Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/207



fonts of type which he set up in a log cabin print-shop at the corner of Front and Sycamore Streets. By way of a motto for his paper he borrowed that of The New York Chronicle, "Open to All Parties But Influenced by None."

Speaking as the printer of The Centinel of the Northwestern Territory, he said in his opening issue :

Having arrived at Cincinnati, he has applied himself to that which has been the principal object of his removal to this country, the Pub- lication of a News Paper. This country is in its infancy, and the in- habitants are daily exposed to an enemy who, not content with taking away the lives of men in the field, have swept away whole families, and burnt their habitations. We are well aware that the want of regular and certain trade down the Mississippi, deprives this country in great measure, of money at the present time. These are discouragements, nevertheless I am led to believe that the people of this country are dis- posed to promote science, and have the fullest assurance that the Press, from its known utility, will receive proper encouragement. And on my part am content with small gains, at the present, flattering my- self that from attention to business, I shall preserve the good wishes of those who have already countenanced me in this undertaking, and secure the friendship of subsequent population.

The paper, published on Saturday, was a four-page sheet and had three columns to the page. Having mislaid the subscription list Maxwell published a notice in the first issue that subscribers should call at the office for their paper and that subscriptions would be received "in Columbia by John Armstrong, Esquire; North-Bend by Aaron Cadwell, Esquire; Coleram by Capt. John Dunlap, and in New-Port by Capt. John Vartelle." At the very start Maxwell advocated the opening of the Mississippi to nav- igation and never ceased to be the pleader of this cause so long as he remained the editor. Having been appointed post- master to Cincinnati, he sold The Centinel of the Northwestern Territory in 1796 to Edmund Freeman, who changed its name to Freeman's Journal. The latter continued its publication under that title until 1800 when he followed the seat of the Territorial Government to Chillicothe and brought out Freeman's Journal in that place. Upon his death, in 1801, Nathaniel Willis pur- chased the paper and combined it with The Sciota Gazette, a paper still published at Sciota.