DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER. 191 



found his subscribers among the members of his own party, and 

 often looked to the organization or the candidate for financial sup- 

 port. Papers were established and editors hired by parties, fac- 

 tions, and individual leaders to advocate some particular plan of 

 finance or tariff, or some general policy for the nation or State. 

 During this stage of American journalism the influence of a paper 

 depended largely upon the reputation, individuality, and force of 

 character of the editor. He needed not to possess any particular 

 qualification for the work, except a general knowledge of the 

 affairs on which he was to write and a command of vigorous lan- 

 guage to compel attention to his utterances. For many years the 

 majority of the periodicals of the country, daily and weekly, were 

 critical reviews of the events of the time, rather than mediums 

 for the spread of general information. News of important hap- 

 penings at home spread through all the States ahead of the circu- 

 lation of the papers, and the people looked to the latter for re- 

 view and comment upon events, rather than for detailed accounts 

 of the occurrences. Foreign affairs, as reported in the English 

 publications received in this country, took precedence in the classi- 

 fication of nevv's in the journals of the first half of the century, and 

 local events, often matters that were subsequently recognized as 

 of great historical value, were briefly and too often imperfectly 

 recorded. It is a matter to be regretted that in the days when 

 American statesmen and orators were making history for the world, 

 when the new republic, having passed beyond the stage of ex- 

 periment, was advancing with prodigious strides toward glorious 

 achievements in material development, the journals of the coun- 

 try kept but an imperfect and often inaccurate record of events 

 that should have been reported in full. 



During the first forty years of the present century there was 

 no system of collecting the news for publication, and the capital 

 invested in the newspaper business was insufficient to permit of 

 any extra outlay to obtain reports of events occurring at a dis- 

 tance in advance of the regular mails. Such reports as were ob- 

 tained were usually voluntary contributions written by a friend 

 of the editor, and often colored or distorted according to the preju- 

 dice of the w^riter. These letters were, almost Avithout exception, 

 semi-editorial in character, the writers indulging freely in comment 

 and expression of opinion upon the event they attempted to record, 

 so that no political or public matter was reported entirely free 

 from partisan coloring. The drivers of mail coaches, the captains 

 of coastwise or river vessels, strolling peddlers, lawyers, surveyors, 

 and wandering missionaries, who made long journeys into the in- 

 terior and from town to. town, were the news reporters of early 



