“To Exalt the Profession”: Association, Ethics, and Editors in the Early Republic

Abstract

This research demonstrates that by the 1830s editors in America were coming together to talk about ethics and raising journalistic standards. Fearing that the excesses of partisanship had made their business “a vehicle of ribaldry and personal defamation,” antebellum editors in nearly every state and territory met to try to tame their freewheeling craft. The convention movement soon led to formal associations of editors, a development that occurred significantly earlier than scholars generally have recognized.

Notes

“Statement of Principles,” American Society of Newspapers website, http://asne.org/content.asp?pl=24&sl=171&contentid=171.

Edwin Emery, History of the American Newspaper Publishers Association (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1950; Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1970). Citations are to the Greenwood edition.

S[hadrach] Penn Jr., “To the President of the Convention of Printers,” Lexington (KY) Intelligencer, February 28, 1837.

This boast, variously assigned to newspapers, bookbinding, and printing in general, was proclaimed frequently in the toasts and columns of antebellum printers. See, for instance, “The Baltimore Typographic Society,” Republican Watch-Tower, New York, July 10, 1805; “Grand Canal Celebration,” North Star, Danville, VT, November 22, 1825; “Celebration of the Late Revolution in France,” New-York Enquirer, November 29, 1830, reprinted in Pittsfield (MA) Sun, December 9, 1830; “The Value of the Press,” Floridian, Tallahassee, FL, September 11, 1841; “Legal Prices—All Wrong,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, January 21, 1860.

See, in particular, Stephen A. Banning, “The Professionalization of Journalism: A Nineteenth-Century Beginning,” Journalism History 24 (Winter 1998–1999): 157–163; Banning, “The Maine Press Association's Nineteenth Century Professional Identity,” paper presented to the American Journalism Historians Association annual conference, October 10–13, 2012, Raleigh, NC. Banning offers a useful summary of the literature on media professionalism and its different “starting” points. Studying the minutes of the Missouri Press Association, he argues for moving up the start of professionalization into the nineteenth century because state newspaper associations were, as in Missouri, discussing “professional” issues such as ethics at least as early as 1867. Banning notes that the Maine Press Association's founding in 1864 moves up the timeline for professional activity. For analysis of professionalism in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989); Betty Houchin Winfield, ed., Journalism 1908: Birth of a Profession (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008). Michael Schudson states that while Walter Lippmann is credited with professionalizing journalism through legislation and through steadfast adherence to objectivity in covering the news, “The urge for professionalization in journalism did not begin with Lippmann” (152). He notes that “For several decades journalists had sought institutional means to make their occupation more respectable. Joseph Pulitzer, for instance, endowed the Columbia School of Journalism in 1904 (although it did not open its doors until 1913). Critics within the profession charged that a college of journalism would establish class distinctions in the newspaper world. Pulitzer answered that this was exactly what it should do—establish a distinction between the fit and the unfit.” Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1978), 152.

See, for instance, Willard Grosvenor Bleyer, Main Currents in the History of American Journalism (Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1927), 100, 130; Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism. A History: 1690–1960, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 165, 167; William David Sloan, The Media in America: A History, 8th ed. (Northport, AL: Vision Press, 2011), 69.

For a useful summary of the persistence of partisanship long after the close of the partisan press era, see William E. Huntzicker, The Popular Press, 1833–1865 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999), 35–51.

Mott, for instance, gives the associations two sentences, understates their prevalence, and never uncovers their importance. Mott, American Journalism, 314.

“Typographical Society,” Southern Patriot, Charleston, SC, January 10, 1843; “Letter from the South,” Sun, Baltimore, December 14, 1853.

“Editorial Convention in New Jersey,” New York Herald, August 15, 1858.

See Banning, “The Professionalization of Journalism: A Nineteenth-Century Beginning.”

The tradition of seeing the Associated Press in New York in the late 1840s as the beginning of organizations among journalists is well rooted in media history. See, for instance, Bleyer, Main Currents, 145, 402; Sidney Kobre, Development of American Journalism (Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1969), 272–275. The nineteenth-century editor turned historian Hudson distinguished between the corporate combinations such as the Associated Press and what he called social organizations, press clubs, and associations, saying that the AP “deals in facts, and not in fricassee.” Hudson, Journalism in the United States, 666.

