190
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the beginning to within a few years it
was the headquarters of
that Order in America. From its halls
its preachers went into
all parts of the country.
We now find our time gone and we are
only getting into
out subject. Other events are quite as
interesting and valuable
but we have restricted ourselves to the
very first as closely as
possible, and the half has not been
told.
Some one ought to write a history of the
first forty years
of religious development in Ohio. With
its account of God-
fearing men and women, who hungered for
the Manna of Life
in their wilderness home, with its story
of the splendid band of
consecrated men of God, who had but one
passion, namely, to
win souls, with its narrative of
struggle and sacrifice to build
these first temples. Nothing in our
state history has such ab-
sorbing interest, such vital realities
and such permanent results
in the establishment of our
Commonwealth.
EARLY NEWSPAPERS IN THE VIRGINIAS.
DR. HENRY S. GREEN.
Sir William Berkeley, twice governor of Virginia, made
answer to the inquiries of the Lords of
the Committee for the
Colonies in 1671, during his second term
of office, and one of
his replies to their questionings was as
follows:
"I thank God that we have not free
schools nor printing, and I
hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy and sects into
the world, and printing has
divulged them and libels against the
government. God keep us from
both."
This pious protest of Governor Berkeley
was uttered more
than thirty years after the importation
of a press into the colony
of Massachusetts and nearly forty years
after the founding of
Harvard, and it has been held to
indicate that the cavalier civil-
ization which grew up about the
Jamestown settlement was more
conservative in its attitude toward
learning and literature than
the puritan civilization of New England.
However, the printer's
devil began to get in his work in
Virginia long before the expira-
tion of the hundred years' respite for
which Governor Berkeley
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 191
had so fervently hoped. The prejudice
against printing appears,
indeed, to have been governmental and
gubernatorial rather than
popular, for the colony had made no law
on the subject, and the
inhibition against printing rested
solely on administrative orders.
When in 1681, an adventurous spirit,
John Buckner, imported
a printing press into Virginia, he was
promptly called before the
governor and council and ordered to
enter into bond "not to
print anything hereafter until His
Majesty's pleasure shall be
known."
Apparently it was not His Majesty's
pleasure that any such
Dangerous piece of political machinery
should be operated in
the colonies if His Majesty could
prevent it, so we find the gov-
ernor of Virginia in 1683 getting
express orders from British
headquarters not to allow any person to
use a printing press in
the colony on any occasion whatsoever.
The royal prohibition
and gubernatorial diligence were potent
enough to keep type
and presses out of the colony until the
power of example in
those colonies which afterward became
the New England and
the Middle states, caused the colonists
in Virginia also to recog-
nize the function of the printer -
though at first the recognition
was on an exterritorial basis. William
Parks was the first duly
appointed "printer" to the
colony of Virginia, and he received
a subsidy or salary of two hundred
pounds a year, his press being
located at Annapolis, Maryland, where he
published the Maryland
Gazette, established in 1727.
Soon after his appointment as printer to
the colony, Parks
was allowed to open a printing office at
Williamsburg and to
issue a newspaper. It was established in
1736 and was called
The Virginia Gazette. It was ordinarily
printed on a half sheet
of foolscap paper. This first
journalistic venture in the Virginias
seems to have followed quite closely the
Scriptural injunction
of obedience to the "powers that
be." On the death of Wm.
Parks in 1750 the paper suspended
publication for a few months,
but it was revived under the same name
by William Hunter in
1751 and appears to have survived until
the outbreak of the
Revolutionary War for in 1776 there
were two papers published
at Williamsburg -the only two then
existing in the Virginias-
and each of them was named the Virginia
Gazette.
192 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
The political storm which was to break
in the seventies began
to mutter in the years that followed the
revival of Parks' ven-
ture by Hunter, and the old Gazette was
so entirely subservient
in its editorial policy to the British
crown and the crown's guber-
natorial representative that it became
unpopular with many of
the colonists. It has been said that a
few years later the young
Thomas Jefferson and some of his friends
desired a more "inde-
pendent paper," and they induced
William Rind to embark upon
the publication of a new Gazette which
should be "open to all
parties, but subservient to none."
