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 Ins majesty’s free and 
loyal subjects in America, liberty, property, and no stamps.” In 1774 Holt dis- 
Intr. 4 
