Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/59

Rh the General Court took the matter in hand. A committe was appointed to consider the charges, and it finally decided, on the issue of January 14, 1722, that the tendency of the paper was to mock religion and government and that, therefore, James Franklin should be forbidden to print and publish his paper or any other paper or pamphlet like it unless what was to be printed was first submitted to the secretary of the province.

Franklin, however, refused to submit his manuscript a ordered, with the result that the General Court ordered "that James Franklin no longer print the newspaper." The publisher's friends held a meeting, and as young Benjamin Franklin, then only sixteen years of age, had developed talent, first as a printer's devil and then as contributor to the paper, it was decided to print the paper in his name and on February 11, 1722, Benjamin Franklin made his début as editor.

The policy of the paper, however, continued to be dictated by James Franklin, and the following summer trouble again arose between the paper and the government when the Courant criticized the Massachusetts authorities for their failure to give chase to a pirate that had appeared off Block Island. The authorities decided "that the said paragraphs are a high affront to this government" and ordered Franklin to be imprisoned in Boston. After a week's confinement, the records of the General Court show a petition from him "that he may have the liberty of the yard, he being indisposed and suffering in health by the said confinement," and upon his promising not to endeavor to escape, this privilege was granted to him.

Several weeks afterward the council again called attention to the free-thinking character of the writings in the Courant and its habit of reflecting on his majesty's gov-