I have failed to find any in-
dications, either in the writings of
Jefferson or in the extant
copies of Rind's Gazette, that Jefferson
himself had anything
to do with the paper's establishment or
that he ever contributed
to its columns. The second Virginia
newspaper was launched
in May, 1766, "at the
beginning," as Jefferson says, "of the
Revolutionary disputes." And the
new paper became the medium
of publication for many articles which
were unfavorable to the
colonial government. During the first
year of its existence it
carried at its masthead the legend,
"Published by authority,"
but from the second year it omitted that
declaration. The sub-
scription price of the new Gazette was
12S 6d per year.
This new Gazette carried in its columns
much live matter
that bore on the colonists' grievances,
and it did to some extent
for public opinion in Virginia what the
spy of Worcester did for
public opinion in Massachusetts in the
decade that preceded the
outbreak of the Revolution. In all the
colonies at this time there
were published only a few over thirty
papers, and not more than
four or five of them gave much attention
to the discussion or
presentation of current public opinion.
The real medium through
which the printing press contributed to
the revolutionary cause
was the occasional political tract or
pamphlet.
Like all pre-revolutionary colonial
newspapers, the two early
Virginia specimens were printed on
half-sheets of paper of vary-
ing shapes and sizes. Seven by nine and
seven by thirteen inches
were very common sizes, and a half sheet
would contain from
3,000 to 7,000 ems of printed matter
according to size of type
used, the contents of about one or two
columns of the New York
Herald of today. Paper was very scarce
and very expensive, and
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 193
it was quite impossible to obtain any
considerable quantity of
uniform weight and character. The
composition, typography and
press work of the early colonial
newspapers compare favorably
with those of English papers of the same
period. As in those
same English papers, the colonial
compositors made a most reck-
less and prodigal use of capital
letters, capitalizing all nouns and
as many other words as their fancy
dictated.
The earliest paper published in the
territory now embraced
within the borders of West Virginia was
called the Potomac
Guardian and Berkeley Advertiser. It was
established at Mar-
tinsburg by Dr. Robert Henry. The
earliest copy extant, so far
as I have been able to ascertain, bears
date of April 3, 1792, and
is numbered 73 of Vol. II which
indicates that the paper was
founded in 1789. This copy of
the paper is in the Virginia state
library at Richmond. It is printed on a
sheet of paper nine by
fifteen inches and is a fair specimen of
the newspaper work of
its time. The second paper established
in West Virginia territory
was also published at Martinsburg in
1799 and was edited by
Nathaniel Willis, father of the poet,
Nathaniel Parker Willis.
It was called the Martinsburg Gazette.
One year later, in 1800,
also at Martinsburg, appeared the
Berkeley and Jefferson County
Intelligencer and Northern Neck
Advertiser, the publisher being
John Alburtis. Files of this
publication, extending from 1802
to 1808 are available and constitute a
most valuable source of his-
torical material.
Other early papers of the eastern
panhandle, copies of which
are still extant, are Farmer's
Repository (Charlestown) 1808,
1814-16, 1826, Martinsburg Gazette,
1818, American Eagle
(Shepherdstown) 1818, Virginia
Monitor (Shepherdstown)
1821, The Journal (Shepherdstown) 1828,
The Potomac Pioneer,
(Shepherdstown) 1830. Virginia Republican (Martinsburg)
1847-1853, Virginia Free Press
(Charlestown) 1831, 1836-37,
1858,
Shepherdstown Register 1849-50, 1853-57, and subsequent
periods.
In the Western Panhandle the earliest
paper was the
Repository, published in Wheeling, first
issued in 1807, and dur-
ing the first decade of the Nineteenth
Century the total number
of papers published in the state had
grown from the two of 1776
Vol. XXV- 13
194 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
to
26. Thomas' History of Printing, published in 1810, gives the
list
of papers then in being in the Virginias as follows:
Name
of Paper. Place of
Publication. Politics.
