efended
the administration of the national government because I be- lieve it to have been incorrupt and according to the Spirit of the Constitution. I have advocated the Constitution because, if not perfect, it is probably the best we can obtain, and be- cause experience teaches us, it has secured to us important rights and great public prosperity. ... I have cautioned my fellow-citizens against all foreign intrigues, because I am aware of the fatal dissensions they would introduce into our councils, and because I hold it proper for us to attach ourselves to no foreign nation whatever, and be in spirit and truth Americans." In another editorial, he tried to prove that slave labor was less productive than that of freemen.
Connected with The Minerva was The Herald, Gazette for the Country, a semi-weekly paper made up of extracts from the daily and printed solely for national circulation. Webster wielded more power through the columns of The Herald than he did through those of The Minerva, just as Horace Greeley later moulded public opinion chiefly through his weekly rather than his daily edition of The Tribune. The Herald, however, also changed its name before the close of the period to The New York Spectator, but its relation to the daily continued the same. When Webster retired on July 1, 1799, Zachariah Lewis became the editor and held that position until April 11, 1820, when Colonel W. L. Stone, of The Albany Daily Advertiser, assumed editorial control.
The second was The Evening Post, which was first set up on November 16, 1801. Its editor was William Coleman. This paper must not be confused with several others of the same name. The first Post was that of the Colonial Period and was the fourth paper in the city; the second was The New York Gazetteer; or Daily Evening Post, published by Kollock, Carroll, and Patterson from August 24, 1786, until December 18 of that year, when its title was changed to The New York Gazetteer and Public Advertiser; the third was The New York Evening Post, a tri-weekly started on November 17, 1794, by L. Wayland, and discontinued May 25, 1795; the fourth was the Federal daily of
