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lo, with whom he afterwards engaged in a bloodless duel. Subsequently he edited the Literary Museum, and then, recrossing the Atlantic, he became editorially connected with the New York Enquirer. He wrote sketches of society in New York for that paper under the signature of Howard. In one of these essays he made what was supposed to be a personal allusion to the family of Edward Livingston. The matter was taken up by Dr. Barton, who was afterwards Secretary of Legation at Paris. In some personal observations with Dr. Barton on the subject at Niblo's Coffee-house, then on the corner of Pine and William Streets, Mr. Graham struck that gentleman. He was immediately challenged. It was accepted. In a letter to the editor of the Evening Post, written the evening before the duel, Graham said:

I admit that I am in the wrong; that by giving him (Barton) a blow, I have forced him into the position of challenger. I will not hear of any settlement short of some abject and craven submission from him. After he is perfectly satisfied I may perhaps apologize—that is, in case I am fatally wounded.

William Newman, a compositor on the Enquirer, engaged a Whitehall boat which conveyed the parties to Hoboken. On that classic ground of the duello they met, and Graham was instantly killed. This affair created a good deal of excitement, as all such affairs did, and led to the enactment, by the Legislature of New York, of a strong anti-dueling law, the chief points of which were ten years' imprisonment in the States Prison for fighting, and seven years for sending a challenge.

Noah, in 1834, in company with a printer named Gill, established the New York Evening Star. It became a Whig organ, and supported William Henry Harrison for the presidency in 1840. In 1841 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Court of Sessions by Governor Seward, and while on the bench he prosecuted his old associate, Mr. Bennett, of the Herald, for libel, one of the reporters of that paper having been too free in his sketches of the proceedings of that court, especially in his personal descriptions.

On the death of Mr. Gill in 1841, the Star was sold, and united with the Commercial Advertiser. For some time Major Noah was editor of the New York Sun and of the Morning Star. In 1842, President Tyler, through Paul R. George, selected Major Noah to edit an official organ in New York, called the Union. It was a failure. In 1843 Noah commenced the publication of a paper which he named Noah's Weekly Messenger. In a short time it was united with the Sunday Times. Noah seemed to have a desire to edit all the papers. He was mentally active. He wrote for several at the same time. One day, in 1846 we believe, although he had abused Mr. Bennett without stint, even originating the ridiculous hue and

cry of black-mail, he proposed to that editor, on the eve of his departure for Europe, to take editorial charge of the Herald in his absence. He thought he could keep up its character better than any other man. "The Herald," he said, "had become a great and influential paper. Such it should remain." The interview between Noah's friend and Mr. Bennett did not last long, and Noah did not edit the Herald.

Noah was the author of "Travels in Europe and Northern Africa," the "Howard Papers on Domestic Economy," several treatises on the "Prophecies of the Bible," and the "History and Destiny of the Hebrews." He translated the "Book of Jasher." Of his plays we may mention "Paul and Alexis, or the Wandering Boys ;" "She would be a Soldier, or the Plains of Chippewa ;" "The Castle of Sorento;" "Ali Pacha, or the Signet Ring;" "Marion, or the Hero of Lake George ;" "Yusef Caramali, or the Siege of Tripoli;” "Nathalie, or the Frontier Maid ;" "The Grecian Captive;" "The Siege of Daramatta ;" and "Ambition ;" rather a formidable list for an active journalist to produce. All these plays were performed at the several theatres in New York.

Noah was not a journalist in the modern acceptation of the term. He was a sharp newspaper paragraphist. His political squibs were good and pointed. In these short articles he shone more conspicuously than in longer or more pretentious editorial leaders. He was not a journalist to compete with others who had more comprehensive ideas of a newspaper. When, with a capacity for thinking and writing, it was necessary to have tact and energy to obtain the earliest news, Noah could not compete with the enterprising and vigorous journals of even his own period. Hence he was never successful.

Major Noah died March 22d, 1851, while editing the Times and Messenger, at the age of sixty-six.

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CHAPTER XIX.

THE RELIGIOUS PRESS.

THE FIRST RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.-THE CHILLICOTHE RECORDER OF JOHN Andrews, and THE BOSTON RECORDER OF NATHANIEL WILLIS. - AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A Journalist.—THE NEW YORK Observer.—The WATCHMAN AND REFLECTOR.-ZION'S HERALD. THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.THE EVANGELIST.- THE INDEPENDENT.-HENRY WARD BEECHER AND WENDELL PHILLIPS AS THE LEADING JOURNALISTS.-ORGANS OF CHURCHES.-CHARACTER OF THE RELIGIOUS PRESS.-ITS UPS AND DOWNS.-ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.-NEWSPAPERS FOR CHILDREN.