Virginia Patriot ................ Richmond ............ Federalist
Enquirer........................ Richmond ............ Republican
Virginia
Argus .................. Richmond ............ Federalist
Norfolk Gazette ................. Norfolk .............. Federalist
Norfolk Herald ................. Norfolk .............. Neutral
Petersburg
Intelligencer ......... Petersburg ........... Republican
Republican ..................... Petersburg
........... Republican
Virginia
Herald ................. Fredericksburg ........ Federalist
Republican
Constitution .......... Winchester ........... Republican
Centinel
......................... Winchester ........... Federalist
W
inchester Gazette...............
Winchester............ Federalist
Democratic
Lamp ................ Winchester ............ Republican
Lynchburg
Star .................. Lynchburgh .......... Republican
Lynchburg
Press ................ Lynchburgh ........... Republican
Staunton Eagle.................. Staunton
............. Republican
Republican
Farmer.............. Staunton ............. Republican
W
ashingtonian ................. Leesburg ............. Federalist
Republican Press ................ Leesburg ............ Republican
Republican
Luminary ............ Wythe C. H........... Republican
Holstein
Intelligencer ............ Abingdon ............. Republican
Virginia Telegraph.............. Lexington
............ Federalist
Monongalia
Gazette ............. Morgantown .......... Republican
Farmer's
Register............... Charlestown
.......... Republican
As
only the last two papers on the list were located in West
Virginia
territory, it would seem that the other papers established
earlier
than 1810 in the Eastern and Western Panhandle had by
that
time succumbed to the vicissitudes that have ever beset the
business,
and this is not the only ground to be found in the his-
tory
of Virginian and West Virginian newspapers tending to
verify
Franklin's observation that "the business of a printer was
generally
regarded as a poor one."
One
of the two Virginia papers listed by Thomas as exist-
ing
in 1810 within the West Virginia limits is the Monongalia
Gazette,
and this paper had been established in 1803, previous
to
which time the Pittsburg Gazette had been the sole purveyor
of news and vehicle for advertising in the Monongahela
basin.
The Pittsburg paper had established a post route in 1793
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 195
from its base of publication to
Morgantown, distributing its
publication by private post riders.
Clarksburg's first paper ap-
peared in 1815, and Fairmont's
about 1840; Parkersburg's ear-
liest journalistic venture was in 1833,
and the first papers printed
in Charleston were the Spectator established in
1818 or 1819,
the Kanawha Patriot 1819, the Western
Courier in 1820, and
the Western Register in 1829.
During the colonial period, in the Virginias,
as elsewhere in
the country, most readers of books and
papers preferred the
imprints that came from across the water
to those produced in
the colonies. Such papers as were
circulated dealt almost en-
tirely with European news and politics.
With the most indif-
ferent postal facilities, the
circulation of each paper was limited
almost entirely to the immediate
community in which it was
published. It was not until the
controversy arose which led to
the Revolutionary struggle that the
press of the country began
to exercise to any considerable extent
the function of present-
ing and leading public opinion. The
publishers of the colonial
papers were in the first instance
printers, and the publication
of a "gazette" from their
printing offices was more or less an
incidental side issue. As the press in
all the colonies was under
strict censorship, the expression of
opinion was under irksome
restraint, and the anonymously
published, surreptitiously printed
tract or pamphlet was the only medium
whereby an article which
had failed to commend itself to
"His Majesty's pleasure" could
be given to the public.
With the declaration of independence and
the establishment
of the same by the events of the war,
all this was changed, and
the papers which were established in
rapidly increasing numbers
throughout the country began to be
edited and conducted by
men, not necessarily printers, who had a
message of some sort
to give the public as a part of the
service of the newspaper.
