History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1786] DIVIDING THE COUNTY—HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE. 479
The Newspaper. Eveiits sucli as liave beeii narrated prepafed
the way for the advent of the newspaper.
Public sentiment was rapidly verging towards anarchy.
People had for years demanded the overthrow of the Courts
of Justice, were clamorous for the universal issue of paper
money, and were seeking the repeal of laws that compelled
men to pay their debts. In this burdened and helpless con-
dition they attributed their misfortunes to the laws and to
those who administered them. Listening to demagogues,
self-appointed leaders, who sought reputation and power
through the annihilation of all the safeguards of society,
their respect for law and justice Was being gradually undermined.
This meant the abolition of all legal authority,
and the end must result in the downfall of the republic,
hardly yet fully established. In order to counteract this
tendency it was deemed essential that the people should be
enlightened. That they should be taught whither all this
unlawful action was leading, and what dire results must
ensue unless their better judgment came to the rescue. No
more practical method could be devised to educate the community,
to show the utter folly as well as the inevitably destructive
tendency of the sentiments then prevailing, than
through the columns of the weekly newspaper. There was
no more effectual means of counteracting the evil influence
of the demagogues who seemed then to be in the ascendant.
Barely half a hundred papers had survived the Revolution,
these were issued in the cities and larger towns,
and few found their way into the remoter hamlets. Means
of communication were slow and uncertain, newspapers
were not admitted to the mails, and their circulation was
restricted to within a few miles of their places of publication.
The majority of them were published weekly, and
none oftener than three times a week. Daily papers had
then no existence on this continent, and people were satis-
fied with American news a week or two old, and foreign
items were many months behind. The only newspaper in
existence at that time in Western Massachusetts was pub-
lished in Springfield.' Apparently it had little circulation
1 The Massachusetts Gazette and General Advertiser, established in 1782, changed
to the Hampshire Herald and Weekly Advertiser in 1785, and was discontinued in 1787.
—Holland's History of Western Massachusetts, vol. 1, pp. 436, 437.