CHAPTER XII
BEGINNINGS OF THE PENNY PRESS
THE precursor of the penny press was undoubtedly The Daily Evening Transcript, which was established in Boston on Saturday, July 24, 1830, by Lynde M. Walter, a graduate of Harvard. It was published the first two days of the next week, but was then suspended until August 27, 1830, since when it has appeared without a single break in its publication. While not sold on the streets at a penny a copy, it quoted the extremely low rate of four dollars per annum payable semi-annually in advance. In the preface it said that it was started to supply the "deficiency created by the surcease of The Bulletin," and asserted that it would not "mingle in the everyday warfare of politics nor attempt to control public bias, in abstract questions of Religion or Morality." Its political creed it outlined as follows:—
We believe that Duties imposed upon Imports, for the protection of domestic industry, are necessary and constitutional; that Congress has power to appropriate the public funds to works of internal improvement;—that the Bank of the United States is expedient to the preservation of a wholesome currency, and is warranted by the Constitution;—that the union of these States was decreed by the whole people,—will be maintained by the whole people,—and cannot be dissolved but by the will of a majority of the whole people voting each for himself, either personally or by special delegation.
It had two departments which attracted attention: one was headed, "Police Court"; the other, "Marine Journal." In connection with the latter the paper published a notice of indebtedness for "Facilities afforded by Mr. Topliff of Merchant's Hall for the memoranda inserted in our Marine Journal."
Walter, the first editor, occupied the chair until his death in 1842, when his sister, Cornelia Walter, assumed the editorship. During the first few years of Mr. Walter's régime, the most important matter of moment was the anti-slavery movement.
