University of Virginia Library

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

From the foregoing statement it appears that, from the
time when the first public journal was published in the
country, viz. in April, 1704, to April 1775, comprising a
period of seventy-one years, seventy-eight different newspapers
were printed in the British American continental
colonies; that during this period, thirty-nine, exactly one-half
of that number, had been, occasionally, discontinued;
and that thirty-nine continued to be issued from the several
establishments at the commencement of the revolution.
The papers published in the West Indies are not included
in this computation.

In the course of thirty-five years, newspaper establishments
were, as previously remarked, multiplied in a surprising
degree; insomuch, that the number of those printed
in the United States in June, 1810, amounted to upwards
of three hundred and sixty, as will appear by a list of them
in the appendix.

A large proportion of the public papers at that date
were established, and supported, by the two great contending
political parties, into which the people of these
states are usually divided; and whose numbers produce
nearly an equipollence; consequently, a great augmentation
of vehicles for carrying on the political warfare have
been found necessary.

I cannot conclude what I have written on the subject of
public journals, better than by extracting the following

pertinent observations on newspapers, from the Rev. Dr.
Miller's Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century.

"It is worthy of remark that newspapers have almost
entirely changed their form and character within the
period under review.[1] For a long time after they were
first adopted as a medium of communication to the public,
they were confined, in general, to the mere statement of
facts. But they have gradually assumed an office more
extensive, and risen to a more important station in society.
They have become the vehicles of discussion, in which the
principles of government, the interests of nations, the
spirit and tendency of public measures, and the public and
private characters of individuals, are all arraigned, tried,
and decided. Instead, therefore, of being considered now,
as they once were, of small moment in society, they have
become immense moral and political engines, closely connected
with the welfare of the state, and deeply involving
both its peace and prosperity.

"Newspapers have also become important in a literary
view. There are few of them, within the last twenty
years, which have not added to their political details some
curious and useful information, on the various subjects of
literature, science and art. They have thus become the
means of conveying, to every class in society, innumerable
scraps of knowledge, which have at once increased the
public intelligence, and extended the taste for perusing
periodical publications. The advertisements, moreover,
which they daily contain, respecting new books, projects,
inventions, discoveries and improvements, are well calculated
to enlarge and enlighten the public mind, and are
worthy of being enumerated among the many methods of
awakening and maintaining the popular attention, with

which more modern times, beyond all preceding example,
abound.

"In ancient times, to sow the seeds of civil discord, or
to produce a spirit of union and co-operation through an
extensive community, required time, patience, and a constant
series of exertions. The art of printing being unknown,
and many of the modern methods of communicating
intelligence to distant places not having come into
use, the difficulty of conducting public affairs must have
been great and embarrassing. The general circulation of
Gazettes forms an important era, not only in the moral and
literary, but also in the political world. By means of this
powerful instrument, impressions on the public mind may
be made with a celerity, and to an extent, of which our
remote ancestors had no conception, and which cannot but
give rise to the most important consequences in society.
Never was there given to man a political engine of greater
power; and never, assuredly, did this engine before operate
upon so large a scale as in the eighteenth century.

"Our own country in particular, and especially for the
last twelve or fifteen years, has exhibited a spectacle never
before displayed among men, and even yet without a parallel
on earth. It is the spectacle, not of the learned and
the wealthy only, but of the great body of the people;
even a large portion of that class of the community which
is destined to daily labor, having free and constant access
to public prints, receiving regular information of every
occurrence, attending to the course of political affairs, discussing
public measures, and having thus presented to
them constant excitements to the acquisition of knowledge,
and continual means of obtaining it. Never, it may be
safely asserted, was the number of political journals so
great in proportion to the population of a country as at
present in ours. Never were they, all things considered,
so cheap, so universally diffused, and so easy of access."

And never were they actually perused by so large a
majority of all classes since the art of printing was discovered.[2]

"The general effect of this unprecedented multiplication
and diffusion of public prints, forms a subject of most
interesting and complex calculation. On the one hand,
when well conducted, they have a tendency to disseminate
useful information; to keep the public mind awake and
active; to confirm and extend the love of freedom; to
correct the mistakes of the ignorant, and the impositions
of the crafty; to tear off the mask from corrupt and designing
politicians; and, finally, to promote union of spirit
and of action among the most distant members of an extended
community. But to pursue a path calculated to
produce these effects, the conductors of public prints ought
to be men of talents, learning, and virtue. Under the
guidance of such characters, every Gazette would be a
source of moral and political instruction, and, of course, a
public blessing.

"On the other hand, when an instrument so potent is
committed to the weak, the ignorant, and the vicious, the
most baneful consequences must be anticipated. When
men of small talents, of little information, and of less
virtue, undertake to be (as the editors of public gazettes,
however contemptible their character may, in a degree, be
considered) the directors of public opinion, what must be
the result? We may expect to see the frivolities of weakness,
the errors and malignity of prejudice, the misrepresentations
of party zeal, the most corrupt doctrines in
politics and morals, the lacerations of private character,

and the poluting language of obscenity and impiety, daily
issuing from the press, poisoning the principles, and disturbing
the repose of society; giving to the natural and
salutary collisions of parties the most brutal violence and
ferocity; and, at length, consuming the best feelings and
noblest charities of life, in the flame of civil discord.

"In the former part of the eighteenth century, talents
and learning, at least, if not virtue, were thought necessary
in the conductors of political journals.[3] Few ventured to
intrude into this arduous office, but those who had some
claims to literature. Towards the close of the century,
however, persons of less character, and of humbler qualifications,
began, without scruple, to undertake the high task
of enlightening the public mind. This remark applies, in
some degree, to Europe; but it applies with particular
force to our own country, where every judicious observer
must perceive, that too many of our gazettes are in the
hands of persons destitute at once of the urbanity of gentlemen,
the information of scholars, and the principles of
virtue. To this source, rather than to any peculiar depravity
of national character, we may ascribe the faults of

American newspapers, which have been pronounced by
travellers the most profligate and scurrilous public prints
in the civilized world.[4]

"If the foregoing remarks be just, then the friend of
rational freedom, and of social happiness, cannot but contemplate
with the utmost solicitude, the future influence
of political journals on the welfare of society. As they
form one of the great safeguards of free government, so
they also form one of its most threatening assailants. And
unless public opinion (the best remedy that can be applied)
should administer an adequate correction of the growing
evil, we may anticipate the arrival of that crisis in which
we must yield either to an abridgment of the liberty of the
press, or to a disruption of every social bond."[5]