WHEN and where was the first religious newspaper published in the United States? When and where in any part of the world?

After the success of an important enterprise; after an invention in mechanics or a discovery in science have become a public benefit; after finding an available candidate for the presidency, numerous claimants spring up seeking the reward of the sewing machine, or the glory of the telegraph, or the honor of ether, or the office for first naming Taylor or Grant for the White House. So with lesser

matters.

Several years ago there was a controversy on the origin of religious newspapers. Who first conceived the idea of one? Who published the first one? Morse, of the New York Observer, put in his claim for the idea. Willis, of the Boston Recorder, filed his caveat as the inventor. In 1858, when Mr. Willis was in his seventy-ninth year, he published his reminiscences. It is not often that such an autobiography is given to the public. Its value just now is that it enables us to solve one of the questions of the age:

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A JOURNALIST.

BOSTON, Oct. 10, 1858.

It has been suggested to me that my long and successful experience in establishing newspapers, without the advantages of talents, or education, or money, would, if committed to paper, be useful to others who may hereafter control the mighty power of the press. I will therefore attempt to give a narrative.

My father was a practical printer. He printed and published the Independent Chronicle, a Whig paper, in Boston, from June, 1776, to January, 1784. I was born in Boston, June 6, 1780. My father removed to Virginia, leaving me in Boston till I was seven years of age, when he, being engaged in printing a newspaper in Winchester, sent for me, and I was immediately set to work in folding newspapers and setting types. He removed to Martinsburg in 1790, and commenced the Potomak Guardian, upon which paper I was kept at work until April, 1796. He then removed to Chillicothe, and set up the Sciota Gazette, the first paper in Ohio, and I returned to Boston, and commenced an apprenticeship in the office of the Chronicle, in the same room in Court street in which my father had worked, and where Benjamin Franklin had worked before him.

T

Soon after I went to Virginia, my father married for his second wife a daughter of a slaveholder, and she had one of her father's slaves for a servant. Though I was then but eight years of age, I well recollect the cruel operation of the system of slavery. It is not only debasing and brutalizing as regards the slaves. but genders habits of oppression in the masters and mistresses towards all over whom they have power. I I felt its effects from my step-mother. It was the cause of my leaving Virginia for Boston.

This was a time of great political excitement; I was in my sixteenth year, and partook of the feelings of the time. Benjamin Austin was a popular political writer in the Chronicle, and his articles were put in type by me. I was dependent on my industry, and had no expectation of pecuniary means of establishment in business. After I had served out my apprenticeship and worked two years as a journeyman, application was made to me to go to Portland, and set up a Republican paper in opposition to the Federal party, which then ruled the District (now state) of Maine.

Mr. Austin recommended me as reliable for my politics and industry, and I commenced the Eastern Argus in September, 1803. A lawyer named Joseph Bartlett was to have been the editor, but the party doubted his faithfulness, and I went on with the paper with the assurance of pecuniary and literary help from leading political characters. Bartlett forsook the party, and was nominated for Congress in opposition to Richard Cutts, the Republican candidate. T. G. T., Esq., wrote some severe articles in the Argus against Bartlett. I objected to publishing them because they were libellous; but Mr. T. assured me I "should not be hurt a hair of my head."

Cutts was elected to Congress, and Bartlett sued me for damages in the libels. The lawyers were all under Federal influence; the case went through the courts against me, and I was arrested on an execution for $2000 damages. Being unable to pay I was conducted to prison. I endeavored to get released under the Poor Debtor's law after thirty days; but was twice defeated by lawyers' quibbles about citations, and kept a prisoner for ninety days. Having given bonds for the liberty of the yard, which was the whole town in daytime, a false charge of "making an escape" was set up and sustained by the court-my bondsmen were made liable, and had to pay $4000, the amount of the bond, instead of $2000, the amount of the execution. The author of the libels, who promised I "should not be hurt a hair of my head," was dishonorable enough to tell me I must pay these damages; but a reference decided that he should pay, while I was left to pay my own expenses in attending the courts, and, several years after, the lawyer he engaged in the trials.

I was in debt $1300 for money loaned me by politicians to sustain the Argus, and I made an appeal in the paper to delinquent subscribers to pay arrearages and enable me to rise above my embarrassments. This was successful, and I was able to extinguish those debts and release my office and household furniture from attachment. A kind Providence sustained me under my afflictions, and I learned that politicians are not only ungrateful, but supremely selfish. They used me as the cat's-paw, but took good care to keep all the chestnuts for their own eating. The political character of the district was changed, and they gained their object in turning the Federalists out of office.