The examination included uses of the word “profession” and its variants, and such terms as “party newspapers,” “political editors,” “party editors,” and “practical printers.” Key-word searches for “editors’ convention,” “editorial convention,” and “printers’ festival” were used in the databases of Accessible Archives, the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Readex's America's Historical Newspapers, and the Old New York State Historical Newspaper Pages of the Old Fulton New York Post-cards website at http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html.

See, for instance, Carol Sue Humphrey, The Press of the Young Republic, 1783–1833 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996).

Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (New York: Vintage, 1995), 419.

Taylor, William Cooper's Town, 419.

Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001), 45.

Ibid., 46.

Ibid., 47. See also Gerald J. Baldasty, “The Press and Politics in the Age of Jackson,” Journalism Monographs 89 (August 1984).

See, for instance, Fletcher M. Green, “Duff Green, Militant Journalist of the Old School,” American Historical Review 52, no. 2 (January 1947): 247–264; Frederick Hudson, Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873); William E. Huntzicker, The Popular Press, 1833–1865; Mott, American Journalism; Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”; Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Age of Jackson (Boston: Little, Brown, 1945); Rollo G. Silver, “Violent Assaults on American Printing Shops, 1788–1860,” Printing History 1, no. 2 (1979): 10–18; Henry Watterson, “The Personal Equation in Journalism,” in The Profession of Journalism, ed. Willard Grosvenor Bleyer (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1918), 97–111.

James Gordon Bennett, “The Worcester Fanatics,” New-York Herald, October 29, 1850, in David A. Copeland, The Antebellum Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1820 to 1860 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003), 306.

James Gordon Bennett, “Woman's Rights Convention,” New-York Herald, October 28, 1850, in Copeland, Antebellum Era, 305.

Mitchell Stephens, A History of News (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, 1997), 183.

Huntzicker, Popular Press, 1833–1865, 44.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, J. P. Mayer, ed. (New York: Perennial Classics, 2000).

“Editorial Resolves,” Perrysburg (OH) Journal, January 23, 1854. Punctuation in the original.

“Virginia Editorial Convention,” Newport (RI) Mercury, February 17, 1838. Ironically, less than a decade later, the editor of the Richmond, VA, Whig, John Hampden Pleasants, “one of the ablest editors in the South,” was fatally wounded in a duel by Ritchie's son, Thomas Ritchie Jr. See J. Cutler Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985).

“The Value of the Press,” Floridian, Tallahassee, FL, September 11, 1841.

“The Editors’ Convention,” Alta California, San Francisco, August 15, 1851.

“Godey's Arm-Chair: State Editorial Convention,” Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, July 1858. Italics in original.

“Printer's Convention,” Burlington (VT) Free Press, February 19, 1836.

S[hadrach] Penn Jr., “To the President of the Convention of Printers.” See also, for instance, “Editorial Conventions,” New-Hampshire Patriot, Concord, NH, April 11, 1836.

“An Editorial Convention,” New-York Traveller, Spirit of the Times and Family Journal, New York, September 28, 1833.

Wilmington (NC) Advertiser, “The Hillsborough Recorder,” exchange-press reprint in the Hillsborough (NC) Recorder, June 23, 1837. Capitalization in original.

“Virginia Editorial Convention,” Newport (RI) Mercury, February 17, 1838.

“Printers’ Convention,” Haverhill (MA) Gazette, April 16, 1825.

“Printers’ Convention,” Ohio State Journal, Columbus, June 12, 1839.

“An Editorial Convention,” New-York Traveller, Spirit of the Times and Family Journal, September 28, 1833.

“Editorial Conventions,” Newburyport (MA) Herald, December 13, 1833.

“Report of the Committee,” Burlington (VT) Free Press, March 25, 1836.

“The State Paper,” State Journal, Montpelier, VT, May 3, 1836; New York Mirror, “Practical Printers,” exchange-press item in the Rutland (VT) Herald, May 10, 1836.

