly opposed movements to invective. Four years later, he steered The gained control of the profitable, advertis - legislate separation of church and state and Courant decisively into the Republican fold ing-heavy Courant and proceeded to turn it to expand voting rights, which were then after seeing Abraham Lincoln electrify into one of the nation’s premier limited to white male property owners. Hartford on March 5, 1860, days after the Republican organs. The paper’s intransigence led directly to the politician’s famous Cooper Union speech Under Hawley and company, The founding of the Hartford Times in 1817 as a catapulted him to fame. On November 7, Courant sharpened the ethics-focused Handbill issued by political voice for the new Tolerationist 1860, The Courant crowed about Lincoln’s Yankee conservatism of the previous The Hartford Courant Party. Within a year, the upstart paper election with a banner announcing owners while adopting as a guiding announcing the surrender of the Confederate army, helped lead the anti-Federalists to victory, “GLORIOUS NEWS! The Day of Jubilee principle what they called “gentlemanly 1865. resulting in a new state constitution in Has Come… Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!” journalism.” They refused to stoop to the 1818 that disestablished the church but Among the founders of the new sensationalism and invasive “keyhole Connecticut Historical Society, upheld restrictive voting rights. Republican Party were a young Hartford journalism” sweeping the increasingly Hartford, Connecticut lawyer named Joseph R. Hawley and competitive newspaper industry. Hawley, former Hartford Times stalwarts Gideon meanwhile, emerged as a major force in Welles and John M. Niles, both of whom national politics. After a one-year term as THE CIVIL had become disgusted with the Democratic Connecticut’s governor and two terms as a Party’s controversial repeal of the Missouri congressman, Hawley served 24 years as a WAR YEARS Compromise in 1854. According to Clark’s United States senator, leaving The Courant As the abolition issue was wracking entries in the Memorial History of Hartford largely in the hands of his associates. the country, The Courant in 1855 became a County , together they collected $100 from The Courant ’s owners made an soapbox for its new owner, Hartford Republican Party organizers to form The auspicious hire in Charles Hopkins Clark, lawyer Thomas M. Day, whose narrow- Hartford Evening Press as a party organ. The who began work October 8, 1871, the minded rants made him an occasional Hartford Evening Press , under the editorial night of the Great Chicago Fire. Clark, 23, laughingstock. With the Whig Party on the guidance of Welles and then Hawley, a recent Yale graduate and Hartford Public decline, Day aligned The Courant with the quickly caught the imagination of a High School alumnus, gradually became anti-immigrant Know-Nothing movement growing citizenry electrified by Lincoln’s the newspaper’s driving force, rising to the and its rallying cry, “America for the presidential campaign. Hawley lured to the position of co-owner by 1888. CT Explored / 41 CT Explored / 40 (c) 2014 CONNECTICUT EXPLORED. Vol.12 No.4, Fall, 2014. www.ctexplored.org Copying and distribution of this article is not permitted without permission of the publisher. Clark in his later years became without bias,” joining many other newspa - more idiosyncratic in his editorial policy, pers that had moved away from overt HEADING INTO THE staunchly opposing Prohibition and partisanship except on the editorial pages. women’s suffrage, for example, while The Courant continued espousing PROGRESSIVE ERA supporting a woman’s right to smoke. moderate Republican principles under (Famously, Connecticut was not one of the succeeding editorial directors Herbert Clark dramatically expanded the staff 36 states to ratify the 19th Amendment Brucker (who became a nationally known and modernized the plant as circulation, giving women the vote.) His hardened champion of freedom of information), which had fallen below 5,000 during a Republicanism and unrelenting criticism of William Foote, and Charles Towne. It was prolonged economic depression, started President Woodrow Wilson increasingly only after the Hartford Times folded in 1976 rising again in the 1890s. One of Clark’s alienated his managing editor. In a twist that The Courant took on a more clear-cut key hires was Clifton L. Sherman, who reminiscent of Alfred Burr’s falling out with nonpartisan editorial stance under editorial became managing editor in 1893 at age 27. The Courant and move to the Times , in 1919 director John Zakarian, who served from Sherman introduced many popular new Sherman left and soon became editor of 1976 until he retired in 2004. features, including puzzles, editorial the Hartford Times , leading it to a new era Even after the Times Mirror Company cartoons, and a children’s page, which of prosperity as the state’s dominant bought The Courant in 1979, ending 215 were becoming standard in the industry. newspaper from the 1920s through the years of local ownership, the Hartford Meanwhile, The Courant ’s editorial stance mid-1960s. editorial board continued presenting a under Clark, while still Republican, largely independent, nonpartisan perspec - became more progressive as it championed tive without any interference—with community activism, civic causes, and notable exceptions. Though the editorial social justice. The newspaper even board wanted to endorse Democrats defended labor unions in the face of A B REAK WITH Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Walter Mondale well-publicized workplace abuses. “The THE EPUBLICAN R in 1984, higher-ups overruled and The labor union is the development of the Courant endorsed Independent John self-interest of the employed against the PARTY Anderson in 1980 and Republican Ronald selfishness of the employer,” Clark wrote With Clark’s death in 1926, The Courant Reagan in 1984. The Courant did not on July 2, 1902, in advocating for following moved to a more moderate, even liberal, endorse a Democrat for president until the Golden Rule in business dealings. But Republicanism under new editor Maurice 1992, when it supported Bill Clinton. the paper remained so politically S. Sherman (no relation to Clifton The nonpartisan editorial stance contin - Republican, for a time it publicized only the Sherman), who laid the groundwork for ued under his successors Robert K. Schrepf GOP candidates for office, rarely mention - an editorial philosophy that would continue (2005-2007), and Carolyn Lumsden, who ing the Democrats. for nearly half a century. Sherman, who remains The Courant ’s editorial page editor. With the death of Warner in 1900 and was hired away from The Springfield Zakarian, who died in March 2014, in a Hawley five years later, Clark continued Republican , was, like Clark, personal friends 2012 interview expressed pride in The fine-tuning The Courant ’s Republicanism. with U.S. presidents. Unlike Clark, he Courant ’s ability to mature editorially Like Hawley, Clark was prominent in the quickly made clear that The Courant would despite the divisiveness inherent in politics. national Republican Party and counted no longer be a Republican Party organ. Readership surveys, he said, showed that presidents William McKinley, Theodore Instead he promoted an editorial mindset The Courant had achieved a remarkable Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and William that welcomed a diversity of opinions. editorial balance. “The majority of respon - Howard Taft as personal friends. Clark Sherman instituted “The People’s Forum,” dents, like 46 percent, said we were middle considered Roosevelt “our greatest man”— which generated letters to the editor by the of the road; 28 percent said we are too until Roosevelt bolted the Republican Party thousands. He also established a new fair - conservative, 26 percent said we were too in a split with President Taft in 1912 to form ness policy: “To gather all the news worth liberal. So we were sort of right down the his own Progressive Party. gathering within its field and to present it middle.” 2

CT Explored / 42 (c) 2014 CONNECTICUT EXPLORED. Vol.12 No.4, Fall, 2014. www.ctexplored.org Copying and distribution of this article is not permitted without permission of the publisher.