The Massachusetts Spy.

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE REVOLUTIONARY CRISIS.

THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.-ISAIAH THOMAS. - RIVINGTON'S ROYAL GAZETTE.-MAJOR ANDRÉ AND THE COW CHASE.-ETHAN ALLEN'S INTERVIEW WITH RIVINGTON.-FRENEAU'S SATIRES.

IMPORTANT events were now culminating in America. All the leading minds had become editors, pamphleteers, and agitators. All others readers and believers. The Press was the power and the fulcrum.

Quite a remarkable newspaper came into existence at this time, which, with the Gazette, and others then in circulation, gave great aid and comfort to the prevailing sentiment of the people. In July, 1770, Isaiah Thomas, in connection with Zechariah Fowle, issued the Massachusetts Spy, named after several of the earlier papers in England, which bore the title of Spye. We annex their prospectus :

I1

TO THE PUBLIC.

T has always been customary for Printers and Publishers of new periodical Publications, to introduce them to the World with an Account of the Nature and End of their Design. We, therefore, beg Leave to obferve, That this small Paper, under the name of THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY, is calculated on an entire NEW PLAN. If it meets with a favorable Reception, it will be regularly published THREE Times every Week, viz. Tuesdays, Thurfdays and Saturdays, (on two of which Days no News-Paper is published in this Town) by which Means, those who favour this Undertaking with their Subfcription, will always have the moft material of the News, which may from Time to Time arrive from Europe and from the other Parts of this Continent, on the Day of its Arrival, or the next Day following, (Sundays excepted) which will be fooner through this Channel than any other. Great Care will be taken in collecting and inferting the freshest and choiceft Intelligence from Europe, and the material Tranfactions of this Town and Province: Twice every Week will be given a Lift of the Arrival and Departure of Ships and other Veffels, alfo a List of Marriages and Deaths, &c. and occafionally will be inferted felect Pieces in Profe and Verfe, curious Inventions and new Discoveries in Nature and Science. Those who choose to advertise herein, may depend on having their ADVERTISEMENTS inferted in a neat and confpicuous Manner, at the most reasonable Rates. When there happens to be a larger Quantity of News and a greater Number of Advertisements than can well be contained in one Number, at its usual Bignefs, it will be enlarged to double its Size at such Times, in order that our Readers may not be disappointed of Intelligence.

This is a brief Sketch of the Plan on which we propofe to publifh this Paper, and we readily flatter ourselves the Public will honour it with that Regard the Execution of it may deferve; and doubt not, it will be executed with fuch Judgment and Accuracy as to merit a favourable Reception.

Three months' experience led to a dissolution of the partnership, and Thomas carried on the paper alone, increasing its size to four

pages, and publishing twice a week. With three months more of trial it was changed to a weekly paper. On the 7th of March, 1771, it adopted for its motto, "Open to all parties, but influenced by none." Although the editor apparently made an effort to be neutral and impartial in the political character of his columns, and published communications from each side, it was evident to his readers that Thomas was a Whig, and with the people heartily and cordially. This soon became patent to his Tory patrons, and they withdrew their support. The Spy then came out fully and boldly for the Revolutionary Party. Mean attempts were made to crush the paper by threats of libel suits and personal violence, and the government officers refused to allow Thomas the privileges of the Custom-house to obtain the arrivals and departures of vessels. There were no newsboats or steam yachts in those days. In noticing this folly on the part of the authorities, the Spy contained the following card :

TO THE PUBLIC.

A Tyrant may be justly compared to a Polypus, of which the smallest portion broken off becomes almost immediately as big, as voracious, and as deformed a thing, as the original; entangling, plaguing, and engulphing every thing within its reach and power. How applicable this may be to our petty lords, the customhouse officers, every one is left to judge, after being informed that THEY, to discourage this paper, as they phrase it, have denied THIS Press the SHIP LIST, notwithstanding, according to the title, pieces from all sides have been inserted in it. The Printer conceives himself in no wise to blame if the Court side are now at a loss for writers, it being his province only to publish.