In November, 1807, Mr. Benjamin Radford, a near neighbor, invited me to go with him and hear the Rev. Edward Payson preach a Thanksgiving sermon. I had not attended church for many months, but spent my Sabbaths in roving about the fields and in reading newspapers. I expected Mr. Payson would preach a political sermon, as he had some time previous delivered a Federal address. The sermon agreeably disappointed me; it was truly patriotic and eloquent. Mr. Radford then invited me to go with him to church on the next Sabbath. I went and was much interested, and became a constant hearer. There was a revival there in the ensuing winter. I trust that the Holy Spirit led me to see that there is an eternity; that it was my duty to attend to the concerns of my soulthat the Bible is the Word of God-that Christ is the only Saviour, and that it is "by grace we are saved, through faith, and not of ourselves-it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."

It was the custom of the Republicans to have a ball on the evening of the 4th of March, to celebrate the anniversary of Mr. Jefferson's election. I had always

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attended, and I was expected to attend this time. There was to be a lecture in the church on that evening. It was a trying question for me to decide which I should go to. I feared if I went to the ball I should dance off all my religious impressions. I decided that I would not go to the ball, but would go to the lecture. I think that was the turning point in my salvation; if I had grieved the Holy Spirit at that time, he might have forsaken me for ever.

One very busy day in the Argus office, I felt so much distressed in mind that I could not work. I went to my desk and wrote a prayer. Immediately I felt relief, and resumed my work. Í have kept that prayer till now. I now began to moderate the severity of party spirit in the Argus, and extracted from other papers short articles on religious subjects, mostly on Methodist revivals. I was asked why I published such things. I replied that the Federalists claimed all the religion and morality in the country as being on their side, and I wished to prove that it is not so. I became interested in Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," especially the chapter on family prayer. I printed an edition of that chapter, and circulated them as tracts. Christians would ask me how I could print the Argus now. I was trying to serve two masters; that would not do. I was in perplexity.

I went to see Mr. Payson about it. He said, "I cannot advise you on that subject. Make it a subject of prayer-God will direct you." On parting with him, he repeated the text: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life."-Mark x., 29, 30. This is the best advice I could have had.

The leading politicians now found fault with the Argus, saying, "Your paper is milk and water; you are priest-ridden, or turning Federalist." I replied, "No, I am willing to support the Republican cause so long as I can with truth and fairness, but I have done with personalities and misrepresentations." They said, "You must be as spirited as the Federalists are, or we must set up another paper." I replied, "I will save you all that trouble. I will sell the Argus to a man that will suit you."

Mr. Francis Douglas was then employed in my office, first as clerk and then as partner. I sold the Argus to him for $4000. It was the hard times of the embargo and war with England, and I ultimately relinquished one-half that sum to

secure the rest.

While waiting for better times, I first collected what debts I could, and then opened a grocery store. I would not sell rum; then my neighbors predicted that I should fail. A year after I found that I was losing money (about $1000 short), and concluded to sell out and give up the business. In 1808, when the politicians were disposed to abandon the Argus, on account of the little religion there was in it, I should have made it a religious paper if I had received the encouragement and aid of Christians. Verily," the children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light."

In May, 1808, I was admitted a member of the 2d Church, of which Rev. Mr. Payson was the junior pastor. I had been sometime thinking of the practicability of setting up a religious newspaper in Portland. I conversed with Mr. Payson, Dea. Coe, Dea. Lincoln, Dr. Mitchell, of North Yarmouth, an influential Christian, and many others. They all thought it a good thing, but the times were so hard that it could not succeed now.

Rev. Dr. Jenks has written to me, that at a meeting of the Maine Missionary Society in Bath, in 1810, where he then resided, "I well recollect then and there you mentioned the subject of a religious newspaper to the ministers and others assembled, and asked their advice and approbation."

In 1812 I removed to Boston, bought a new press and types, and opened an office at 76 State street. I printed a variety of religious books and tracts, and sold them as best I could. Dr. Morse employed me to print several editions of a pamphlet entitled "American Unitarianism," which made a considerable stir among the clergy, and led to the Unitarian controversy. I printed also the first edition of "Park street Lectures," by Dr. Griffin.

The subject of a religious newspaper still rested heavily on my mind. I talked with Christians in Boston often about it. Many, though they liked the plan, ob