What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“We are satisfied that Mr. Bradish had no Desire … to do any Injury to his Country.”
On the eve of the American Revolution and during the first months of the war, colonizers in New England resorted to newspaper to clarify their positions and frame their own narratives about how their experiences fit into current events. They used advertisements to set the record straight for a public that might have misunderstood their actions or principles. For nearly a year before the battles at Lexington and Concord, some of those who signed an address to the former governor, Thomas Hutchinson, upon his departure from Massachusetts to return to England ran advertisements with recantations and assurances that they supported the American cause.
Once hostilities commenced, others depended on advertisements endorsed by reputable patriots to clear their names. Such was the case with Ebenezer Bradish, Jr., of Cambridge who had been “represented as a Person unfriendly to the just Rights and Liberties of his Country.” To make matters worse, he moved to Boston on the same day as “the late unhappy Commencement of Hostilities betweed the Troops under the Command of General Gage,” the governor, and “the Inhabitants of this Province.” That “increased public Suspicions against him” and “rendered [him] more odious and disagreeable to his Countrymen.”
Yet that unfortunate coincidence did not tell the entire story, according to ten men who signed a notice in which they recommended that “all Persons” treat Bradish “as a Gentlemen who is not unfriendly to the Rights and Privileges of his Countrymen,” at least “so far as we are able to discover upon strict Enquiry into his late Conduct.” They declared that they had investigated “the Cause of his going to Boston at the Time aforesaid” as well as “his Conduct since” and determined that Bradish “had no Desire by that Means, to any Injury to his Country.” On the contrary, they asserted,” his Design was friendly, and his Conduct was justifiable,” though they did not give more details about the circumstances. The men who signed the notice came from various towns in Massachusetts (and one from Connecticut). Most listed their ranks, with “Seth Pomeroy, of Northampton, (General.)” first and then five colonels, two majors, and one captain. Even though Bradish was suspect, these men were not. Readers could trust them when they said that they wished “to do Justice to Mr. Bradish” by “remov[ing] from the Minds of our beloved Friends and Countrymen, all groundless Apprehensions” about his conduct.
When Bradish published the conclusions reached by their “Enquiry” as an advertisement in the June 15, 1775, edition of the New-England Chronicle, he appended a nota bene that made clear he had no sympathy for British authorities or the conduct of the troops under their command. “Whereas a Report had been unjustly spread abroad, that it not the Regulars but our own People who took the Goods lost out of my House,” Bradish proclaimed, “this is to certify to all good People, that said Report is false.” Furthermore, it “never came from me” but instead from someone else with malicious intent. To leave no doubt about where he stood, Bradish concluded with an indictment of British troops: “I am certain my House was not only shot at but plundered by the Regulars.” In publishing the letter from the men who investigated his actions and his own account of what happened to his house as a newspaper advertisement, Bradish hoped to harness the power of the public prints to clear his name and restore himself to good standing among those who supported the patriot cause.