The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

III. American Journalism Enters Era of Expansion

Although the national capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800, New York remained the newspaper capital of the country. A new era in the expansion and effectiveness of journalism, including religious journalism, began at this time. While the total number of all printed journals published at the beginning of the century was only two hundred, some twelve hundred were reported by the turn of the century. ¹⁰ One of these—the National Intelligencer, launched in 1800—constituted the semiofficial reporter of the doings of Congress. The New York Evening Post was started in 1801, edited by William Cullen Bryant. This gave the United States the largest aggregate newspaper circulation ever attained in any country up to that time, though individual circulations were still small. In 1833 the New York Courier and Enquirer, printing 4,500 copies, had the largest single circulation in the country at that time. PFF4 436.2

The first paper to install the steam-driven cylinder press was the New York Daily Advertiser, in 1825, capable of delivering two thousand papers an hour. By 1832 this had been increased to four thousand an hour by the Hoe double-cylinder press. And this advance was matched by improved papermaking and better inks and by the typecasting machines of 1822. ¹¹ PFF4 436.3

Growth in weekly religious and literary journals became noticeable about 1820-such as the Saturday Evening Post, started in 1821. And among quarterlies the American Quarterly Review was launched in 1827. But perhaps the largest single expansion was with the religious periodical group, as practically every denomination began to develop its own weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies. Following the first religious newspaper, the Herald of Gospel Liberty, in 1808, there appeared the Congregational Recorder in Boston (1816), the Baptist Christian Watchman (1819), and the Universalist Magazine (1819), the Methodist Christian Advocate (1823), the Presbyterian Observer (1823), and the American Sunday School Magazine (1823). The Youth’s Companion started in 1827. And the Episcopal Recorder, of Philadelphia, likewise began in 1827. Numerous other papers sprang up at this time, advocating all kinds of special reforms-speaking in behalf of temperance, moral reform, food reform, educational reform, abolition, science, medicine, and law. ¹² PFF4 437.1

The first of the numerous Millerite papers appeared in 1840—Signs of the Times, in Boston, followed by Midnight Cry, of New York City, in 1842, which was at first a daily, with some thirty other periodicals following. PFF4 437.2

Penny papers increased the newspaper reading public tremendously. New York City (including Brooklyn), with its population of but some three hundred thousand in 1836, had a newspaper circulation of seventy thousand. ¹³ Social reforms became part of the newspaper stock in trade. Both the concept of news and the public attitude toward news changed. Sensationalism was fostered, and human interest stories became current. The people must be informed. Abuses in the church, society, and politics must be exposed. News must be published, irrespective of consequences. PFF4 437.3

Progressive speed in communication was another augmenting factor in journalistic advance, as sailing vessels gave way to transatlantic steamship service in 1838, and communication between England and America was thus reduced from two months to three weeks. But in 1832 the horse express was still the mode on land—the distance from Philadelphia to New York being covered in twenty hours by eight relays, with twenty-four horses. Pigeons were also used as couriers. And when the locomotives came, they were at first with horse and locomotive in combination. Then, with the advance of steam railroads, telegraphic communication appeared, which was established between Baltimore and Washington in 1844. PFF4 438.1

The Baltimore Sun developed the greatest speed in news transmission, because of its strategic location on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and on the first telegraph line. Such was the significance of the times from the press angle. These revolutionary changes in communication had their effect in molding the mental attitudes in the fourth decade of the vibrant nineteenth century. Mankind was clearly entering a new epoch. PFF4 438.2