Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/65

Rh the colony, made Bradford's newspaper unpopular with the common people and assisted in a most material way to put Zenger's paper on a firm basis.

Bradford retired from the newspaper world on November 19, 1744, with the last issue of The New-York Gazette. For some time the paper had been published under the joint imprint of William Bradford and Henry De Foreest. After Bradford's retirement, De Foreest changed the name of the paper to The New-York Evening Post, with the next issue on November 26, 1744. Bradford died May 25, 1752.

The second newspaper in the city was The New-York Weekly Journal first issued Monday, November 5, 1733,—incorrectly dated October 5,—by John Peter Zenger, a German who had come to New York in 1710 with a group of Palatines sent over by Queen Anne. Robert Hunter, at that time "Governor-inChief of New York, New Jersey, and Territories Depending Thereon in America," apprenticed Zenger on October 26, 1710, for eight years to William Bradford the printer whose newspaper has just been mentioned. Zenger, after he had become fairly proficient at his trade, ran away from his employer and drifted first into Pennsylvania and later into Maryland. Upon his return to New York he formed a partnership with Bradford. His association with his former partner was brief, for in 1726 he set up his own print-shop first on Smith and then later on Broad Street.

At this time New York had no newspaper to speak for the Popular Party, as Bradford's Gazette was practically a Government organ and its editor had to follow the directions of the Government "under the penalty of losing 50 pounds per annum salary and the title of the King's Printer for the Province of New York." As Zenger was poor and barely able to make both ends meet, there can be no doubt that when he brought out The New-York Weekly Journal on November 5, 1733, he was assisted financially by those opposed to the ruling powers. Among these was one James Alexander, who, in modern newspaper language, would be called the chief editorial writer. Most of the