The office of the Spy was styled "the sedition foundery" by the Royalists, and Joseph Greenleaf was dismissed from the office of justice of the peace for writing for the paper. On the 8th of October, 1772, nearly three years before the fight at Concord, he closed an article in this bold manner :

Should the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our invaluable rights and privileges! We may next expect padlocks on our lips, fetters on our legs, and only our hands left at liberty to slave for our worse than Egyptian taskmasters, or-or-FIGHT OUR WAY TO CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM.

The government made great efforts to counteract the influence of the Boston Gazette, and such writers as the Adamses and the Quincys, and the Spy, with its staff of contributors equally bold and resolute. After the failure of the Chronicle, another paper, called the Censor, with Ezekiel Russell to manage it, was started, but it scarcely survived the year. The authorities then fell back entirely on the old News-Letter, which was called the Massachusetts Gazette and Weekly News-Letter. All the Tory writers concentrated their power on this paper. Andrew Oliver, William Brattle, Daniel Leonard, and Jonathan Sewall opened their batteries on the Whigs. Sewall and Leonard, in a series of articles over the signature of "Massachusettensis," were considered the smartest and most important of their

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

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contributors. These articles, as we have already stated, were answered by John Adams in the Boston Gazette. Some of the contributions in the Spy were very powerful. "Centinel," "Leonidas," and "Mucius Scævola" were terribly severe on the Tories. The Spy, as early as 1771, urged a recourse to arms. "Mucius Scævola" denounced Governor Hutchinson as "an usurper, and should be punished as such," and showed Lieutenant Governor Oliver to be a "recorded perjured traitor." Attorney General Sewall was directed to prosecute the printer for libel, but the grand jury refused to find a bill. So the thunders of the Spy continued to roll and mutter over the heads of the doomed authorities.

It was in 1774 that Thomas introduced the device, borrowed from the Constitutional Courant of 1765, which represented a snake divided into nine parts, one part denoting New England, and each of the remaining parts denoting the other colonies-the Immortal Thirteen in all. Over this, in large letters, extending the entire width of the page, was the motto, "JOIN OR DIE." This device had created a sensation in the streets of New York nine years previously. It increased the excitement in 1774.

More British troops having landed in Boston, the place became too warm for Thomas. Threats of personal violence were uttered against him by some of the red-coated soldiers. He was on the list of twelve, with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were to be summarily executed when taken. To avoid this difficulty and unpleasantness, and to do more good with more safety, he sent his type and press across the Charles River one night preceding the eventful day of the affair at Lexington and Concord, and had them conveyed to Worcester. The last number of the Spy printed in Boston was on the 6th of April, 1775.

It was Isaiah Thomas, the bold journalist, who was, on the 18th of April, 1775, concerned with that modest and determined patriot, Paul Revere, in conveying information, by his "midnight ride," to the inhabitants of the interior towns, of the crossing of Charles River by the unfortunate British troops, under Major Pitcairn, on their secret expedition to destroy the military stores which had been gathered by the rebel authorities, and stored at Concord. Thomas's own types and press had only a short time previously passed over the same historic stream. It was the opening incident of the Revolutionary drama, and is thus celebrated by Longfellow :

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that day and year.

I

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm."

It was by Paul Revere's famous rides that the Sons of Liberty of New York and New England were kept advised of the important steps taken by those in Massachusetts. One of the New York pa

pers of 1765 announced his arrival there with the action in Boston in regard to the Stamp Act. He was two days and a few hours in riding from one city to the other—

ter.

"To spread the alarm

Through every New England village and farm."

On the 3d of May, 1775, the Spy made its appearance in WorcesIts motto, in large type, over the title of the paper, was,

AMERICANS! LIBERTY OR DEATH! JOIN OR DIE!

In this number, with a fancy head, and a small device representing the cap of liberty, the following notice was printed :

TH

To the PUBLIC.

