Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/197

Rh BEGINNINGS IN STATES 165 it is extremely doubtful if a central form of government would have survived. In Florida and in Louisiana newspapers had been started when these Territories were not yet part of the United States. The beginnings of journalism in these two, therefore, may first be considered before taking the others.

Before the Revolutionary Period closed the first newspaper had already appeared in Florida. It was called The East Florida Gazette and was published at St. Augustine by William Charles Wells. No issues of The East Florida Gazette, so far as can be learned, have been preserved, but such a paper was mentioned several times by a few Southern papers of the Early Republic Period. Its severe criticism of "the good people of the States" was especially annoying to its contemporaries in those former colonies which had become integral parts of the United States. Associated later with William Wells in publishing The Gazette was, in all probability, his brother John, who had printed The Royal Gazette at Charleston, South Carolina. For this offense, he was ordered by State authorities to leave and went to St. Augustine, where he helped his brother to print books and possibly The Gazette. Florida being sparsely settled did not have another paper till late in the Party Press Period when The Weekly Floridian was established in 1828 at Tallahassee.

Among the refugees at San Domingo who settled at New Orleans was L. Puclot. After much difficulty he succeeded in getting the consent of Governor Carondelet to print in French the Moniteur de la Louisiane, which first appeared on March 3, 1794. A year later J. B. L. Fontaine became its editor and he continued to hold that position until 1814, during much of which time he was also the publisher. In 1797 the Moniteur became the official State paper and in its pages are to be found most of the facts we know about the early history of Louisiana, containing as it does "All the official documents, Spanish, French and American which relate to the changes of government and all officially issued territorial laws, decisions of the city council,