Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/115

Rh paper, the New York Journal, which now became the leading organ of the patriots.

McDougall was arrested on the information of Parker; he refused to give bail and was committed to prison. Because of the connection of the number forty-five with his commitment—the proceedings of the Assembly voting the handbill libelous were printed on the forty-fifth page of the journal of that body— "45" became a magic number for the patriots. It was also the number of John Wilkes's North Briton, which had been declared by the House of Commons to be a scandalous and seditious libel.

The Journal continued to make a hero of him, regaling the public with the exhilarating information that on the 45th day of the year, 45 gentlemen went down to jail and dined with Captain McDougall on 45 pounds of beef, cut from a bullock 45 months old, drank 45 bottles of wine in 45 toasts, etc. The use of numbers as rallying cries was then in vogue, not only in New York but in Massachusetts, Where, when Governor Bernard asked the colony to rescind its circular letter to the other colonies, the request was rejected by a vote of 92 to 17. The "Illustrious 92" then became a favorite toast of all gatherings of the patriots.

McDougall was not liberated until March 4, 1771. "After his first short term in jail, he gave bail, but the suit was never prosecuted. In the following December, he was arraigned before the Assembly; because of his answers he was held in "high contempt" and was again sent to jail when the Assembly was prorogued.

McDougall's own account of his arrest was printed in Holt's Journal, February 9, 1770, dated from the "New