History of American Journalism/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
1765—1783
The Revolutionary Period really began on March 22, 1765, when on that date the British Parliament passed its obnoxious Stamp Act to take effect on November 1 of that year. By this act, newspapers published in the colonies were scheduled to pay a halfpenny tax for one half-sheet or less and a one-penny tax for anything over one half -sheet, but not exceeding one whole sheet "for every printed copy thereof." Any advertisement inserted in their columns must, according to the terms of the act, pay a duty of two shillings. The newspaper taxes imposed by the Provincial Legislatures had been paid without a great deal of protest, but colonial printers fought this act, not only because they were opposed to taxation without representation, but also because they feared that subscribers and advertisers would not be willing to pay the increased cost of production. In self-defense the newspapers, even those still loyal to the Crown, united in a spirit of cooperation against the act: legislators were advised to "take good care of the freedom of the press," and the columns of the newspapers reproduced lively discussions on "the rights of the people" in the matter of taxation. Distinguished patriots, acting as occasional contributors to the press, changed editorial policies from static to dynamic influences.
NEWSPAPER VS. STAMP ACT OF 1765
MORTUARY ISSUE OF BRADFORD'S PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL ON OCCASION OF THE STAMP ACT
(Reduced)
Other newspapers took just as decided a stand against the act. Hugh Gaine printed in his New-York Weekly Mercury on October 28, 1765, a notice that his paper "must now cease for a Time and the Period of its Resurrection is uncertain," but that "when it is revived the Printer hopes for a Continuation of the Favour of his Friends." He made—as did many other printers who issued a similar announcement—an appeal to patrons to pay what was due on subscriptions. A little later a New York mob compelled the surrender of all stamped paper in that city, and thus Gaine, when he printed a news-sheet on November 4, with "No Stamped Paper To Be Had" as its title, literally told the truth. All papers which adopted some subterfuge in the matter of headings resumed their old titles after the first few weeks of the Stamp Act.
A most diligent and careful search has not revealed among the thirteen original colonies a single newspaper which appeared on stamped paper. The stamp, however, was used by two or three papers elsewhere. A copy of The Halifax Gazette for February 13, 1766, for example, has on the upper left-hand corner of the fourth page the red halfpenny stamp with the word "America" also in red above it. The Boston News-Letter, in its issue for December 26, 1765, printed an item from Philadelphia in which a mention was made of the arrival in that city from Barbados of a "Stamped News-Paper of 2d. of November," and an announcement was given that the newspaper was "exposed to Public View at the Coffee-House." The paper was later suspended from an iron chain and burned.
REPEAL OF STAMP ACT
When the news reached Boston on Friday, May 16, 1766, that the British Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act on March 18, the papers of that city united and published an "extra" of the fact with the head, "Glorious News." To quote its conclusion: "Printed for the Benefit of the PUBLIC by Drapers, Edes & Gill, Green & Russell, and Fleets. The Customers to the Boston Papers may have the above gratis at the respective Offices." In the same spirit at least, the newspapers in other colonies published the "Glorious News."
SNAKE CARTOON AGAIN
At the time the British Stamp Act was attracting so much attention in the press, there appeared on September 21, 1765, The Constitutional Courant. The name of its editor was not given and the place of its publication was not mentioned. While there was only one issue, there were at least three different editions, which seems to indicate that there was simultaneous or nearly so publication in different cities. The paper was devoted principally to an attack on the Stamp Act, and two of the editions reprinted the snake cartoon which Franklin had inserted in The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. The sale of The Constitutional Courant was unusually large. It was hawked on the streets of New York by newsboys and was distributed along all the postroads by colonial riders. The Boston Evening Post, in
publishing an account about The Courant, had the snake cartoon, already mentioned, reproduced in its columns on October 7, 1765.
The snake cartoon was reproduced a second time during this period. In 1774 John Holt, fighting editor, dragged it out of its newspaper hole and put it into the title of his paper, The New-York Journal or General Advertiser. The snake now had nine parts – Georgia had entered the combination. A slight change was made in the caption so that it read, "Unite or Die." Toward the close of the year, Holt's snake shed its skin and appeared coiled and united. On it were printed the following words:–
UNITED NOW FREE AND ALIVE FIRM ON THIS BASIS LIBERTY SHALL STAND AND THUS SUPPORTED EVER BLESS OUR LAND TILL TIME BECOMES ETERNITY.