One of these papers of the new type was
the Richmond En-
quirer, established in 1804, by Ritchie
and Worsley and edited
for more than forty years by Thomas
Ritchie, who has some
title to be regarded as the father of
Virginia journalism.
The early newspapers had of course, none
of the organized
facilities for the collection and
distribution of news enjoyed by
196 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
modern journalism. The nearest approach
to a press service
came with the legislation in congress
authorizing free exchange
of papers through the post office among
all editors and publish-
ers. This policy was adopted in 1792,
and congress took action
from time to time to expedite and
facilitate those exchanges,
establishing an "express
service" between eastern cities and the
principal places in the west by act of
Congress July 2, 1836.
Clippings from the exchanges supplied
the material now fur-
nished by the modern press bureau or
news service.
Browsing among some of the old
newspapers of the early
days in the Virginias, copies of which
are preserved at the De-
partment of Archives and History at
Charleston, I have selected
a few items as illustrative of the kind
of material out of which
the publishers made up their papers in
the early days of the
republic, of the form in which they
presented this material, and
of their attitude toward the communities
served by their papers
and toward the questions of public
interest with which they dealt.
The Kanawha Spectator, No. 37, a
fugitive, mutilated copy
of which appears to have been published
in August, 1821, (the
date line is partly torn away) was
conducted by H. P. Gaines,
was also, as evidenced by an ad that
seems to have been running
since October 21, 1820, practiced law in
the local courts. In the
advertisement he says:
"The subscriber respectfully
informs the public that his duties as
an editor of a newspaper will not
prevent him from practicing law in
the county and superior courts of
Kenhawa; but he cannot attend any
other courts. He intends keeping on hand
at his printing office, blank
deeds and other instruments of writing;
and will at all times fill them
up for those who may apply."
The leading editorial of the issue is
given up to a discus-
sion of the thesis that "the trial
by jury is the great Palladium
of Liberty." Something must recently
have gone wrong with
one of the editor's jury cases, however,
for he says as to this
general observation that
Where we apply it to such juries as the
sheriffs sometimes pick
up about the tipling houses of our towns
and courthouse yards, it will
be mene, mene, tikel upharsin. I very
much fear that a spice of ambi-
tion or ill-will against one of the
parties, and an undue partiality in
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 197
favor of the other, gains such
ascendency over the minds of some of
our juries in Virginia and all other
places in which the sheriffs are
equally careless in selecting them, that
strict and impartial justice and
the voice of the law have no influence
on their determinations.
This lawyer-editor also has a criticism
for the law's delay,
complaining that "if all the
members composing this court had
done their duty as well as those
residing in Charleston and its
vicinity, they would probably have gone
through the docket, but
little was done besides trying the
commonwealth's cases."
The following ad is interesting as
showing the state of
trade the market for certain products
being apparently depend-
ent on opportunities for barter:
The subscriber will give a liberal price
in salt or good trade for
any quantity of flax seed, which may be
brought to him at Charleston
Kenhawa. ROBERT TITUS.
Another ad on the front page next to
reading matter appeals
to the "owner" of a property
right which has gone quite out
of fashion. It reads as follows:
A negro girl who is acquainted with house
work may be hired
upon good terms to a man in this town
with a small family, if immediate
application be made. She will be taken
by the month or year and pay-
ment made to suit the owner. Enquire at
this office.
The coal mining business of West
Virginia at this period,
as may be inferred from another ad, was
subsidiary almost en-
tirely to the demands of the great salt
industry. Under the head-
line "Collier Wanting" it is
set forth that
From 10 to 20 steady and industrious
men, who understand digging
coal, may obtain high wages in Kenhawa
for that business, if immediate
application is made to Dr. Putney, or any
other manufacturers of salt
who use coal at their furnaces.
The following reference to an
"elopement" of the day also
appears in the advertising columns of
the Spectator:
$10 REWARD.
Ran away from the boat of Mr. Emzy
Wilson while at or near
Johnson's shoals, Kenhawa county, a
negro woman named Judy, about
22 years old * * *her dress when she
eloped, a dark calico, her
198 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
other clothes not recollected. It is
supposed that she is skulking about
in the mountains on Kenhawa river.
