Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/142



Such methods to make the law ineffectual doubtless had much to do with its repeal in 1788. The House Committee in reporting on the act, announced that the imposition on the newspapers was not worth the small return from the tax (250) so long as the papers from New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, arid Connecticut might circulate freely in Massachusetts. Several of the papers which had suspended publication on account of the act reappeared. The Massachusetts Spy in resuming publica- tion on April 3, 1788, offered this salutation of thankfulness:

The Printer has the happiness of once more presenting to the Pub- lick, the MASSACHUSETTS SPY, or the WORCESTER GAZETTE, which at length is restored to its Constitutional Liberty, (thanks to our present Legislature), after a suspension of two years. Heaven grant that the FREEDOM of the PRESS, on which depends the FREEDOM of the PEOPLE, may, in the United States, ever be guarded with a watchful eye, and defended from Shackles of every form and shape, until the trump of the celestial messenger shall announce the final dis- solution of all things.

After Massachusetts had repealed the act which taxed news- paper advertising, no State, because of the odium attached to a Stamp Act, attempted to impose a duty upon newspapers until the fifth decade of the next century. On September 30, 1842, an act of the Virginia Legislature imposed a tax on newspapers which amounted to the subscription price for each paper.

POSTAL REGULATIONS OF PERIOD

Newspapers multiplied so rapidly that they became a burden to post-riders. In order to make sure that copies reached sub- scribers, newspapers were forced to pay the carriers on the post- roads an extra allowance. This charge meant an increase in the subscription price. Madison "viewed with alarm this news- paper tax" as he called it. On June 12, 1792, he wrote Jeffer- son: "I am afraid the subscriptions will soon be withdrawn from the Philadelphia papers unless some step be speedily taken to prevent it. The best that occurs seems to be to advertise that the papers will not be put into the mails, but sent, as heretofore, to