Holt kept the united snake in the title of his paper until he was compelled to flee from New York on August 29, 1776, on account of the occupation of the city by the British.
The cartoon snake in its largest form stretched itself out on July 7, 1774, in The Massachusetts Spy, a paper published in Boston by Isaiah Thomas. It appeared directly under the title and occupied practically the entire width of the newspaper. However, a little space at the extreme right was saved in which appeared a dragon, representing Great Britain. Thomas asserted in his "History of Printing" that the snake cartoon appeared in each succeeding issue so long as The Spy was printed in Boston. The snake finally reached Philadelphia again, but for some unaccountable reason, instead of creeping back into its old hole, The Pennsylvania Gazette, it sunned itself in the title of The Pennsylvania Journal, a rival paper published by William Bradford. Its first appearance in The Journal was on July 27, 1774; its last was on October 18, 1775.
PET OF PATRIOTS
The Boston Gazette, the third paper of that name in Boston, and established April 7, 1755, by Edes and Gill, was the especial "pet of the patriots." In its pages were fought the New England editorial battles for American freedom: its contributors
numbered such patriots as Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren,
John Adams, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Cooper, etc. The paper
was a good reporter of such important events as the Stamp Act,
the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, etc.
The account of the Tea Party, from The Boston Gazette, is reproduced to show the improvement in the handling of news since the days of the Colonial Period :
On Tuesday last the body of the people of this and all the adjacent towns, and others from the distance of twenty miles, assembled at the Old South Meeting-house, to inquire the reason of the delay in send- ing the ship Dartmouth, with the East-India Tea, back to London; and having found that the owner had not taken the necessary steps for that purpose, they enjoined him at his peril to demand of the collec- tor of the customs a clearance of the ship, and appointed a committee of ten to see it performed: after which they adjourned to the Thursday following, ten o'clock. They then met, and being informed by Mr. Rotch, that a clearance was refused him, they enjoined him imme- diately to enter a protest and apply to the Governor for a passport by the castle, and adjourned again till three o'clock for the same day. At which time they again met, and after waiting till near sunset, Mr. Rotch came in and informed them that he had accordingly entered his pro- test and waited on the Governor for a pass, but his excellency told him he could not consistent with his duty grant it until his vessel was quali- fied. The people finding all their efforts to preserve the property of the East-India Company and return it safely to London frustrated by the tea consignees, the collector of the customs, and the Governor of the Province, DISSOLVED their meeting. But, BEHOLD what fol- lowed! A number of brave and resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than four hours, emptied every chest of tea overboard, the three ships commanded by Captains Hull, Bruce, and Coffin, amounting to 342 chests, into the Sea!! without the least damage done to the ships or any other property. The masters and owners are well pleased that their ships are thus cleared; and the people are almost universally congratulating each other on this happy event.
REVERE, ENGRAVER OF CUTS
When the four victims of the Boston Massacre of 1770 were buried, The Boston Gazette, in its issue for March 12, 1770, illus- trated its account of the event with cuts of four coffins. Evi- dently there must have been some one else who was expected
to die, for Paul Revere, the leading Boston engraver, but better 
A BROADSIDE OF EDES
A Revolutionary "Extra" of The Boston Gazette
(Reduced)
known for his midnight ride, rendered a bill to The Boston Gazette for engraving "5 coffings for a massacre." The coffins, with their skulls and crossbones, did much to arouse the Sons of Liberty to action.
GAINE AND HIS PAPERS
In all probability Hugh Gaine was the first newspaper pub- lisher to employ newsboys to deliver papers. The Mercury for September 14, 1761, contained an advertisement for a nice boy to deliver papers to city patrons; "he will not be employed for more than two Hours every Monday Morning." The Mercury again asked on August 24, 1772, for "a clever honest Fellow to carry The New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury to Part of the Customers in the City, four Hours every Monday will do the business."