“Character of Gen. Harrison,” Burlington (VT) Free Press, April 1, 1836; “War as Affecting the Duration of Human Life,” Sunbury (PA) American and Shamokin Journal, December 5, 1846.

“Report of the Committee,” Burlington (VT) Free Press, March 25, 1836; “‘Rising in the World,’” Vermont Press exchange item in the Joliet, IL Signal, December 7, 1847.

“‘Rising in the World,’” Vermont Press exchange item in the Joliet, IL Signal, December 7, 1847.

“‘Rising in the World,’” Vermont Press exchange item in the Joliet, IL Signal, December 7, 1847.

“The Poor Boy,” New York Messenger, reprinted in the Burlington (VT) Free Press, January 8, 1836.

Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), xvii.

Kermit Hall, The Magic Mirror: Law in American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Howard Feigenbaum, “The Lawyer in Wisconsin, 1836–1860: A Profile,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 55, no. 2 (Winter, 1971–1972): 100–106, quote at 102.

See, for instance, Larson, Rise of Professionalism.

Gerard W. Gawalt, “Sources of Anti-Lawyer Sentiment in Massachusetts, 1740–1840,” American Journal of Legal History 14, no. 4 (October 1970): 283–307, quote at 306.

Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982), 7.

William Warren Sweet, “The Rise of Theological Schools in America,” Church History 6, no. 3 (September 1937): 260–273.

Starr, Social Transformation, 17. Laural Thatcher Ulrich documents the competition between trained doctors and folk healers on the Maine frontier in A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812 (New York: Vintage, 1990).

Philip Gaines, “The ‘True Lawyer’ in America: Discursive Construction of the Legal Profession in the Nineteenth Century,” American Journal of Legal History 45, no. 2 (April 2001): 132–153.

Sweet, “Rise of Theological Schools.”

Larson, Rise of Professionalism, 120.

Sweet, “Rise of Theological Schools,” 270.

Sweet, “Rise of Theological Schools.” See also Larson, Rise of Professionalism, 122.

See, for instance, “Convention of Editors,” North Carolina Standard, Raleigh, November 8, 1837; “Convention of Editors,” Nacogdoches (TX) Chronicle, April 19, 1853; “Editors’ and Publishers’ Convention,” Daily Atlas, Boston, January 23, 1854; “Rules and Rates of Advertising,” Barre (MA) Gazette, May 26, 1854; “Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, July 18, 1857.

See, for instance, “State Convention of Editors,” Hudson River Chronicle, Sing-Sing, NY, June 26, 1849; “Convention of Editors,” Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, NH, August 9, 1849; “Maine Editorial Convention,” Sun, Baltimore, February 11, 1852.

See, for instance, “Printers’ Convention,” Ohio State Journal, Columbus, June 12, 1839; “Ohio Newspapers on the Cash Plan,” Democrat and Sentinel, Ebensburg, PA, February 1, 1855; “Maryland Editorial Convention,” Sun, Baltimore, February 24, 1860.

“Editorial Convention,” Pittsfield (MA) Sun, December 20, 1849.

See, for instance, “Editors’ Convention,” Macon (GA) Weekly Telegraph, December 4, 1837.

“Editors’ Convention,” North Carolina Standard, Raleigh, March 29, 1837.

“Convention of Editors,” North Carolina Standard, Raleigh, November 8, 1837.

Ibid.

Ibid. Emphasis added. In a sense, these editors had found a way to monetize invective.

“Editorial Reformation,” Wisconsin Democrat, Madison, March 14, 1846.

“Convention of Editors,” Wisconsin Democrat, Madison, September 26, 1846.

Ibid.

“Festival to the Editors in Chicago,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 1, 1854. J. G. Saxe, editor of the Burlington (VT) Sentinel, in Chicago to give a series of lectures to the city's Literary Association, was invited to speak at the editors’ meeting.

“Proceedings of the Editorial Convention,” Farmers’ Register, Petersburg, VA, February 1, 1838; “Editorial Convention,” Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, OH, March 9, 1838.

“Editorial Convention,” Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, OH, March 9, 1838.

William Lloyd Garrison, “Editorial Convention,” Liberator, Boston, November 30, 1833.

