TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS Connecticut Newspapers in the Eighteenth Century PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1935 - s .. 'S.......^.,.................. ,.. ,.. J.1' $ 18... I*,... : <, i * . M . / * 1 * "" >, . ,, , t , , • ' *"t , , , * 1 11 • , : / i TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS Connecticut Newspapers in the Eighteenth Century JARVIS MEANS MORSE I HE first printing press in Connecticut was set up at New London by Thomas Short in 1709, three quarters of a century after the founding of the river towns, but it was not until 1755 Tthat James Parker founded at New Haven the Connecticut gazette, the first newspaper in the colony. Between that date and the close of the century no less than thirty-five other papers were inaugurated, eight of which enjoyed a career of some length. Parker's Gazette was a modest affair printed on a half sheet of foolscap folded over so as to make four pages, each about six by ten inches in size. The front page of the initial issue, of April 12, was a prospectus promising sub- scribers that they would receive weekly the latest news, articles of an educational value, and advertising service at reasonable rates. There was not a great deal of news in this first issue—an item from London describing the cruel murder of somebody's wife, and another brief note from the same city recounting the fitting out of several naval vessels for the French war then beginning. As a matter of pride in local history it would be gratify- ing to say that Parker had an intimate connection with Connecticut life. Such was hardly the case, for the editor of this first paper was a native of Woodbridge, New Jersey, who was in 1755 conducting an extensive printing busi- ness from headquarters in New York City. A very in- dustrious man he was at that time, since the year 1755 witnessed the appearance of at least thirty-seven publi- cations from his presses, twenty of these imprints being from New York, sixteen from New Haven, and one from Woodbridge. Apparently this assiduous printer never took up residence in Connecticut, or even visited the community for any extended period. The New Haven press was man- aged for him by John Holt. Parker was not exclusively a journalist for although he conducted two New York papers in addition to the Connecticut gazette, a survey of his other publications for 1755 reveals an output covering a wide variety of material: five almanacs, ten pamphlets on re- ligious subjects, five works for college use, and fourteen other productions of a political or miscellaneous nature. Several of the latter are of considerable interest to stu- dents of colonial history, as may be judged from the titles: 'The character and duty of soldiers, Some reflections on the law of bankruptcy, and Proposals to prevent scalping. When from his New York headquarters Parker began the Connecticut venture the outlook for his new paper was none too encouraging. Far from being the metropolis it is today, New Haven was then but a small town of about five thousand inhabitants. Perhaps a tenth of that number could be counted on as subscribers, but a clientele of only five hundred, paying each eight or nine shillings a year, could not provide the printer with an income so large as to arouse envy. From his New Haven supporters Parker hoped to obtain sufficient revenue to enable him to buy 1 paper and ink, incidentally English paper and English ink as those articles were not produced to any extent in the colonies. Some numbers of the Gazette could be sold out- side of New Haven but those would be distributed under difficulties. There was no provision for the mailing of newspapers, though local post-riders could be induced by the payment of special fees to carry weekly journals in a separate bundle outside their small pouches. Not much reliance could be placed on income from advertising, as that important prop of modern journals did not attain generous proportions until the nineteenth century. Lest these economic obstacles in the path of the printer seem to be so great as to make the Gazette a foolhardy undertaking, it must be admitted that other considera- tions afforded a more cheerful prospect. There was no rival paper in the field; the colony contained one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, many of them potential patrons of a new local industry; and finally the French and Indian War was under way so that everyone was anxious to learn the latest news as to how General Brad- dock was progressing in his campaign against Fort Duquesne or how much damage the enemy was inflicting around Lakes George and Champlain. The war greatly aided the Gazette during its infancy, and until 1763, in fact, the paper was largely a naval and military record to be perused by the public then and by historians today as an index to the advancement of British arms in the battle for empire. After Braddock's defeat in that fateful July encounter before Fort Duquesne, the Gazette was for several weeks devoted almost exclusively to accounts of skirmishes with the French and Indians in western Pennsylvania and New York. John Holt remained in charge of the paper until 1760, when he moved to New York, leaving the office in charge 3 of Thomas Green, about whom more will be said presently. Public support of the Gazette declined so much after the close of the war that the paper had to be suspended in April, 1764, though for several months before that time the uncertain fortune of the publication was observable in its contracting size and in the appearance of issues con- taining but two pages instead of the usual four. The paper came to life again in July, 1765, under the management of Benjamin Mecom, who announced an annual subscrip- tion price of eight shillings eight pence, produce acceptable in lieu of cash. Mecom introduced an artistic note, though it was a costly luxury for the day, an illustration in the title depicting a hand holding a bunch of flowers. In August of the same year, the printer enlarged his sheet and brought out a new cut in the center of his title page, showing an eagle perched atop a globe. Unhappily Mecom was not so successful in making money as his renowned uncle, Benjamin Franklin, so that he felt obliged to give up the Gazette in February, 1768, with its 596th weekly issue, printing as his valedictory a pathetic appeal to those subscribers in arrears to pay up enough to make it pos- sible for him to move his family out of town. New Haven- ers, he added, could get the news from another paper re- cently undertaken by Thomas and Samuel Green at the Old State House. In parting company with the Gazette it should be noted that this first Connecticut paper had begun to give promi- nence to the kind of material which for the next genera- tion was to make up the major fare of the press; that is, political articles on the relations between the colonies and Great Britain. The Gazette became in 1765 an outspoken champion of colonial rights. Through its files may be fol- lowed the activities of the Sons of Liberty, especially their intrigues to overthrow that unhappy stamp distributor, 4 Jared Ingersoll. The paper insisted that American prob- lems should be dealt with by Americans and not by Eng- lishmen in a parliament three thousand miles distant. It urged "Gentlemen of the College" [Yale] to make their own liquor so as to avoid paying the revenue tax on the imported product, superior as the latter article might be to home-brew. Though the Gazette urged these things, it must not be concluded that Parker or Holt or Mecom wrote stirring editorials on such matters. These early newspapers rarely contained editorials in the modern sense; editing was done by selection—the printers mold- ing public opinion in accordance with their private incli- nations by publishing the contributions of some corre- spondents and rejecting those of others. If the Gazette seems to have been a rather unsuccessful venture the failure should not be placed wholly upon the printer. His craft labored under great difficulties. Few presses and no type were manufactured in America until the time of the Revolution, little good ink was to be had unless imported,1 and the purely mechanical labor in- volved in printing the weekly issues of a journal was con- siderable. At least two impressions of each sheet had to be made, one for each side. It took a strong man to manipu- late the old pull presses, while a boy apprentice stood by to do the inking with a deerskin ball filled with wool, nailed to the end of a stick, the whole process being a messy one which would fill a modern printer with horror. Beyond these mechanical handicaps were hazards of an- other sort, some of which have already been suggested. There was no system of news collection. The printer had to rely on whatever news reached him accidentally through 'Presses were made in Hartford in 1775. Abel Buell of Killingworth cast type from American matrices in 1769. Paper was manufactured at Norwich in 1766 and after. 5 letters sent by friends and on articles that he could clip from other papers. Otherwise, he filled his weekly columns with contributions on current topics, mostly political, sub- mitted by would-be publicists who gloried in pen-names, such as Censor, Cato, Brutus, Plato, Historicus, and Friend to Liberty.