with the New England Weekly Journal. The Gazette, when owned. by Brooker, was printed by James Franklin. When it passed into the hands of Philip Musgrave, the printing was taken away from Franklin and given to Samuel Kneeland, who afterwards owned the establishment.

On the appearance of the Gazette the proprietor of the NewsLetter once more addressed his patrons, stating comprehensively enough that he had published his "Publick Letter of Intellegence" for nearly sixteen years with "Universal Approbation" and "for the Interest and advantage of the Post Office, Gentlemen, Merchants, and others, both in town and country; and preventing a great many false Reports."

The day after the issue of the first number of the Gazette the third newspaper in the colonies was established in Philadelphia. Its title was the American Weekly Mercury, and its birthday was the 22d of December, 1719. This paper was "Printed and sold by Andrew Bradford, at the Bible, in the Second Street, and John Copson, in the High Street, 1719-20." Bradford was the Postmaster of Philadelphia. He was a son of William Bradford, who opened the first printing-office in the colonies outside of New England. The Mercury, like the News-Letter, had soon to compete with a Franklin. It had also its troubles with the authorities. On the 2d of January, 1721, the following paragraph appeared in the Mercury:

Our General Assembly are now sitting, and we have great expectations from them, at this juncture, that they will find some effectual remedy to revive the dying credit of this Province, and restore us to our former happy circumstances.

Stat

Apparently this was a harmless paragraph. Moderation was the tone of these few lines; but on the 21st of February the editor and publisher was summoned before the Provincial Council. ing that the paragraph was written and inserted by a journeyman without his knowledge, and regretting its publication, he was discharged with a reprimand, and a warning never to publish any thing more relative to the affairs of any of the colonies. Afterward he had to pass through a severer ordeal. Benjamin Franklin had written a series of essays, over the signature of Busy Body, for the Mercury, and in one of them, near an annual election, the following remarks were made:

To the friends of liberty, firmness of mind and public spirit are absolutely requisite; and this quality, so essential and necessary to a noble mind, proceeds from a just way of thinking that we are not born for ourselves alone, nor our own private advantages alone, but likewise and principally for the good of others and service of civil society. This raised the genius of the Romans, improved their virtue, and made them protectors of mankind. This principle, according to the motto of these papers, animated the Romans-Cato and his followers-and it was impossible to be thought great or good without being a patriot; and none

The First Newspaper in Philadelphia.

61

could pretend to courage, gallantry, and greatness of mind, without being first of all possessed with a public spirit and love of their country.

This simple matter produced such an effect on the Governor and Council that they ordered Bradford to be arrested, committed to prison, and bound over to the court. But Bradford showed some pluck on this occasion, and the matter ended there. It is probable that Franklin infused some of the boldness manifested in the Mer- | cury at this time.

There was one feature in the Mercury that characterizes few of the enterprising papers of the modern school. On the 17th of October, 1734, the particulars of the battle of Phillipsburg were given with diagrams, such as those published in the Tribune, and Times, and Herald of Bull Run and Gettysburg.

Andrew Bradford died on the 24th of November, 1742. The Mercury was suspended a week after his death, and its columnrules, on its reappearance, were inverted for six weeks. His widow conducted the paper after her husband's decease.

But the era of journalism, with a character a little above that of merely publishing the news of the week with an occasional sensation, now commenced. On the 7th of August, 1721, the Franklins dawned upon the world and became famous. On that day James Franklin, having lost the printing of the Gazette, issued a paper which he called the New England Courant. It was the fourth newspaper on this continent. The appearance of the Courant was the saddest blow John Campbell received. It brought out a few sparks of originality and vitality, and then the father of the American Press abdicated, and subsided into a Justice of the Peace. But Campbell had a few last words before he surrendered the News-Letter to Bartholomew Green.

