To free schools and colleges the periodical press had been added, and newspapers began their office in America as the ministers to curiosity and the guides and organs of opinion. On the twenty-fourth day of April, in 1704, the Boston News-Letter, the first ever published on the western continent, saw the light in the metropolis of New England. In 1719, it obtained a rival at Boston, and was imitated at Philadelphia. In 1740, the number of newspapers in the English colonies on the continent had increased to eleven, of which one appeared in South Carolina, one in Virginia, three in Pennsylvania, -- one of them being in German, -- one in New York, and the remaining five in Boston. The sheet at first used was but of the foolscap size; and but one, or even but a half of one, was issued weekly. The papers sought support rather by modestly telling the news of the day, than by engaging in conflicts; they had no political theories to enforce, no revolutions in faith to hasten. In Boston, indeed, where the pulpit had marshaled the Quakers and witches to the gallows, one newspaper, the New England Courant, the fourth American Periodical, was established in August, 1721, as an organ of independent opinion, by James Franklin. Its temporary success was advanced by Benjamin, his brother and apprentice, a boy of fifteen, who wrote pieces for its humble columns, worked in composing the types, as well as in printing off the sheets, and himself, as carrier, distributed the papers to the customers. The little sheet satirized hypocrisy, and spoke of religious knaves as of all knaves the worst. This was described as tending to abuse the ministers of religion in a manner which was intolerable. I can well remember, writes Increase Mather, then more than fourscore years of age, when the civil government would have taken an effectual course to suppress such a cursed libel. In July, 1722, a resolve passed the council, appointing a censor for the press of James Franklin; but the house refused its concurrence. The ministers persevered; and, in January, 1723, a committee of inquiry was raised by the legislature. Benjamin Franklin, being examined, escaped with an admonition; James, the publisher, refusing to discover the author of the offence, was kept in jail for a month; his paper was censured as reflecting injuriously on the reverend ministers of the gospel; and, by vote of the house and council, he was forbidden to print it, except it be first supervised. History of the Colonization of the United States, 1841
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 09:35:29 +0000
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