Ibid. In the same issue of the Liberator, Garrison published a lengthy denunciation of the newspaper press’s general failure to fight vice in their communities and offer “a consistent advocacy … by the conductors of the press to the moral improvements of the times.” Garrison, “Editors and Newspapers—No. 1,” Liberator, November 30, 1833.

“Editorial Convention. Held in Pettibone's Hall, Portage City, July 9th and 10th, 1857,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, July 18, 1857.

“Maryland Editorial Convention,” Sun, Baltimore, February 24, 1860.

Gerald J. Baldasty, The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

Charles G. Steffen, “Newspapers for Free: The Economies of Newspaper Circulation in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 23 (Fall 2003): 381–419, quote at 405.

Steffen, “Newspapers for Free,” 405.

“State Editorial Convention,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1856.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, May 12, 1860.

See, for instance, “Printers’ Festival—Cleveland and Columbus Railroads,” Daily Ohio Statesman, Columbus, January 16, 1851; “Editorial Convention,” Pittsfield (MA) Sun, January 26, 1854; “Printers’ Festival at Portsmouth,” Daily Atlas, Boston, October 4, 1856. Printers’ festivals were dinners distinct from the conventions, although occasionally they coincided with them. Corporate travel subsidies often could be had for either. See Frank E. Fee Jr., “Breaking Bread, Not Bones: Printers’ Festivals and Professionalism in Antebellum America,” American Journalism 30, no. 3 (Summer 2013): 308–335.

“That Editorial Excursion,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, April 21, 1860.

“State Editorial Convention,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1856.

“Convention,” New-York Times, January 23, 1855.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, July 18, 1857.

Ibid. Italics in original.

“The Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, September 18, 1858.

“The Following Note,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, June 9, 1860.

Ibid.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, May 12, 1860.

“Editors’ Convention,” Macon (GA) Weekly Telegraph, December 4, 1837.

“Proceedings of the Editorial Convention,” Farmers’ Register, Petersburg, VA, February 1, 1838.

“Editors’ Convention,” Lexington (KY) Intelligencer, February 28, 1837.

“An Editorial Convention,” New-York Traveller, Spirit of the Times and Family Journal, New York, September 28, 1833.

“The Conventions of Editors,” Daily Picayune, New Orleans, December 23, 1837. Although not further identified, the item may have been quoting New-York Herald editor James Gordon Bennett, well known for goading fellow journalists, often at his peril. The same day that the Geneva (NY) Gazette reported on a New York editors and printers’ convention, another item in the paper reported Bennett's caning in a New York street by New-York Courier & Enquirer editor James Watson Webb. “The Assembling of the Proposed Editors and Printers’ Convention” and “A Fracas Took Place,” Geneva (NY) Gazette, January 27, 1836. See also Susan Thompson, The Penny Press: The Origins of the Modern News Media, 1833–1861 (Northport, AL: Vision Press, 2004).

Baltimore Transcript, “Editorial Convention,” exchange-press item in the Wisconsin Territorial Gazette, Burlington, Wisconsin Territory, August 24, 1837.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, June 13, 1857.

Ibid.

“Editors’ Convention,” Georgia Telegraph, Macon, GA, December 4, 1837.

“The Assembling of the Proposed Editors and Printers’ Convention,” Geneva (NY) Gazette, January 27, 1836.

“They Tried,” New-York Tribune, August 5, 1843. Nonattendance was not always a sign of disapproval, however. Although unable to be at the Raleigh, NC, convention, proprietors of the Charlotte Journal assured, “The whole proceedings meet with our entire approbation.” “See the Proceedings of the Editorial Convention,” Charlotte (NC) Journal, November 17, 1837.

“Editorial Correspondence,” Sunbury (PA) American, October 30, 1858.

Ibid. See also “The Editorial Convention at Columbus,” Newport (RI) Mercury, August 10, 1833.

“Printers’ Convention,” Lewisburg (PA) Chronicle, January 28, 1853.