The Kanawha Patriot of September 12,
1840, reprints from
the Madisonian a long dialogue reported
by Peter Ploughboy
who takes the Van Buren administration
severely to task on the
charge of extravagance. Tables of figures set forth that the
average expenditure per annum by Van
Buren had been $37,135,-
654.33, while under General Washington
it had cost the country
only $1,986,524.82
to run the government, making a difference of
$35,149,130.61.
By this it appears that the average
under Mr. Van Buren is very
nearly thirty-six times greater than it
was under Washington. Well, I
don't know what YOU think about it,
Squire Capias, but I should say
it was a pretty considerable specimen of
"tall walking" into the people's
pockets. It is doing business on a big
scale.
It is needless to state that the Patriot
was a vigorous sup-
porter of the Tippecanoe ticket and very
hostile to Locofocoism
in all its manifestations.
The Kanawha Register of March 5, 1830,
remarks editorially that
Rail Roads maintain the good opinion formed
of them in England; or,
rather, the calculations concerning them
are raised higher and higher.
One an hundred miles long is
constructing, from Paris to the Loire and
others are projected. That from the city
of Charleston, S. C., is pro-
ceeding with considerable activity. The
great work at Baltimore has
been checked by the severity of the
season, but all things are ready to
complete about twenty miles of the road
at an early day.
The same copy of the Register contains
long quotations
from the English papers detailing a
series of experiments in the
operation of railroad locomotives over
measured stretches of
track at London. It tells how a
locomotive of a new type,
The novelty, went off from the starting
post at 12 miles per hour
and her velocity increased during the
whole trip. The mile between the
quarter post and the judges' tents was
run in 2 minutes and 54 seconds,
at the rate of 21 1/6 miles per hour.
The same atricle relates that Mr.
Stephenson's Rocket
was stripped for the race, all load was
taken off from behind, in-
cluding even the tender carriage with
the water tank.
Annua1 Meeting
Ohio Valley Historical Association. 199
In this racing form the famous Rocket
was started off, and performed the 7
miles in the incredibly short
space of 14 minutes, being at the rate
of 30 miles an hour.
The Kanawha Jeffersonian edited by C. F.
Cake had its
troubles from time to time, as the
leading editorial of August
20, 1842, indicates.
In consequence of the river running
down, our paper running out,
and no boats running up, we are
compelled to issue rather a small sheet
this week, but we assure our readers it
is of the same family, only a
young'un. Our paper was ordered some
weeks ago, but unfortunately
the supply at the Point was out, and the
river so low that none could
be had from Wheeling. There has since
been a rise in the Ohio, and
next week we hope to spread before our
readers our usual sized sheet.
Mr. Cake had recently acquired control
of the Jeffersonian
from John J. Hickey, Esq., and the
Richmond Compiler makes
mention of the editorial change with the
friendly wish that
the efforts of Mr. Cake, like bread cast
upon the waters, will
return after many days.
The Compiler was a Whig organ, but the
editor of the Jef-
fersonian did not allow its friendly
good wishes to temper his
references to his political opponents in
general. Commenting
on the worthless character of the issues
of a certain bank in
Illinois, as to the reliability of which
an inquiry had been made,
the Jeffersonian promptly shunts the
blame for a disordered
finance on the other political party,
saying:
We shall be glad to learn where there is
a bank that can be relied
on now-a-days. Let the people stick to
their principles and firmness, and
not be led away by Federal Whig
Demagogues, and after a little we will
bring these Bank gentry, and all
aristocracies and monopolies to a proper
focus-no mistake in that.
