Antebellum and Civil War America, 1784-1865

All American >Antebellum America Notable Journalists Benjamin Franklin Bache James Gordon Bennett Mathew Brady Benjamin Day John Fenno Philip Freneau Horace Greeley Sarah J. Hale Andrew Hamilton Thomas Jefferson Elijah Parish Lovejoy Joseph B. McCullagh Notable Publications New York Sun (1833) New York Herald (1835) Events 1787: Bradford founds Kentucky Gazette 1789: Gazette of the United States appears 1791: National Gazette appears 1798: Alien and Sedition Acts 1801: New York Evening Post appears 1830: Washington Globe appears 1833: Day founds New York Sun 1835: Bennett founds New York Herald 1847: Philadelphia Public Ledger installs first real cylinder press 1851: New York Daily Times appears Resources The Press in America is a thorough, clear, credible secondary source that provides a history of American journalism from its beginnings to the present era.  Authors Edwin Emery and Michael Emery are professors of journalism. American Journalism: A History: 1690-1960 covers the eras of the political newspaper, the penny press, and the Civil War, as well as other periods of American journalism.  Author Frank Luther Mott has written or edited several books, including A History of American Magazines. The Encylopedia of American Journalism includes entries on people, publications, and other aspects of American journalism. The Compact History of the American Newspaper is a detailed, insightful, and well-written—though dated--account with several chapters on newspapers in antebellum America.  It describes the early political papers and the contributions of James Gordon Bennett, among other subjects, and it offers a useful analysis of the rise of the penny press.  Author John Tebbel is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Magazine in America, 1741-1990 and A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Updated January 21, 2001 © Mark Canada, 2001 mark.canada@uncp.edu

Journalism By Mark Canada Professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke American journalism experienced dramatic growth and development in the antebellum period.  Newspapers had existed in the American colonies since the early part of the 18th century and were fairly common by the time Americans had defeated the British in the American Revolution and were setting up their new nation. In 1800, America had more 200 newspapers, including 24 dailies. In general, however, these publications were primarily mouthpieces for political parties rather than independent, objective entities.  The Gazette of the United States, for example, promoted the ideas of Alexander Hamilton and the other Federalists, and the National Gazette spoke for the Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republicans.  The centerpiece of a typical newspaper published between 1784 and 1830 was its political reporting, which often consisted of harsh, satirical, and sometimes false recriminations.  "If ever a nation was debauched by a man," Aurora editor Benjamin Franklin Bache wrote of the country's first president, "the American nation has been debauched by Washington" (qtd. in Tebbel 66).  The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 punished some journalists for their bold reporting, but by and large even early American reporters enjoyed the freedom promised by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."  The number of publications increased in these early decades of independence so that in 1820 America had 512 newspapers.  The nature of the press in America remained much the same, however, until the 1830s.  John Tebbel, author of The Compact History of the American Newspaper, explains: "From its use as a revolutionary propaganda machine to its hardly concealed official position as a private organ of a President, it had encompassed the range of partisan expression at the expense of truth and responsibility.  As a tool of party and politicians, it had not attained any particular distinction except in the excellence of writing which the best statesmen and editors brought to it" (89).  The most important development of antebellum American journalism came in the 1830s, when New York journalists Benjamin Day and James Gordon Bennett began appealing to mass audiences.  As Tebbel notes, immigration and improvements in printing technology, which eventually included a steam-powered cylinder press, both set the stage for this new era, which came to be known as the age of the "penny press."  Unlike contemporary papers, which sold for 6 cents, Day's New York Sun and Bennett's New York Herald at first sold for a penny and were peddled in the streets.  In addition to the increased circulations, which would reach 77,000 for the Herald shortly before the Civil War, this period was noteworthy for the change in the content of newspapers.  Bennett, in particular, was a pioneer in broadening the scope and sharpening the appeal of newspaper reporting.  Whereas the early political papers were distinctive in their lively denunciations of opponents, the highlight of the Herald was its sensationalistic coverage of crime and other lurid subject matter.  Meanwhile, women's magazines  also had huge audiences, including some 150,000 subscribers for Godey's Lady's Book, published in Philadelphia. In another important development of this period, reporters such as Joseph B. McCullagh gave newspaper readers intimate accounts of the Civil War.  Indeed, in American Journalism: A History: 1690-1960, Frank Luther Mott writes: "Probably no great war has ever been so thoroughly covered by eye-witness correspondents as the American Civil War" (329).  Works Cited Mott, Frank Luther.  American Journalism: A History: 1690-1960. New York: Macmillan, 1962. PN 4855 .M63 Tebbel, John.  The Compact History of the American Newspaper. New York: Hawthorn, 1963. PN 4855 .T4

Purpose

reach masses (Fishkin 13)

In an editorial in his New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett argued that the newspaper could become “the greatest organ of social life” (qtd. in Fishkin 14). He wrote: “Books have had their day—the theatres have had their day—the temple of religion had had its day. A newspaper can be made to take the lead of all these in the great movements of human thought and human civilization. A newspaper can send more souls to Heaven, and save more from Hell, than all the churches or chapels in New York—besides making money at the same time” (qtd. in Fishkin 14). Fishkin goes on to say: “As Bennet saw it, newspapers could carve a unique niche for themselves as shapers of popular thought. His dream of influence and respectability would be shared by fellow editors throughout the century that followed” (14). This great mission for journalism is still alive today, but it also reflects a sentiment of Benjamin Franklin, who regularly used his Pennsylvania Gazette to improve his countrymen, though his focus was generally on morality and self-improvement rather than social causes and civic improvement.