Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/180

 i66

��EARLY HISTORY OF THE CONCORD PRESS.

��have passed into oblivion. The Pat- riot was commenced in a small one- story building, standing where is now the dwelling of the family of the late J. Stephens Abbott, Esq. Mr. Hoit had within him a humorous vein, and his narrative of circumstances attend- ing the birth of the Patriot was of an amusing character. The plan, he in- formed me. was that the literary labor upon the Patriot should be performed by an "Association of Gentlemen." Several of this class assembled in the office the night preceding the appear- ance of the first number, and remained until morning, to the discomfort of Hoit and his workmen. Of the num- ber was Phillip Carrigan, author of the map of New Hampshire, which bears ' his name. The occasion became of very hilarious character, and would undoubtedly have been more so had the "Association of Gentlemen" been capable of penetrating the future, and discerning the long period which the paper then about to appear would en- dure. But, according to the narrative to us, some members of the association- became so full of good drink that they fell asleep, and so remained through the night.

The commencement of the " Amer- ican Patriot " was attended by circum- stances of no more favorable charac- ter than accompanied preceding at- tempts, except that Concord had been chosen in which to permanently hold the sessions of the legislature. In all probability the Patriot, after brief ex- istence, would have gone into the same grave as its predecessors, but for the fortunate circumstance that it came in- to the custody of a gentleman of the ability, industry and tact necessary not merely to rescue it from the fate of other village journals here, but to make it a power in New Hampshire. This person was the late Hon. Isaac Hill, who in his day acquired a reputation as a political writer and journalist second to that of no other newspaper con- ductor. He came to Concord soon after the expiration of his apprentice- ship with Joseph Cushing, proprietor and publisher of the "Amherst Cabi-

��inet." The "American Patriot" had been six months -in existence. The first number printed by Mr. Hill is dated April 18, 1809, and thencefor- ward the people of New Hampshire came within an influence they had only imperfectly realized — the power of the press to mold and guide popular opinion. Mr. Hill was a man of de- cided convictions and untiring industry, wrote with great facility and vigor, and possessed that electric force by which a writer upon political affairs imparts to others the convictions and zeal pos- sessed by himself. Under his guiding hand the success of the Patriot was certain. It soon became a successful journal, attaining a wide and constant- ly increasing circulation ; greater than that of any preceding or contemporary journal in New Hampshire. A circum- stance which accelerated its growth- was that difficulty with England which culminated in what is known as the war of 1812-15. That the Patriot, in the hands of Mr. Hill, would have become permanent, even in years of profound calm, there is no reason to doubt : but it is equally certain that its growth would have been less rapid, because of the natural sluggishness of mankind un- til moved by exciting causes ; the dis- inclination of the people, during the first twenty years of the period here in review, to expend money for the grati- fication of literary taste, and the lim- ited amount of money in circulation.

The only competitor of the "New Hampshire Patriot," from its com- mencement until the year 1823, was- the "Concord Gazette" of which men- tion has just been made ; Hoit & Tut- tle proprietors and publishers. The scanty materials employed in printing the Gazette were purchased of Dudley Leavitt, the celebrated almanac author, and were brought hither from Gilman- ton Corner in a two-horse wagon. They had been used for printing one number of the almanac, and a village paper. The circumstance that only two horses were required to transport two men and the materials with which a weekly paper was equipped, sixty-five years ago, is of sufficiently suggestive

�� �