After New York had been abandoned by the Continental army, there were two editions for a short time of Hugh Game's New-York Gazette. One edition was brought out in New York City, another was brought out in Newark, in East New Jersey. The New York edition favored the Tory cause, and the Newark edition, that of the Whigs. In the past the assertion has been made that Gaine brought out both of these editions and was simply watching to see which side would probably be success- ful before he cast his lot. Such, however, was not the case. After the battle of Brooklyn, Gaine removed part of his presses and type to Newark. Here, on September 21, 1776, he brought out Number 1301 of his Gazette. This and the following issues spoke of "the Honourable Continental Congress," and the issue of Number 1306 showed that he enjoyed the confidence of Gov- ernor Livingston of New Jersey. What happened in New York was this : General Howe, upon his arrival found that there was no newspaper in the city and appointed Ambrose Serle, a Royal- ist, to bring out a paper. Serle promptly appropriated the type and presses which had been left at "The Bible and Crown" and brought out on September 30, Number 1301 of The New York Gazette with Game's imprint upon it. With the next issue, how- ever, Number 1302, Searle changed the imprint. Gaine, how- ever, did have a change of faith and returned to New York and
resumed charge of his old New-York Gazette with the issue of
November 11, Number 1307. How Gaine made his peace with
the British authorities was never told. He did, however, re-
main loyal to the Crown until the end of the war. For this
change to the Royalist cause, Philip Freneau the poet of the
Revolution, hurled a scorching poem at Gaine. But Gaine was
never trusted by the Royalists, for they appointed James Riv-
ington "Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty," and
made Rivington's New-York Loyal Gazette, started after the office
of The Gazetteer had been wrecked, the official paper. They even
prevented Gaine from printing in his sheet the more important
items of news. After the evacuation of New York, by the
British, Gaine suspended his Gazette on November 10, 1783,
crossed out the word "Crown" in his imprint, "Bible and
Crown," and confined himself principally to the printing and
selling of books.
EXTRAMURAL PUBLICATIONS
During the War of the Revolution, whenever the British suc- ceeded in occupying a strategic city there was nothing left for the patriotic printer to do but to suspend publication or take his newspaper elsewhere. John Holt, the publisher of The New York Journal, for example, was forced to remove his paper to King- ston when New York fell into the hands of the British. His first issue of The Journal, with the Kingston date-line was July 7, 1777. In making its bow to Kingston, The Journal said:
After remaining, for ten months past, overwhelmed and sunk, in a sea of tyrannic violence and rapine, The New York Journal, just emerg- ing from the waves, faintly rears its languid head, to hail its former friends and supporters, to assure them that unchanged in its spirit and prin- ciples, the utmost exertions of its influence, as heretofore, will ever be applied, vith a sacred regard to the defence and support of American rights and freedom, the advancement of true religion and virtue and the happiness of mankind.
Holt found it necessary to make another change. After he had brought <-ut an issue on October 13, 1777, Kingston was burned by the British three days later, and he removed to Poughkeep- sie where he revived his Journal with the date-line on May 11,
1778. He discontinued publication in Poughkeepsie on Janu- ary 6, 1782, and returned the latter part of 1783 to New York, where he again brought out his paper on November 22 of that year. Other publishers of the period were forced to make simi- lar arrangements. Edes took his Gazette from Boston to Water- town; Thomas, his Massachusetts Spy from Boston to Worces- ter; Loudon, his New-York Packet to Fishkill; South wick, his Newport Mercury to Attlebury; Dunlap, his Pennsylvania Packet from Philadelphia to Lancaster, etc.
NEWSPAPER OFFICE MOBBED
The Royalist papers, published under the protection and the encouragement of the British authorities, continued to issue their numbers, but they experienced difficulties and hardships almost equal to those of the patriotic papers, for local citizens, sympathizing as they did with the cause of national independ- ence, positively refused to support journals with Tory editorial policies. But of these Tory sheets, possibly the most hated as well as the most feared was Rivington's New-York Gazetteer; or the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson's River and Quebec Weekly Advertiser, which James Rivington, once a member of a famous English publishing house of his name, established in New York April 22, 1773. So bitter became the feeling against this news- paper that its shop was twice mobbed during 1777. The second time a thorough job was done; a group of armed men on No- vember 27 rode into New York, broke into the building, de- stroyed the press, and carried away the type, which was later melted into bullets for the use of the "Rebels," as Rivington called the Whigs. But Rivington, securing from England new press and type, brought out The New-York Loyal Gazette, which became, as has already been asserted, the official organ of the British in New York.
