INTRODUCTION
TO THE
HISTORY OF THE PRESS
IN
WESTERN NEW-YORK.
In undertaking the task of writing out, or compiling a "History of the Press in Western New-York," I confess I enter upon the duty which the partiality of the Committee have selected me to perform, with no little distrust of my capacity to do it that justice which the subject demands, or which the Committee and the public at large, and the Profession in particular, have a right to expect from him who shall undertake it. But having consented to the task, it only remains for me to discharge its requirements to the best of my ability. I would rather, it is true, the mantle had fallen upon the shoulders of some one else—older and wiser heads among the "Craft" could have been found—those who could have done the subject full and ample justice—but I am also aware that it is not always convenient or practicable to engage their services in such an undertaking. Although at this stage of the task I cannot assure the Committee that their expectations are in the least degree to be answered, still, however. I think I may promise them one thing—which is, that
"I will nothing extenuate.
Or set down aught in malice,"
in what I may have to say in relation to the Press of Western New-York. Having retired from its duties, its cares, and its perplexities,—having a conscience void of offence against any who have preceded, or who may be now In the active prosecution of their labors in that interesting department of life, I think I may claim for myself the merit of being a disinterested witness.
The "Press" and a "Printer!" Who is not proud to be associated with the one, and classed with the other? Never has the genius of man been able to offer to the world, viewed in all its parts, any thing that at all compares with that of the Press. Its capacity for good and evil is unbounded. As an engine of moral and political power it has no equal—it is the grand regulator of the world, and its power is alike felt and acknowledged, as well by the prince on the throne, as by the dweller in the hamlet. It is the lever by which the great operations of the world, political, moral, and social, are moved. How vastly important then, that this power is not misplaced.
It is said there are certain classes in society who are literally good for nothing—that in almost any position, as the geologist would say, they are "out of place." This remark, however, loses all its force when applied to Printers, as the very reverse of it is true—they seem to be "in place," in all the varieties of situations in which their lot may be cast. Let the reader cast his eye around him. In one of the Territories of this Republic a Printer may be recognized, who has exchanged the stick and the case, and been robed with executive power,—again, among those "grave and reverend signors" who occupy that most august body, the Senate of the United States, and there you discover a Printer—look among the fighting men of our country, in the ranks and clothed with official dignity, and there you will find the Printer—look, also, among the Divines, the Doctors, the Politicians, and indeed, among almost every branch of industry or calling in society, and Printers are to be found! And last, though by no means least, the Craft can point with proud and glorious satisfaction to Benjamin Franklin!—He is an example, of whom, not only Printers, but the world may be proud. The Society of him who called, and tamed, the lightning from the clouds, has been sought and courted by the proudest monarchs of the earth! Other benefactors of mankind have lived—but none whose brow has been wreathed with prouder laurels than that of Franklin.
It may not be inappropriate to the designs of the Committee, and the purposes of the "Franklin Festival," to place together in this convenient form, a short account of the first discovery,
