The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Jeffersonian America (Paperback))

Although frequently attacked for their partisanship and undue political influence, the American media of today are objective and relatively ineffectual compared to their counterparts of two hundred years ago. From the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, newspapers were the republic's central political institutions, working components of the party system rather than commentators on it. The Tyranny of Printers narrates the rise of this newspaper-based politics, in which editors became the chief party spokesmen and newspaper offices often served as local party headquarters. Beginning when Thomas Jefferson enlisted a Philadelphia editor to carry out his battle with Alexander Hamilton for the soul of the new republic (and got caught trying to cover it up), the centrality of newspapers in political life gained momentum after Jefferson's victory in 1800, which was widely credited to a superior network of papers. Jeffrey L. Pasley tells the rich story of this political culture and its culmination in Jacksonian democracy, enlivening his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragic careers of individual editors. CONTENTS......Page 8 ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 12 A NOTE ON CONVENTIONS AND METHODS......Page 18 THE PARTISAN PRESS RECONSIDERED......Page 22 UNEVEN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE ORIGINS OF THE NEWSPAPER ROLE......Page 31 NEWSPAPER EDITORS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY POLITICS......Page 34 ARTISANS WITH BOOKISH INCLINATIONS: THE COLONIAL PRINTERS......Page 45 PRINT, PRINTERS, AND POLITICAL ELITES IN COLONIAL AMERICA......Page 49 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE BEGINNINGS OF PARTISANSHIP......Page 54 SERVING THE FOUNDERS: PRINTERS AND NEWSPAPERS AFTER THE REVOLUTION......Page 61 3 The Two National Gazettes and the Beginnings of Newspaper Politics......Page 69 DEFENDING THE STATE AND IMAGINING THE NATION: JOHN FENNO'S GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES......Page 72 THE FAILURE OF FENNO'S "NATIONAL PLAN"......Page 77 THE STATESMEN AND THEIR SURROGATE: THOMAS JEFFERSON, JAMES MADISON, AND THE ORIGINS OF THE NATIONAL GAZETTE......Page 81 EMBODYING THE OPPOSITION: THE NATIONAL GAZETTE IN ACTION......Page 87 A PATH NOT TAKEN: THE FALL OF THE NATIONAL GAZETTE AND THE FAILURE OF CENTRALIZED NEWSPAPER POLITICS......Page 94 4 Benjamin Franklin Bache and the Price of Partisanship......Page 100 CELEBRITY GRANDSON AND YOUNG SOCIALITE......Page 101 TURNING PARTISAN......Page 104 DOWNWARD MOBILITY, RADICAL POLITICS, AND THE BIRTH OF THE AURORA......Page 109 "SURGO UT PROSIM": BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE AS PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN......Page 115 POST MORTEM: "MOTHER BACHE" IN MOURNING AND IN PUBLIC......Page 123 5 The Background and Failure of the Sedition Act......Page 126 SLOUCHING TOWARDS PARTISANSHIP: THE REPUBLICAN PRESS BEFORE THE SEDITION ACT......Page 127 PRECOCIOUS PARTISANS: MATTHEW LYON AND JOHN ISRAEL......Page 130 FASHIONING THE WEAPON: THE THINKING BEHIND THE SEDITION ACT......Page 139 WHY DID THE SEDITION ACT FAIL? ANSWERS TO AN UNASKED QUESTION......Page 145 CHARLES HOLT AND THE BEE: A CASE STUDY FROM THE LAND OF STEADY HABITS......Page 153 ESCAPE FROM CONNECTICUT (TO POLITICAL PROFESSIONALISM ON THE HUDSON)......Page 164 FEDERALIST REPRESSION, POPULAR RIGHTS-CONSCIOUSNESS, AND THE RADICALIZATION OF YOUNG PRINTERS......Page 168 7 The Expansion of the Republican Newspaper Network, 1798 1800......Page 174 THE LIMITS OF ELITE SPONSORSHIP......Page 175 PRINTERS OF THE REPUBLIC: THE NEW PARTISAN PRESS OF THE LATE 1790S......Page 182 FEDERALIST REPRESSION AND THE FORGING OF THE REPUBLICAN NETWORK......Page 190 THE MAKING OF A TRANSOCEANIC RADICAL......Page 197 EXILE ON MARKET STREET: DUANE AND THE AURORA......Page 202 THE EDITOR AS LEADER AND LIGHTNING ROD......Page 207 WILLIAM DUANE'S AMERICAN DREAM......Page 212 9 The New Conventional Wisdom......Page 217 THE LESSONS OF 1800......Page 221 INVADING THE FEDERALIST HOMELAND......Page 224 TRAMP POLITICIANS: THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL EDITING AS AN OCCUPATION......Page 237 RENOVATING THE FEDERALIST PRESS......Page 250 TALENTS, VIRTUE, AND WEALTH: REAL AND IMAGINED FEDERALIST ADVANTAGES IN THE JOURNALISTIC ARMS RACE......Page 258 ALEXANDER CONTEE HANSON VERSUS THE "RULES OF ARITHMETICK"......Page 