Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/198

 i82 Newspapers, 1775-1860 the party from power and gave the radical Republican press renewed confidence and the material benefit of patronage when the anti-Federalists took control of the government. The passing of the Federalist party made a radical change in journaHstic supremacy, but for a third of a century the news- papers were to continue primarily party organs; the tone remained strongly partisan, though it gradually gained poise and attained a degree of literary excellence and professional dignity. The niunber and geographical distribution of newspapers grew apace. Whereas in 1800 there were between 150 and 200 aU told, by 1810 there were 366, and during the next two decades the increase was at least equally rapid. With astonish- ing promptness the press followed the sparse population as it trickled westward and down the Ohio or penetrated the more northerly forests. By 1835 papers had spread to the Mississippi River and beyond, from Texas to St. Louis, throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and into Wisconsin. These pioneer papers, poorly written, poorly printed, and partisan often beyond all reason, served a greater than a merely local purpose in sending weekly to the seat of government their hundreds of messages df good and evil report, of politics and trade, of weather and crops, that helped immeasurably to bind the far- flimg population into a nation. Every congressman wrote regularly to his own local paper; other correspondents were called upon for like service, and in some instances the country editors established extensive and reliable lines of intelligence; but most of them depended on the bundle of exchanges from Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, and reciprocallj' the city papers made good use of their country exchanges. Meanwhile the daily newspapers were increasing in number. The first had appeared in Philadelphia and New York in 1784 and 1785 ; in 1796 one appeared in Boston. By 1810 there were twenty-seven in the country — one in the city of Washington, five in Maryland, seven in New York, nine in Pennsylvania, three in South Carolina, and two in Louisiana. As early as 1835 the Detroit Free Press began its long career. The political and journalistic situation made the adminis- tration organ one of the characteristic features of the period. Fenno's Gazette had served the purpose for Washington and