THE DEARTH OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE early public
printers of the
United States has been commented on often enough; and, were it not
for the pioneer listing of Greely,[1]
the historian and the bibliographer alike would be lost in the
morass of miscellaneous official and semi-official leaves and
pamphlets which poured from the American presses during the first
fourteen Congresses.
Since the following heretofore unpublished letters shed
considerable light on the printing practices of the first days of
the Republic, they are transcribed in full. They have not been
burdened with notes concerning the writers, since such information
is readily available in standard reference works.[2] They
comprise the earliest group of a
collection of letters in the Executive and Foreign Affairs section
of the National Archives, entitled "Laws of the United States and
Related Papers 1789-1923," and are contained in a portfolio of
letters to the Secretaries of State, concerning the printing of
laws, 1789-1822. In
addition to fourteen letters to Jefferson, eleven of which are from
printers, presented here are a letter from the printing
establishment of Childs and to Remsen, chief clerk at the State
Department for two years under Jefferson, and a document, signed by
Jefferson, to the Department of State, which confers his official
approval on an edition of the "Laws of the United States of
America," printed by Andrew Brown in Philadelphia, 1792. The
remaining three letters to Jefferson recommend printers; one, from
Jabez Bowen, recommends Bennett Wheeler; another, from William
Bingham, recommends Andrew Brown; and the third, from David Sewall,
recommends Benjamin Titcomb, Jr. One other unpublished Jefferson
letter from the Library of Congress collection is printed in a
footnote, because it supplements the correspondence with Benjamin
Russell.
This group is of special interest because of the information
contained therein concerning printing prices current, and the
indication, evinced by the letters of application and the letters
"recommendatory," that much competition was called forth by the
prestige accruing to those printers who were fortunate enough to
obtain the coveted privilege of printing the federal laws. David
Sewall's effort to get some political patronage for the State of
Maine is also worthy of note.