AID FROM ARMY
Because the New York newspapers were supervised by the British authorities, New Jersey as a "war measure" promoted the establishment of The New-Jersey Journal at Chatham. The Revolutionary forces under Washington at Morristown, five
miles away, helped its publisher, Shepard Kollock, with "Nine
Hundred Wt of old Tent Unfitt for service," and later with
"Eight Hundred Three Quarters & Twelve pound old Tent
Cloath," and still later, "Two Bundles Old Tent Rags w* Two
Hundred One Quarter," also "One Other Bagg w* Two Hun-
dred One Quarter old tent Rags"; these rags and old tents were
for the manufacture of paper which Kollock so sadly needed.
In addition, the army out of its scanty stores actually furnished
a very large amount of white paper in order that the soldiers
might have a newspaper which told of the progress of struggles
in other colonies.
PHILADELPHIA PAPEKS
During the last few years of the American Revolution, the most important newspaper in Philadelphia was The Freeman's Journal; or The North- American Intelligencer. It first appeared on April 25, 1781, and was edited and printed by Francis Bailey. Its policy was thus announced editorially: " To encourage genius, to deter vice, and disrobe tyranny and misrule of every plu- mage." Its most distinct service, however, was in reporting the progress of the war. In its issue for October 24, 1781, it announced the surrender of General Charles Earl Cornwallis in lines which reached clear across the page. In addition to its patriotic news was its satire. Philip Freneau, who later achieved prominence through his editorship of The National Gazette, con- tributed to The Freeman 's Journal numerous bits of satirical verse. Another paper in Philadelphia started during the War was The Pennsylvania Evening Post, established January 24, 1775, by Benjamin Towne. During the early part of the War the paper was very friendly to the American cause, but later changed its editorial policy when the British occupied Phila- delphia. After the evacuation of that city The Evening Post again announced its devotion to the Whig principles, but was forced to suspend for want of popular support, due to its policy while the British were in the city. The Pennsylvania Journal, established December 2, 1742, as The Weekly Advertiser, or The Pennsylvania Journal, by William Bradford, was in many respects, and these the most essential, more independent in
tone than The Pennsylvania Gazette and was much the better newspaper during the Revolutionary Period.
When the British occupied Philadelphia a local printer took his printing-press and went to Egg-Harbour where he published The Minute Intelligencer. Evidently the Tory press was not the only one which published sensational news, as the following item quoted from The Minute Intelligencer will show :
It is said the English Ministry, having no hopes of subduing America by force of arms, whilst the inhabitants retain their native virtue, have instructed the officers in their army to try a more certain method of success; by debauching the morals of the men, and seducing the virtue of the women. For this purpose play-houses are opened, gaming-tables established, and balls promoted, in a city languishing under a scarcity of the necessities of life.
In striking contrast to The Minute Intelligencer was The Pennsylvania Ledger, or The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser, Heaven save the name, started in Philadelphia on January 28, 1775, by James Hum- phreys. He was extremely loyal to the Crown, and because of his somewhat rabid tendencies he was forced to suspend publi- cation in November, 1776. When the British, however, took possession of the city, Humphreys seized the opportunity to resume publication of his sheet which he as promptly discon- tinued when they left.
SOUTHEEN SHEETS
While the British were in control of Charleston, several print- ers in the army conducted a newspaper called The Royal South Carolina Gazette, printed by Roberts, MacDonald, and Cameron. Revolutionary forces in South Carolina also had an army print- ing-press and issued many " near-newspapers" telling of the activities of Green's army. The Royal Gazette always referred to them as The Rebel Gazette. But when the British evacuated Charleston, December 14, 1782, there was no newspaper left to tell the news of the place. This condition did not obtain long, for on February 15, 1783, Nathan Childs brought out The South Carolina Weekly Gazette; on January 18, 1786, the paper ap- peared as a daily under the name, The Charleston Morning Post
and Daily Advertiser later changed to The City Gazette, or
Daily Advertiser. Associated in the publication of this paper
was Peter Freneau, a brother of Philip Freneau who was the
poet of the Revolution and later the editor of The National
Gazette.