262 THE LIMITS OF FEDERALIST NEWSPAPER POLITICS......Page 269 11 Improving on the Sedition Act......Page 279 THE GENTRIFICATION OF THE SOUTHERN PARTISAN PRESS......Page 280 EDITORS AND OTHER POLITICIANS: EMERGING TENSIONS AND DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES......Page 285 THE VIEW FROM THE PRINTING OFFICE......Page 288 THE FEDERALISTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: THE EVEN DARKER SIDE......Page 295 12 The "Tyranny of Printers" in Jeffersonian Philadelphia......Page 306 WILLIAM DUANE AND THE MORNING AFTER......Page 307 ORIGINS OF THE REPUBLICAN SCHISM......Page 312 EDITORS, LAWYERS, AND THE PENNSYLVANIA LEGAL REFORM MOVEMENT......Page 320 A GENTEEL REBELLION AGAINST "THE TYRANNY OF PRINTERS"......Page 326 THE DECLINE OF DUANE, BUT NOT THE EDITORS......Page 333 THE WAGES OF MOBILITY: THE RISE AND FALL OF JAMES J. WILSON......Page 341 SENATOR ROBERTS AND THE EDITORS: MEDIATING AMERICAN POLITICS THROUGH INFORMATION AND INFLUENCE......Page 350 MERINO RAMS AND MUTTON SOUP: TO CONGRESS AND BACK WITH THOMAS J. ROGERS......Page 362 14 Newspaper Editors and the Reconstruction of Party Politics......Page 369 "AN ARMY OF PRINTERS": THE WAR OF 1812 ERA AND THE ORIGINS OF JACKSONIAN NEWSPAPER POLITICS......Page 371 NEWSPAPER EDITORS AND THE WAR ON GOOD FEELINGS......Page 377 JOHN MILTON NILES AND THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF CONNECTICUT......Page 397 ANDREW JACKSON AND THE COMING OF THE EDITORIAL "MILLENNIUM"......Page 410 CODA: COMMON MEN IN HIGH OFFICE......Page 418 NOTE ON SOURCES......Page 422 APPENDIX 2 The Sedition Act and the Expansion of the Republican Press......Page 428 ABBREVIATIONS......Page 432 1. THE NEWSPAPER-BASED POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE ANTEBELLUM UNITED STATES......Page 433 2. THE PRINTING TRADE IN EARLY AMERICAN POLITICS......Page 439 3. THE TWO NATIONAL GAZETTES AND THE BEGINNINGS OF NEWSPAPER POLITICS......Page 442 4. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHE AND THE PRICE OF PARTISANSHIP......Page 447 5. THE BACKGROUND AND FAILURE OF THE SEDITION ACT......Page 451 6. CHARLES HOLT'S GENERATION: FROM COMMERCIAL PRINTERS TO POLITICAL PROFESSIONALS......Page 454 7. THE EXPANSION OF THE REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER NETWORK, 1798 1800......Page 456 8. A PRESENCE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: WILLIAM DUANE AND THE TRIUMPH OF NEWSPAPER POLITICS......Page 459 9. THE NEW CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: CONSOLIDATING AND EXPANDING A NEWSPAPER-BASED POLITICAL SYSTEM......Page 461 10. THE FEDERALISTS STRIKE BACK......Page 465 11. IMPROVING ON THE SEDITION ACT: PRESS FREEDOM AND POLITICAL CULTURE AFTER 1800......Page 468 12. THE "TYRANNY OF PRINTERS" IN JEFFERSONIAN PHILADELPHIA......Page 471 13. ORDINARY EDITORS AND EVERYDAY POLITICS: HOW THE SYSTEM WORKED......Page 476 14. NEWSPAPER EDITORS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF PARTY POLITICS......Page 479 PRIMARY SOURCES......Page 488 SECONDARY SOURCES......Page 501 INDEX......Page 520

Although frequently attacked for their partisanship and undue political influence, the American media of today are objective and relatively ineffectual compared to their counterparts of two hundred years ago. From the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, newspapers were the republic's central political institutions, working components of the party system rather than commentators on it.

The Tyranny of Printers narrates the rise of this newspaper-based politics, in which editors became the chief party spokesmen and newspaper offices often served as local party headquarters. Beginning when Thomas Jefferson enlisted a Philadelphia editor to carry out his battle with Alexander Hamilton for the soul of the new republic (and got caught trying to cover it up), the centrality of newspapers in political life gained momentum after Jefferson's victory in 1800, which was widely credited to a superior network of papers. Jeffrey L. Pasley tells the rich story of this political culture and its culmination in Jacksonian democracy, enlivening his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragic careers of individual editors.

From the late-18th to the late-19th century, newspapers were the American Republic's central political institutions, working components of the party system. This is the story of the rise of this newspaper-based politics, beginning with Jefferson and culminating in Jacksonian democracy.