INTRODUCTION. 25 



Rivington was an English bookseller, a man of the world and of good talents, 

 who established his business in New- York in 1761, and in 1773 commenced the 

 publication of the Gazette on a large medium sheet folio. The paper surpassed 

 its contemporaries in enterprise, and in its original essays and its various intelli- 

 gence ; and soon came to be extensively patronized in all the principal towns. 

 But when the king's arms were substituted for the early vignette, and the descrip- 

 tive words in the title, " ever open and uninfluenced," were erased, and the paper 

 gave unequivocal demonstrations of hostility to the popular cause, a body of armed 

 men from Connecticut, in November, 1775, entered the city on horseback, beset 

 the printer's habitation, destroyed his press, and threw his types into heaps or con- 

 verted them into bullets. Two years afterwards, he returned from England with 

 new materials, and renewed his paper, which now appeared twice a week on a 

 sheet of royal size, surmounted with the royal arms, and entitled " The Royal 

 Gazette, published by James Rivington, printer to the king's most excellent ma- 

 jesty." This paper was conducted with exceeding virulence against the " rebels." 

 It was the leading royal press in the colonies, issued from the chief seat of British 

 power, and attained precedence as the acknowledged official organ, and neces- 

 sarily became very obnoxious to the prevailing party. At length foreseeing the 

 result, Rivington sought to conciliate the whigs, and succeeded so far as to ensure 

 the toleration of his residence in the city ; but his paper, although it discarded 

 the emblems and appendages of royalty, expired in 1783. The wits and satirists 

 of the revolutionary press conferred an unenviable immortality upon its editor. 



But there are more grateful aspects in the history of the republican press 

 devoted to the cause of the country. The New- York Journal and Advertiser, 

 published by Holt and Parker, bore a conspicuous part in the discussions and 

 agitations of the day, animating the people in their resistance to tyranny, and 

 preparing them for the trials and sufferings of the great struggle. At the 

 memorable period of the stamp act, Holt, who then conducted the paper, added 

 to its title the significant motto, " the united voice of all his majesty's free and 

 loyal subjects in America, liberty, property, and no stamps." In 1774 Holt dis- 



Intr. 4 