A SCOOP
On September 3, 1783, The Gazette of Providence, Rhode Island, printed one of the great scoops of the period when it announced: "By the brig Don Golvez, Capt. Silas Jones, ar- rived in the river from London, we have received a copy of the long looked-for Definitive Treaty, which we embrace the earliest occasion of handing to the public."
EDITOEIAL CHANGES
If editorial expression before the Revolutionary Period was feeble and timid, as has been so often asserted, it was not because the colonial editors were weaklings or cowards, but because they knew that the publication of any criticism of the Government meant the suppression of their papers on account of the censorship. After the Stamp Act the newspapers became more critical and debates became more numerous. When the printer found, as he did in the case of the Stamp Act, that he could now violate the censorship with impunity, he became braver and more critical in his editorial expression, and en- joyed for the first time a freedom which rapidly changed the character of the American press.
HANDLING OF NEWS
In spite of the fact that daily newspapers did not make their appearance until after the Republic had been established, the newspapers showed unusual enterprise in printing the news of the more important battles. Instead of waiting to insert such accounts in regular issues, they printed handbills which were hawked on the streets and carried by the post-riders much the same as extra editions are to-day. These handbills, of which possibly The Boston Gazette issued the largest number, did not hesitate to employ large type whenever the Americans were vie-
torious. When Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, pro-
vision must have been made for the prompt dispatch of the
news because many of the handbills contained the expression,
"by special express." Benjamin Towne, even after he had sus-
pended publication of The Pennsylvania Evening Post, occa-
sionally printed handbills under the head, "All the News for
Two Coppers." These he sold on the streets of Philadelphia. In
spite of the stereotyped words, " Important Intelligence," many
of these handbills gave the gist of the news in large headlines
across the page.
ADVERTISING OF PERIOD
During the early part of the Revolutionary Period, editors not only increased the stock of patent medicines carried on their shelves, but did a more extensive business in the selling of slaves. The following advertisement from Hugh Game's Weekly Mer- cury for January 25, 1768, is typical:
To be sold an excellent negro Wench about twenty years old, with a male Child about three months old; the Wench has had the Small- pox, can cook, wash and iron, can be well recommended, and is sold for no other fault than being too fruitful. Enquire of H. Gaine.
This advertisement was followed by another also offering a slave for sale, but in this case one should " enquire of the printer" Hugh Gaine. Strange as it may seem, the editorial trade in slaves was possibly the largest in Boston. Many of the adver- tisements of runaway slaves differed slightly from those of the Colonial Period in that personal descriptions included such items as "an iron collar around his neck," "manacles on his wrists," "three scars on his back where he was burned for run- ning away two years ago," etc. The interpretation of such items belongs to another history than that of journalism.
Many of the papers fairly bristled with advertisements like the following: " I intend to leave this Colony immediately. Pay- ment of all debts to me should be made at once. (Signed
)" A collection of these advertisements would make a
fairly good index of the leading Tories who fled to foreign coun- tries to avoid the disorders of the Revolution.
Toward the close of the period, advertisements of lotteries
occupied much space in the newspapers. In most cases these
lotteries were conducted not for personal gain, but for village
and city improvement. Especially interesting to-day are those
advertisements which announced lotteries for the benefit of
churches and colleges. If these advertisements were truthful,
and there is no reason to suppose they were otherwise, lot-
teries equipped the libraries of our higher institutions of learn-
ing, remodeled houses of worship, put bells in the steeples of
churches, repaired roads, erected bridges over rivers, and did many
other things for which communities to-day are commonly taxed.
An advertisement in The Virginia Gazette showed that a local church had gone into the wholesale tobacco business and was evidently trying to market through the columns of the press the nicotia leaves turned in by parishioners in payment for subscrip- tions to the rector's salary.