That the people west of the mountains
were dissatisfied with
their representation in the old state
government appears here
and there in the columns of these early
newspapers of Western
Virginia. The Jeffersonian from which I
have been quoting con-
tains a resolution which had been
adopted by a Lewisburg con-
vention as follows:
200 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
"Resolved, That a committee of persons, be appointed and in-
structed to prepare a memorial to the
General Assembly, of the Common-
wealth previous to its next session,
praying that Honorable body, in
terms befitting freemen, to increase the
representation of this state ac-
cording to the provisions, of the fifth
section of article III of the
amended Constitution, and to assign the
increased number of Senators
and Delegates to the trans-Alleghany
section of this Commonwealth;
or if that be declined, to pass a law
for holding a convention, based on
the whole white population, to alter and
to amend the constitution as in
their inherent right to "alter
amend or to abolish their form of Govern-
ment, as may seem to them good."
There were numerous warnings even
earlier than the date of
the Lewisburg resolution tending to show
the imminence of a
division of the state, and many were the
speculations indulged
in by the early press as to the form the
ultimate and inevitable
division would take. The Kanawha Banner
of December 17,
1830, says editorially:
"The Virginia legislature will
convene on Monday. To the pro-
ceedings of this body we look with
intense interest. Matters of great
moment will come before this body, and
the discussions will be as in-
teresting as those of the late
convention. The preservation of the state,
we believe, will depend upon this
legislature. Disregard the claims of
the trans-Allegheny counties to what
they deem a proper share of the
fund of the internal improvement, and a
division of the state must fol-
low-not immediately perhaps, but the
signal will be given for the rising
of the clans, and they will rise. It is
not worth the while now to
speculate upon the mode or manner in
which the government will be
opposed. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. But a crisis is
approaching. The northwestern counties
demand to be separated from
the state with a view of attaching
themselves to Maryland or Pennsyl-
vania, the southwestern counties go for
a division of the state into two
commonwealths. Should the latter be
effected, what will be our con-
ditions in the valley? Infinitely worse
than the present, the mere
dependency of a government whose
interest and whose trade would all
go westward, we would be taxed without
receiving any equivalent; and
instead of being chastised with whips we
would be scourged with
scorpions. Of the two projects spoken
of, that which would be least
injurious to the valley and the state at
large, would be, to part with the
northwestern counties. Let them go. Let
us get clear of this disaffected
population. Then prosecute the
improvement called for in the south-
west, and that portion of our state,
deprived of its northern allies, would
give up their desire for a separation.
To cement the union still firmer,
Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical
Association. 201
open the road from Winchester to
Parkersburg, and we shall have a
commonwealth, one and indivisible, so
long as our republic endures."
On the whole the advertising matter of
the early newspapers
is quite as diverting reading as any of
the news stories or even
the efforts of the editorial writers to
guide and mold public
opinion, and much of the matter in the
advertising columns is
of first rate historical interest. The
patent medicine man was
abroad in the land, and his literature
was spread abroad in the
columns of the press of the early days.
The following delicious specimen of his
literary art is taken
from a paper which circulated freely in
Virginia in the early days,
though it was published in Maryland. In
the front page, top
of column, first column position of the
issue of July 4, 1780,
of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore
Advertiser, we read of
Dr. Ryan's incomparable worm-destroying
sugar plumbs, necessary
to be kept in all families; so
exceedingly valued by all people who have
had of them in Great Brittain and
Ireland, for their transcendant excel-
lency in the destroying worms of all
kinds, both in the bodies of men,
women, and children, * * *
Among other remarkable therapeutic
results to be expected
from these transcendant sugar-plumbs it
asserted that
Likewise settled, aches and pains in the
head, swellings, old sores,
scabs, tetters, or breaking-out will be
perfectly cured, and the blood
and skin restored to its original purity
and smoothness, * * * and
what makes them more commendable is,
they are full as agreeable to
both taste and sight, as loaf sugar; and
in their operations as innocent
as new milk.