On the issue of the Courant, it was evident Franklin intended to

make it a readable paper. Speaking of the News-Letter in his first number, he asserted that it was "a dull vehicle of intelligence." This was considered so severe by Campbell that it completely aroused the old editor, and a broadside, in answer, in Latin and English, appeared in the News-Letter on the 14th of August, 1721:

On Monday last the 7th Currant, came forth a Third Newspaper in this Town, Entitled, The New England Courant, by Homo non unius Negotii; Or Jack of all Trades, and it would seem, Good at none; giving some very, very frothy fulsome Account of himself, but lest the continuance of that style should offend his readers; wherein with submission (I speak for the Publisher of this Intelligence, whose endeavours has always been to give no offence, not meddling with things out of his Province.) The said Jack promises in pretence of Friendship to the other News Publishers to amend like soure Ale in Summer, Reflecting too, too much that my performances are now and then, very, very dull, Misrepresenting my candid endeavors (according to the Talent of my Capacity and Education; not soaring above my Sphere) in giving a true and genuine account of all Matters of Fact, both Foreign and Domestick, as comes any way well Attested, for these

Seventeen Years and an half past. It is often observed, a bright Morning is succeeded by a dark Rainy Day, and so much Mercury in the beginning may end in Album Græcum. And seeing our New Gentleman seems to be a Scholar of Academical Learning, (which I pretend not to, the more my unhappiness; and too late to say, O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter Annos) and better qualified to perform a work of this Nature, for want whereof out of a Design for publick good made me at first at the Sollicitation of several Gentlemen, Merchants, and Others, come into it, according to the Proverb, thinking that half a Loaf was better than no Bread; often wishing and desiring in Print that such a one would undertake it, and then no one should sooner come into it and pay more Yearly to carry it on than the Publisher, and none appearing then, nor since, (others being judges) to excell him in their performances, made him to continue. And our New Publisher being a Scholler and Master, he should (me thinks) have given us (whom he terms low, flat and dull) Admonition and told one and the other wherein our Dulness lay, (that we might be better Proficients for the future, Whither in reading, hearing, or pains taking, to write, gather, collect and insert the Public Occurrences) before publick Censure, and a good example to copy and write after, and not tell us and the World at his first setting out, that he'll be like us in doing as we have done. Turpe est Doctori cum culpa nedarguit ipsum. And now all my Latin being spent excepting what I design always to remember Nemo sine crimine vivit, I promise for my part so soon as he or any Scholler will Undertake my hitherto Task, and Endeavours, giving proof that he will not be very, very Dull, I shall not only desist for his Advantage, but also so far as capable Assist such a good Scribe.

Very few of the Courant are in existence: none of those containing Franklin's articles on the News-Letter. But it is believed that Franklin had the best of the controversy. We can obtain the spirit of his reply to Campbell's first article from the rejoinder which appeared in the News-Letter on the 28th of August:

J. C. to Jack Dullman sendeth Greeting.

Sir, What you call a Satyrical Advertisement was a just Vindication of my News-Letter, from some unfair Reflections, in your Introduction to your first Courant; Your reply in hobling Verse, had they more Reason and less Railing might possibly have inclined me to think you was some Man of great Learning, or as you please to Word it, a Meikle Man; but Railery is the talent of a mean Spirit, and not to be returned by me. In honour to the Muses I dare not acknowledge your Poem to be from Parnassus; but as a little before the Composure you had been Rakeing in the Dunghill, its more probable the corrupt Steams got into your Brains, and your Dullcold Skul precipitate them into Ribaldry. I observe you are not always the same, your History of Inoculation intends the Publick Good, but your Letter to Mr. Compton and Rhyme to me smell more of the Ale Tub than the Lamp. I do not envy your skill in Anatomy, and your accurate discovery of the Gall Bladder, nor your Geography of the Dunghill (natale solum.) You say your Ale grows better, but have a care you do not Bottle it too New, Lest the Bottles fly and wet your Toyes. You say you are the Wiseman, and his Advice is, Prov. xxvi. Ver. 4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto him. And not very disagreeable to what I learned when a School Boy.

Contra verbosos, noli contendere verbis.
Against a man of wind spend not thy Breath.

Therefore I conclude with Verbum Sapienti,

Tutius est, igitur fictis contendere verbis,
Quam pugnare manu.

Vale.

Since like the Indian Natives, you Delight,
to Murder in the Dark, eshun and fly the light,

Farewel.

