 | MASSACHUSETTS. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... |  |
The Censor.
The Censor was altogether a political publication. The
first number appeared November 23, 1771. It was printed
in a small sheet, foolscap, folio, on an English type, by
Ezekiel Russell, in Boston, and published on Saturdays.
It made its appearance without any formal introduction.
A dissertation in the Massachusetts Spy, under the signature
of Mucius Scævola, probably occasioned the attempt
to establish this paper. Mucius Scævola had attacked
Governor Hutchinson with a boldness and severity before
unknown in the political disputes of this country. The
piece excited great warmth among those who supported
the measures of the British administration, and they immediately
commenced the publication of the Censor; in which
the governor and the British administration were defended.
Lieutenant Governor Oliver was the reputed author of
several numbers of the Censor, under the signature of A
Freeman, and these were thought to be better written
than any other communications to that paper. Several
other politicians were engaged as writers for the Censor,[41]
but they gained no proselytes to their cause; and, although
numbers of the first characters on the side of government
came forward with literary and pecuinary aid, yet the circulation
of the paper was confined to a few of their own
party. As the Censor languished, its printer made an
effort to convert it into a newspaper; and, with this view,
half sheet, containing a few articles of news and some
advertisements. But neither its writers nor its printer
could give it a general circulation, and it was discontinued
before the revolution of a year from its first publication.
Dr. Benjamin Church, a reputed whig, who when the Revolutionary
war commenced was appointed surgeon general of the American army,
but was soon after arrested and confined, being detected in a traitorous
correspondence with the British army in Boston, I have been informed
by a very respectable person, whom I have long known, was a writer for
the Censor. This person, then an apprentice to Russell, was employed to
convey, in a secret manner, the doctor's manuscripts to the press, and proof
sheets from the press to the doctor.
| MASSACHUSETTS. The history of printing in America, with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers ... | |