Nearly the whole of the first column of
this newspaper is
given to the "Incomparable
sugar-plumbs" and to other remedies
for the ills of humanity sold by Hughes
& Williamson, Mer-
chants, while the last two columns of
the last page of the same
issue contains the very latest news from
the war zone, including
a letter from General Washington to
Congress dated at Whip-
pany, June 25, 1780, telling of the
operations of the army under
Gen. Greene and the commanding general
himself intended to
frustrate the enemy's designs against
West Point. An extract
from
another letter from General Washington dated two days
later reads as follows:
202 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
RAMAPAUGH, June 27, 1780.
I arrived, after a severe ride on the
evening of the 23rd. You will
see the official Report of that Day's
Transactions in the public Papers.
In this and the former Incursion of the
enemy, we calculate their loss
at not less than 500, and in both you
may be assured they have been
greatly disgraced. They lost some
valuable Officers. We have only to
lament that of Captain Thomson, of the
Artillery. They abandoned
some Stores in their precipitated
Retreat from the Point, which (al-
though well fortified) fell into our
Hands. Since this they have em-
ployed themselves in making
Demonstrations with their Shipping up
the North-River, and we have been marching
until to Day that we take
a Rest. Their Movements seem to look
towards West Point, but in
my Opinion they can have no other Object
in view, but to embarrass
our Measures. They have experienced that
we are not yet so weak
but that we have Spirit to fight them,
nor the Militia so disposed as to
lay down Their Arms. Both have, in a
signal Manner, added to their
Reputation -baffled the enemy, and
preserved our stores from Destruc-
tion, which was least seriously
intended.-West Point is now in a
Condition beyond their Experiments, our
Army in good Spirits, and
the French Assistance soon expected. But
with all this before us, every
State, every Individual should feel,
that to complete their Happiness,
or to avert their Ruin, something more
is necessary to be attended
to than Wishes for our Success,"
The early newspapers of the Virginias,
as was the case
throughout the states which had been the
thirteen colonies,
multiplied rapidly in numbers with the
transition from the
colonial to the national regime. They
extended their influence
with improving facilities for gathering
news and for reaching
their subscribers and readers. Their
horizon broadened with the
removal of the old restrictions of
colonial days, and the rising
tide of popular sovereignty in state and
nation swept away the
old barriers that had been maintained
against freedom of expres-
sion by way of the printed page. For
that reason their columns
furnish a rich mine of valuable
historical material, presenting
as they do a vivid and detailed picture
of those interesting forma-
tive decades of our national life.
190
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
the beginning to within a few years it
was the headquarters of
that Order in America. From its halls
its preachers went into
all parts of the country.
We now find our time gone and we are
only getting into
out subject. Other events are quite as
interesting and valuable
but we have restricted ourselves to the
very first as closely as
possible, and the half has not been
told.
Some one ought to write a history of the
first forty years
of religious development in Ohio. With
its account of God-
fearing men and women, who hungered for
the Manna of Life
in their wilderness home, with its story
of the splendid band of
consecrated men of God, who had but one
passion, namely, to
win souls, with its narrative of
struggle and sacrifice to build
these first temples. Nothing in our
state history has such ab-
sorbing interest, such vital realities
and such permanent results
in the establishment of our
Commonwealth.
EARLY NEWSPAPERS IN THE VIRGINIAS.
DR. HENRY S. GREEN.
Sir William Berkeley, twice governor of Virginia, made
answer to the inquiries of the Lords of
the Committee for the
Colonies in 1671, during his second term
of office, and one of
his replies to their questionings was as
follows:
"I thank God that we have not free
schools nor printing, and I
hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy and sects into
the world, and printing has
divulged them and libels against the
government. God keep us from
both."
This pious protest of Governor Berkeley
was uttered more
than thirty years after the importation
of a press into the colony
of Massachusetts and nearly forty years
after the founding of
Harvard, and it has been held to
indicate that the cavalier civil-
ization which grew up about the
Jamestown settlement was more
conservative in its attitude toward
learning and literature than
the puritan civilization of New England.
However, the printer's
devil began to get in his work in
Virginia long before the expira-
tion of the hundred years' respite for
which Governor Berkeley