Benjamin Franklin has already been mentioned as an able writer of advertisements. An excellent example of his work will be found in an advertisement which he wrote for George Wash- ington, inserted in the first number of The Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser, which William Goddard brought out on Friday, August 20, 1773. Most vividly did Franklin tell how Washington, "having obtained patents for upwards of twenty thousand acres of land on the Ohio and Great Kanhawa Rivers," was going to lease sections upon moderate terms a number of years rent free provided settlers cleared, fenced, tilled, laid down good grass for meadow, and set out at least fifty good fruit trees. Franklin did not hesitate to add for Washington this con- cluding bit of comment :
And it may not be amiss further to observe, that if the scheme for establishing a new government on the Ohio, in the manner talked of, should ever be affected, these must be among the most valuable lands in it, not only on account of the goodness of soil, and the other advan- tages above enumerated, but from their contiguity to the seat of gov- ernment, which more than probable will be fixed at the mouth of the Great Kanhawa.
This advertisement, it may be remarked incidentally, was ex- ceedingly profitable to Washington.
PHINTING-PRESSES OF PERIOD
Newspapers continued to be printed on the ordinary flat-bed hand-press. The size of the editions of some papers had become so large that the man who pulled the levers complained of back- aches. To overcome this difficulty, inventors had already started to find some way out of the difficulty. Before the close of the period, Benjamin Dearborn, publisher of The New Hamp- shire Gazette, had invented a wheel press which would print the whole side of a sheet at one pull of the lever. No great mechani- cal improvement in the printing-press was made, however, until the beginning of the next century when a revolving cylinder was substituted for the lever.
SMALL CIRCULATION
The circulation of individual papers during the Revolutionary Period still remained small. James Rivington, with Number 78 of The New-York Gazetteer; or the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hud- son's River and Quebec Weekly Advertiser, boasted in October, 1774, that he sent his paper to every colony of North America, and announced with pride that it had a circulation of thirty-six hundred. As Rivington's paper later came to be known as The Lying Gazette, it is barely possible that he was also a "circula- tion liar." His paper did have, however, one of the widest dis- tributions of any of the period.
POST VS. PRESS
John Holt, in his New York Journal for October 30, 1766, com- plained most bitterly that his rival, James Parker, prevented the post-riders of New Jersey from distributing his paper to customers and had substituted in its place the newspaper pub- lished by Parker, "as his Paper is printed in the same Form, and under the same Title that mine used to be, it is probable many of my Customers may not have attended to the Difference of the Printer's Name. The Meanness and Dishonesty of this Proceeding, I shall leave to the Resentment of my Custom- ers, who will determine, whether to encourage such a Man, by accepting his Papers, or whether to adhere to the Printer,
they voluntarily thought fit to employ." Holt then com-
plained that Parker, his rival printer who had control of the
post-office, ought not have such authority, "an arbitrary power,
greater than that ever exercised in England."
At the time William Goddard started his Maryland Journal, August 20, 1773, newspapers were under an espionage: if they contained any reflection on the Royal Government they were promptly destroyed. Postmasters loyal to the British Gov- ernment carefully examined all copies offered for transmission through the mails. In order to get around this annoyance, Goddard ran his own post to Philadelphia. Leaving his sister, Mary K. Goddard, in charge of his newspaper, Goddard in Oc- tober, 1773, made a tour through the Northern colonies. While on this trip he arranged for "an American post office system on constitutional principles" to put into effect his plan for the dis- tribution of newspapers from Massachusetts to Georgia.
FIRST STRIKE OF PRINTERS
During the time that the British were in control of New York tunes were unusually hard, especially for printers. The price of provisions had been repeatedly advanced. On account of the blockade the supply of firewood, the only fuel of the time, was greatly reduced, and what there was, sold for a price beyond the purse of the printer. Rents had been raised, and local taxes had been increased. Consequently, there was some justification for a meeting of printers for the expressed purpose of insisting upon an advance in their wages. Meeting at the home of one of their number, they fixed upon what they considered a fair re- muneration for their work and presented their demands to the newspapers by which they were employed. The newspapers consented to the increase, except the one owned by James Riv- ington. Upon his refusal to grant the increase the printers for his paper refused to work any longer at the old wage. Finding himself unable to print his newspaper, Rivington at last yielded, and the printers came back. In all probability this was the first strike of printers in America. Justification for this strike will be found in the fact that the printers were receiving a wage of less than one dollar per day.