Portland (ME) Family Reader, “Editorial Convention,” exchange-press item in Liberator, Boston, March 22, 1834; “An Editorial Failure,” New-Hampshire Patriot, Concord, NH, April 7, 1834. See also Ezekiel Holmes, “Editorial Convention,” Maine Farmer and Journal of the Useful Arts, Winthrop, March 14, 1834. Holmes chided the fraternity, saying “had due authority been delegated … [he] might easily have borne the whole responsibility and dignity of every Down East editor upon his shoulders without staggering with the weight.”

“The Editorial Convention,” Literary Cabinet and Western Olive Branch, St. Clairsville, OH, July 20, 1833.

Ibid.

“Virginia,” Niles’ National Register, October 15, 1842.

“The New Hampshire Editors’ Convention,” Farmers’ Cabinet, Amherst, NH, November 8, 1849.

Portland (ME) Advertiser, “Editorial Convention,” exchange-press reprint in the New-Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, NH, November 28, 1833. Italics and punctuation in original.

“The Convention of Ohio Editors,” Dayton (OH) Daily Empire, July 9, 1860.

“The Editorial or Printers’ Convention,” Cabinet, Schenectady, NY, February 10, 1836.

“Printers’ Convention,” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, Concord, NH, February 10, 1840.

“Editorial Convention,” Sun, Baltimore, November 29, 1848. Emphasis added.

“Editorial Convention,” Chicago Press and Tribune, August 12, 1859.

“The Editorial Convention of Ohio,” Sun, Baltimore, July 23, 1839.

“To Whom It May Concern,” New-York Tribune, June 14, 1858.

“The Printer,” Charlotte (NC) Journal, December 1, 1837.

Ibid. The paper nevertheless endorsed the North Carolina resolves.

Guion Griffis Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937).

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, June 13, 1857.

“A Prelude to the Birth of the Republican Party,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 46, no. 3 (Autumn 1953): 311.

“Affairs in Indiana,” New-York Herald, January 8, 1857.

“Convention of Secession Editors,” Athens (TN) Post, September 7, 1860.

David Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997); Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1778–1850 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Taylor, William Cooper's Town, 419.

“Editorial Convention,” Richmond (VA) Enquirer, February 1, 1838.

Baldasty, “The Press and Politics in the Age of Jackson.”

“Editorial Convention,” Semi-Weekly Eagle, Brattleboro, VT, September 17, 1849.

“Editorial Convention,” Semi-Weekly Eagle, Brattleboro, VT, September 14, 1850.

“Convention of Editors,” Wisconsin Democrat, Madison, September 26, 1846.

“Editorial Convention,” Rusk (TX) Pioneer, August 15, 1849.

“Free Paper Postage,” Farmers’ Cabinet, Amherst, NH, October 11, 1848.

See, for instance, “Editorial Convention [Virginia],” North Carolina Standard, Raleigh, November 29, 1837; “Editorial Convention [Indiana],” Barre (MA) Gazette, January 30, 1846; “Editorial Convention [New York],” Semi-Weekly Eagle, Brattleboro, VT, September 17, 1849; “Ohio Editorial Convention,” Hudson River Chronicle, Sing-Sing, NY, February 5, 1850; “Editorial Convention of South Carolina,” Georgia Telegraph, Macon, GA, December 21, 1852; “Editorial Convention [Mississippi],” Arkansas Whig, February 17, 1853.

“Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Newspaper Association,” Constitution, Middletown, CT, June 27, 1855. See also “The Grand Editorial Convention at Mansfield on the 15th and 16th Inst.,” Ohio State Journal, Columbus, June 21, 1857.

Ibid.

“Ohio Editorial Convention,” Hudson River Chronicle, Sing-Sing, NY, February 5, 1850.

“Editorial Convention,” Ohio State Journal, Columbus, January 24, 1855. The editor seemed uncertain about the organization's structure. “What does the term ‘association’ mean in this connexion [sic]? Is it a permanent body—an organization with powers and privileges? Or is it an annual gathering for social intercourse, for a good deal of ‘fun,’ and a little business? We don't seriously object to either, but we would much prefer the former.” Italics in original. Later that year, however, the editor approvingly wrote of receiving the published “History, Organization and Transactions of the Ohio Editorial Association, during the years 1853, 1854 and 1855.” “Editorial Convention, 1855,” Ohio State Journal, September 5, 1855. Italics in original.

