Continental Journal

June 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Continental Journal (June 20, 1776).

“Col. Pickering’s PLAN of DISCIPLINE, which … all the Militia of this Colony are directed and enjoined to practise.”

When he transferred the New-England Chronicle to Edward E. Powars and Nathaniel Willis in June 1776, Samuel Hall informed the public that “PRINTING in general will be continued at the Subscriber’s Office in School-street [in Boston], and performed with accuracy and dispatch.”  Although he would no longer publish a newspaper, Hall continued to earn his livelihood through job printing and other projects.  One of those projects was a second edition of Timothy Pickering’s Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia.  Hall and his brother, Ebenezer, published and advertised the first edition nearly a year earlier.  As the war continued, the American army needed more copies military manuals, including Pickering’s manual.

On June 20, Hall inserted advertisements in both the Continental Journal and the New-England Chronicle, the only newspapers published in Boston at the time.  “The second Edition of Col. Pickering’s PLAN of DISCIPLINE, which by Order of the General Assembly, all the Militia of this Colony are directed and enjoined to practise,” Hall announced, “is not in the Press, and will be published, in about three Weeks.”  The advance notice gave interested parties an opportunity to reserve copies.  That, in turn, helped Hall determine how many copies to print.  After all, he did not publish the manual solely as a service.  He aimed to generate revenue with the venture.  He did not want an excessive number of surplus copies to eat into profits.

That an “Order of the General Assembly” directed the colony’s militia to consult Pickering’s military manual no doubt helped sales.  Yet Pickering received yet another important endorsement for his Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia.  He sent a copy to George Washington following his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress.  In turn, according to the American Revolution Institute, “Washington promoted the use of several published works, including Timothy Pickering’s An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia and Thomas Hanson’s The Prussian Evolutions” in the years before the Baron von Stueben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States became the first official manual of the Continental Army in 1779.  With such support, Hall could feel confident that a second edition of Pickering’s military manual would meet with success.

May 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Continental Journal (May 30, 1776).

“Proposing to furnish the public with a News-Paper of Intelligence every THURSDAY.”

It was the third newspaper established in New England in just over a week.  Robert L. Fowle distributed the first of the “occasional HAND-BILLS” that became the New Hampshire Gazette in Exeter on May 22, 1776.  Three days later, Benjamin Dearborn published the first issue of the Freeman’s Journal in Portsmouth.  Finally, on May 30, John Gill presented the Continental Journal to readers in Boston and beyond.  Daniel Fowle had suspended his New-Hampshire Gazette in January or February, leaving the colony without any newspaper, so readers likely welcomed the new publications that gave them easier access to news and editorials about current events and forums for disseminating advertising than depending on newspapers from Massachusetts.  After the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, some printers in Boston discontinued or suspended their newspapers and others moved their newspapers to other towns.  That included Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette.  They dissolved their partnership and Edes printed the newspaper in Watertown during the siege of Boston and continued there for many months after British forces evacuated Boston.  Only recently had Samuel Hall moved the New-England Chronicle from Cambridge into Boston.  That made the Continental Journal only the second newspaper published in the city when Edes decided that he once again wished to “furnish the public with a News-Paper of Intelligence,” though he claimed that he “complied with the solicitation of his Friends” in pursuing the venture.

Printers often included an address to the public in their subscription proposals when they announced their plans to publish a newspaper or inserted a message to readers in the first issue.  In his notice “TO THE PUBLIC,” Gill kept it simple by declaring that he “chooses to omit all pompous representations and promises … and only engages his utmost fidelity in collecting and printing the newest and best accounts of things that can be obtained.”  With many years experiences printing the Boston-Gazette, he could rely on his reputation among prospective subscribers.  Gill also outlined the “TERMS” for subscribers.  The Continental Journal cost eight shilling per year, “one half to be paid at entrance, the other at the end of the first six months.”  That was a common model among newspaper printers.  He also advised, “Advertisements inserted at the customary price,” but did not specify that price.  The printer did instruct advertisers that their notices were “to be paid on receiving them.”  Like many other newspaper printers, he depended on advertising revenue.  The printing office accepted advertisements until two o’clock on Wednesdays (and later only “in cases of necessity”), allowing time to set type and print the newspaper in time to distribute it to subscribers on Thursdays.  The Continental Journal met with success, continuing throughout the war and closing in 1787 when Massachusetts imposed a tax on advertisements.