HE good People of this County, at a Meeting fome Time fince, voted to encourage the Establishment of a Printing - Office in this Place: In Confequence thereof, Application was made to me, then in Boston, to iffue Propofals for publishing a weekly NEWS-PAPER in this Town, to be entitled, The WORCESTER GAZETTE, or AMERICAN ORACLE of LIBERTY: This I accordingly did; fince that Time, Things have worn a different Face in our diftreffed Capital, and it was thought highly neceffary that I fhould remove my Printing Materials from Boston to this Place, and inftead of publishing the intended WORCESTER GAZETTE, &c. continue the Publication of the well-known MASSACHUSETTS SPY, or THOMAS'S BOSTON JOURNAL: I accordingly removed my Printing Utenfils to this Place, and efcaped myself from Bofton on the memorable 19th of April, 1775, which will be remembered in future as the Anniversary of the BATTLE of LEXINGTON! I intend publishing this Paper regularly every Wednesday, and have made an Alteration in the Title, in order to take in Part of that intended for the Gazette.

I beg the Affiftance of all the Friends to our righteous Cause to circulate this Paper. They may rely that the utmost of my poor Endeavours fhall be used to maintain those Rights and Priviledges for which we and our Fathers have bled! and that all poffible Care will be taken to procure the most interesting and authentic Intelligence.

I am the Public's most obedient Servant,
Worcester, May 2d, 1775.

ISAIAH THOMAS.

When Boston was evacuated by the English troops in the following year, it was proposed to remove the Spy to that city; but on the 21st of June the establishment was taken by William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow "under a lease from the proprietor." With a fresh motto, "Undaunted by Tyrants, we will die or be free," and some very wholesome views on journalism, these new publishers managed the paper about a year. They said:

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The liberty and free exercise of the Press, is the greatest temporal safeguard of the State. It assists the civil magistrate in wielding the sword of justice-holds up to public view the vicious, in their truly odious colors-and "is a praise and encouragement to them that do well." It detects political impostors, and is a terrific scourge to tyrants. None can notoriously transgress the line of duty, who may not be hereby subjected to public contempt and ignominy. It is one grand mean of promoting public virtue. It conveys knowledge to mankind, by acquainting them with the state of the community to which they belong, whereby they are better able to regulate their police-to supply its defects, or lop off its excrescences. It serves to increase the majesty of the people, by giving them understanding in the times, and conveying to them "the knowledge of what Israel ought to do." In fine, it is capable of being made the source of general literature.

Then Anthony Haswell carried on the establishment for a year. Then Thomas returned to Worcester and resumed the management of the Spy, with another new motto: "Unanimity at Home, and Bravery and Perseverance in the Field, will secure the Independence of America." These mottoes seemed to be the very concentration of the thought and feelings of the people-a series of strong patriotic editorial articles, illustrative of the time, compressed into a few words-into pointed revolutionary epigrams, that became the watchwords throughout the colonies.

What better appeal than the following could an editor make to the public? Its refreshing quaintness ought to have increased his subscription-list largely :

TO THE LOVERS OF LITERATURE IN THE COUNTY OF WORCESTER.

PRINTING OFFICE, Worcester, Nov. 1, 1780. For twelve months past the number of customers for this paper has been so small as to be no ways adequate to the support of such a work, by which means the printer has absolutely sunk money by its publication. Books, Newspapers, and schools, are become too much neglected, and of consequence the rising generation will be great sufferers thereby, if these necessary things, which tend to learning, are not more encouraged.

Many people are so mistaken that they image that there will be but little intelligence of consequence contained in News-Papers in winter and therefore cease to become customers for them in that season of the year, not thinking that it is, on many accounts, a public benefit for News-Papers to circulate. It is an understood fact, that the expence to a Printer in publishing a News-Paper weekly, is very great, and more so in the winter than in the summer; and it is also true, that such a publication cannot be laid bye and taken up again, at leisure. The Printer of this paper, therefore, begs leave to request all those who are desirous of having the Press and the publication of a News-paper continued in this town, to be so kind as to procure as large a number of customers for the Massachusetts Spy, as they conveniently can (by the last Thursday in this month) in the several towns where they reside, who will take said News-Paper for six months to come; and if the number shall then appear only barely sufficient to defray the necessary expences of publishing said News-Paper, through the winter, it shall be continued; otherwise, said publication must cease in this town, and the press of course be removed out of this county to another where it has been solicited.

Should proper encouragement appear for continuing the publication of the Massachusetts Spy in this place, the Printer engages on his part to do all in his power to make it worthy of perusal and support.

ISAIAH THOMAS.

The title of the paper was changed in 1781 to Thomas's Massa