“Connecticut Editorial Convention,” Barre (MA) Patriot, June 17, 1853.

“The State Editorial Convention,” New-York Times, June 11, 1859.

“The Editorial Convention,” Barre (MA) Patriot, January 20, 1854; “Editorial Convention,” Pittsfield (MA) Sun, January 26, 1854.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, July 18, 1857.

Minnesota Republican, “Editorial Convention,” exchange-press reprint in the St. Cloud (MN) Visiter [sic], May 27, 1858.

“Godey's Arm-Chair: A Convention of Editors,” Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, July 1858.

“N.Y. State Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, June 2, 1860.

“Proceedings of the Editorial Convention,” Farmers’ Register, Petersburg, VA, February 1, 1838.

“Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Newspaper Association,” Constitution, Middletown, CT, June 27, 1855.

“Editorial Convention,” Ohio State Journal, Columbus, January 24, 1855.

“Editorial Convention,” Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, July 18, 1857.

Chicago Herald, “Wisconsin Agricultural Fair,” exchange-press reprint in the Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, September 11, 1858.

See, for instance, “Something Should Be Done—Editorial Convention—Postage Reform,” Weekly Ohio State Journal, Columbus, August 28, 1848; “Editorial Convention,” Semi-Weekly Eagle, Brattleboro, VT, September 17, 1849; “The Editorial Convention at Syracuse,” Emancipator & Republican, Boston, September 27, 1849; “To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress Assembled,” Mountain Sentinel, Ebensburg, PA, January 24, 1850. See also Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communication (New York: Basic Books, 2004). Starr points out that in the United States, “In 1832, newspapers made up 95 percent of the weight of postal communication and only 15 percent of the revenue” (90).

“Editorial Convention,” Pittsfield (MA) Sun, December 20, 1849; “Editorial Convention,” Mountain Sentinel, Ebensburg, PA, December 27, 1849.

“Editorial Convention,” Mountain Sentinel, Ebensburg, PA, December 27, 1849.

“Editorial Convention,” Pittsfield (MA) Sun, December 20, 1849.

See, for instance, Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications (New York: Basic Books, 2004), especially 87–94.

“Editorial Convention,” Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, August 31, 1833; “Editorial Convention,” Christian Watchman, Boston, November 27, 1833; “Editorial Convention,” New-Yorker, New York, March 9, 1839.

George A. Tracy, History of the Typographical Union, Its Beginnings, Progress and Development, Its Beneficial and Educational Features Together with a Chapter on the Early Organization of Printers (Indianapolis: International Typographical Union, 1913); “National Convention of Journeyman Printers,” New-York Daily Tribune, December 6, 1850; “Printer's National Convention,” Gallipolis (OH) Journal, December 26, 1850; Printers’ Convention, New-York Daily Tribune, April 8, 1852; “National Printers’ Union,” Nashville (TN) Patriot, May 5, 1859.

“An Editorial Convention,” New-York Traveller, Spirit of the Times and Family Journal, New York, September 28, 1833.

See, for instance, Ashley A. Anderson and others, “The ‘Nasty Effect:’ Online Incivility and Risk Perceptions of Emerging Technologies,” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (2013). Accessed online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12009/pdf.

Philip B. Corbett, quoted in Margaret Sullivan, “After an Outburst on Twitter, The Times Reinforces Its Social Media Guidelines,” Public Editor's Journal, New York Times Blog, October 17, 2012, accessed at http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/after-an-outburst-on-twitter-the-times-reinforces-its-social-media-guidelines/.

See, for instance, “Editors’ Convention,” Boston Daily Atlas, June 14, 1853.

“Maryland Editorial Convention,” Sun, Baltimore, February 24, 1860.

Ibid.

See, for instance, “Editors’ Convention,” Lexington (KY) Intelligencer, February 28, 1837; “The Kentucky Editors,” Southern Intelligencer, Austin, TX, January 20, 1858.

Gaines, “The ‘True Lawyer,’” 142–150.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frank E. Fee

Frank E. Fee Jr. is an associate professor emeritus of the University of North Carolina, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, [email protected]