Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/164

138 eighteenth century. It was a widespread belief that the commonwealth must depend on the "powers, estates and vested interests "rather than on the masses of the people, who were a danger unless "led or repressed."

The prejudice was active, not only with the men who made use of journalism in developing the policies of their respective parties, but among the men of later generations who undertook to write the history of their country; and, as we shall see, a century was to pass before journalism came to be considered as having a professional status sufficient to entitle it to a place in the curriculum of a reputable university.

When the end of the revolutionary struggle came, there were forty-three papers in the colonies. The three best of these were the Connecticut Courant, the Boston Gazette and the Pennsylvania Packet. Their news was either very general or very local; the advertisements were matters of particular importance to the people locally. The essays and contributed editorials were of interest to those of culture and to those who had ideas and theories as to the government. For the academic and literary, there was poetry and sometimes ponderous literary work. The Boston Weekly Advertiser printed as a serial, "Robertson's History of America," which ran through one hundred and fifty numbers.

The lack of news concerning the country in general was due almost entirely to the difficulties of transmission. The Post-Office would not carry the papers and the post-riders had to be bribed to take them along with the letters. It took six days for a letter to go from Boston to New York, or nine days in bad weather; still, when a paper arrived in a small village, nearly all the adult population gathered around the minister while he read it from start