The "war of the papers" did not have its origin on this continent. Although it has been more violent here than in any other

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63

country, leading to duels and street-fights. It began in England as far back as 1642. Previously, the wits of the theatres and coffeehouses made butts of the newspapers. The war was the first sign of intellectual vitality in the Press. It was a conflict of brains. Those editors who accuse others of being villains, liars, forgers, blasphemers in our day, are not originals. Such epithets were applied to the Mercurius Aulicus and Mercurius Aquaticus by the Mercurius Britannicus in 1642, when the editor of the latter said, "I have discovered the lies, forgeries, insolencies, impieties, prophanities, blasphemies of the two sheets." Our modern pen-warriors use no stronger expressions. They are a little more sententiously thrown at each other. They use one epithet at a time. That is all the difference. There is more force and point in the modern mode. When a political friend of Governor Marcy told him of his mistake in the expression of "To the victors belong the spoil," in the heated campaign of Jackson's time, he replied that all politicians held the same opinion. "Yes, yes," said his friend, "but they are not so silly as to put it in half a dozen words that every body can remember." When Horace Greeley applied to William Cullen Bryant or John Bigelow the epithet "You lie, villain, you know you lie," he merely condensed the expression of the Mercurius Britannicus of 1642. Such a warfare was not an evil. It was needed two centuries ago. It vitalized the press. Abuse, like every thing else, can be overdone. It will correct itself. All difference of opinion is healthy. All elements need disturbance. If a newspaper goes too far in its criticisms, it suffers. Other newspapers do not. All trades and professions differ in views and in opinion of each other. There is no more esprit du corps among clergymen, lawyers, physicians, or merchants, than among editors. Journalists parade their jealousies and differences on the public clothes-line, where every body can see them. They wash their "dirty linen" before the people, and in the most exposed places. Other professions simply use their own premises for this purpose.

After a few weeks the contest between the Courant and Campbell ended, and the News-Letter passed into the hands of Bartholomew Green, in accordance with the subjoined announcement, which was published on the 31st of December, 1721:

These are to give Notice, That Mr. Campbell, Designing not to Publish any more News-Letters, after this Monday the 31st Currant, Bartholomew Green the Printer thereof for these 18 Years past, having had Experience of his Practice therein; intends (Life permitted) to carry on the same, (using his Method on the Arrival of Vessels from Great Britain, &c., to give a Summary of the most Remarkable Occurrences of Europe, and afterwards the Thread of the News,) provided he can have due Encouragement by competent Numbers taking it by the Year, so as to enable him to defray the necessary Charges. And all those who have a Mind (either in Town or Country) to Promote and Encourage the Con

tinuation of the abovesaid Intelligence, are hereby desired to Agree with the said Green, either by Word or Writing; who may have it on reasonable Terms, left at any House in Town, Sealed or Unsealed.

The last, on earth, of John Campbell is thus modestly announced in the News-Letter of March 7, 1728:

On Monday last, the 4th inst, died here, at the age of seventy five years, John Campbell, Esquire, formerly director of the post in this town, many years editor of the Boston News-Letter, and one of her Majesty's justice of the peace for the County of Suffolk.

There was no other obituary notice. None of the column-rules of the paper were turned. None of the "sticks" of the compositors were reversed. It was not deemed even necessary to say that he was the proprietor or founder of the first regular newspaper on this continent. He was simply editor "for many years." So passed away the glory of John Campbell.

When Green assumed the management of the News-Letter, he designed giving it a semi-religious character. On the 21st of January, 1723, he issued the following as

An Advertisement from the Publisher.

It being my Desire to make this as profitable and entertaining to the good people of this country as I can, I propose to give not only the most material articles of intelligence, both foreign and domestic, which concern the political state of the world; but also because this is a country, that has yet, through the mercy of God, many people in it, that have the State of religion in the world very much at heart, and would be glad, if they knew how to order their prayers and praises to the Great God thereupon, I shall endeavour, now and then, to insert an article upon the state of religion. I shall, therefore, from time to time, wait upon such as I may know to cultivate a correspondence with the most eminent persons in several nations, who may please to communicate to me, and thereby to the public, such things as all good men cannot but receive with satisfaction.

In 1733 Bartholomew Green died, and the paper passed into the hands of his son-in-law, John Draper, who continued to maintain the semi-religious character of its columns.

One of the News-Letters of 1757, now before us, that of October 20th, then issued by John Draper, published on a half sheet, with naval news, and the following advertisement printed on the margin:

Any gentlewoman and others that want Stays made or mended after the best and neatest Manner in their Houses, may have them done Cheap for the sake of ready Money by John Banks; or he will take Stays to mend or make at his House opposite Deacon Barrett's Shop near the Mill Bridge.

There were the is the inimitable

It was then the custom for men to make stays. inimitable Banks and Slaughters then as there Worth that governs the fashionable world now. Moses Slaughter advertised in the New York Gazette, October 3, 1737, to the same effect. His advertisement will be interesting to the modistes of the present day. Slaughter, as he lodged with the publisher of the Gazette, ought to have furnished him with a regular article on the fash