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A written communication on the History of tiie Periodical 

 Literature of Salem, ^vhicli occupied tlie hour of the evening in 

 a very interesting manner, -was furnished and read by Gilbert 

 L. Streeter, as follows : 



xiccouNT of the Newspapers and other Periodicals, piih- 

 lished in Salem, from 1768 to 1856. 



We propose to give some account of the several newspapers 

 and other periodicals, which have been published in Salem 

 since the first introduction of the art of printing into this town 

 until the present time. The review will carry us back nearly 

 a century, to the period immediately preceding the war of the 

 Revolution; and in glancing at the special purposes of the 

 various periodicals since that time, we shall obtain glimpses of 

 the successive states of public opinion in this place. The list 

 of serials ' during these years is a long one, embracing fifty 

 separate and distinct publications, of various degrees of interest 

 and importance. "We shall mention them in the order of their 

 commencement, designating each by its appropriate numeral. 



Salem was the third town in the Colonies, in the order of 

 time, to enjoy the advantages of a public printing press. It 

 was preceded in this respect by both Cambridge and Boston. 

 The former place contained a printing press as early as 16 39^ 

 and as the infant University was located there, as well as the 

 local government of the colony, the persons concerned in it 

 were encouraged by grants of land from the General Court. 

 But the Puritan authorities, although ready to patronize this 

 enterprise to some extent, still regarded the freedom of printing 

 with a jealous eye, and accordingly, in 1662, two of the most 

 worthy and highly approved of the clergymen of the colony 

 were authorized by the General Court to act as licensers of the 

 press. Thus the dispensations of grace on the part of the 

 authorities in the matter of land were not without their 

 equivalents in the more important matter of free printing. 

 The press in Boston\iHB first established in 1674, in accordance 

 with leave specially granted by the General Court, Avhich had 

 previously ordered, in 1664, that there should be no other press 

 than that at Cambridsce. 