PAPER FOR PRESSES
The war automatically ended the importation of white paper from abroad. Paper-mills had increased until there were over forty in the country. Several of these were laid waste by Brit- ish soldiers, and others lay idle because employees had enlisted in the army. The remaining mills were unequal to supply the demand, so that during the latter part of the Revolutionary Period and for some time later the newspapers experienced great difficulty in securing the paper on which to print the news.
Several sheets were forced to refuse subscriptions until con- ditions should improve. The New Jersey Gazette on April 23, 1778, announced, "No more Subscriptions can be received at the present by this GAZETTE for Want of Paper." The Su- preme Executive Council of Pennsylvania was very anxious to subscribe for The New York Packet, which had been established in New York, January 4, 1776, but was then published at Fish- kill, New York. In answering the request Samuel Loudon re- ported that on account of the scarcity of paper he had printed but few sheets for the past three months, but that a parcel was now on its way to him and that in two weeks he would begin to forward the papers to the Council.
ADVERTISEMENTS FOR RAGS
Advertisements for rags for the paper-mills continued to ap- pear frequently in papers of all sections of the country where presses had been established. Especially urgent were these ap- peals in such papers as The Boston Gazette, The Providence Gazette, The Albany Gazette, The Maryland Gazette, The Hudson Gazette, The New-Jersey Gazette, The North Carolina Gazette, The Fayetteville Gazette to use simply the Gazettes. The Fayette- ville Gazette asserted "that the economical Housewife who sup- plies the paper mill with rags, serves her country in her sphere as well as the soldier who fights for it does in his." The Chelsea Courier, at Norwich, Connecticut, suggested that every hus- band should say to his wife, "Molly, make a rag bag and put it under the shelf where the family Bible lies." The Massachu- setts Spy at Worcester expressed much the same thought when
it requested "the fair Daughters of Liberty not to neglect to
serve their country by saving for the Paper Mill all Linen
and Cotton Rags," and remarked, "If the Ladies should not
make a fortune by this piece of Economy, they will at least have
the Satisfaction of knowing they are doing an essential Service
to the Community, which, with the ten Shillings per pound, the
price now given for clean white rags, they must be sensible will
be a sufficient reward." The North Carolina Gazette urged young
ladies to send to the paper-mill "Any old handkerchief no longer
fit to cover their snowy breasts." The Boston Gazette printed a
"Rag Lesson" for children and servants, especially girls, and
respectfully submitted to the consideration of all "Parents,
Masters, and Mistresses, but particularly to the Women of
every House: you all know that Paper is made of Rags. You
will therefore do much good, if you will promote the Manufac-
ture of that useful article by saving all Rags, fine or coarse, of
whatever colour, made of Linen or Cotton Don't sweep them
into the Fire, or out of the House : but be prudent, and attend
to the Direction and Advice of the wisest and best Person that
ever lived 'Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.'
Although the Quantity you may save should be but small and
you should think it of little Consequence in itself, consider that
when it is put together with other Savings, it will increase the
heap; and that, as the Scotch Proverb says, 'Many Mickles
Make a Muckle.' " The New-Jersey Gazette expected "Store-
keepers who wish well to their Country to lend their Assistance
in taking Rags in and to whom a Compensation will be made."
An advertisement in The Providence Gazette announced: "Four
Coppers per Pound will be given for fine linen and cotton Rags,
and two Coppers for coarse, by John 0. Waterman, at the
Paper Mills in Providence, and by the Printer of The Gazette: A
cart from the Paper Mills will go through the Town of Providence
once a Month for the Purpose of Collecting Rags." Hugh Gaine
early in the Revolutionary Period experienced such difficulty
in getting paper for his press that he offered prizes to persons
who delivered the most rags to the office of his paper in New
York, The prizes were ten dollars, eight dollars, and five dol-
lars, and were in addition to the regular price paid for rags. On account of the scarcity of paper, numerous newspapers were forced to raise their subscription price.
The paper from American mills was of inferior quality, because in the rush to supply the demand it had to be taken wet from the machines and was often unfinished by the workmen. The poor printing of the latter part of the period was due, in many cases, to the poor quality of the paper put on the press.