The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

said Paper a malicious and scandalous Libel highly and injuriously reflecting on the
Proceedings of the House of Burgesses ...” The lower house accused the council of
actions, “unparliamentary and beneath the character assumed by the Council, to
have their proceedings printed in a common news-paper.” When the council backed
up Parks, confirming he had printed the condemnation upon their orders, he was
released. The governor prorogued the assembly the same day, ending the problem
at least for printer Parks. 101
This dispute demonstrates a new role for the public prints and thus for
public opinion, as mediator between disputes between the ruling elites. The lower
house was beginning to display an independent spirit, or lack of deference to the
higher officers of the Governor’s Council, and that did not sit well with the
councilors. When two groups of the governing elite could not agree with each
other, they turned to printing their dispute in the newspaper. The council took the
unprecedented step of appealing to public opinion, beyond the elite rulers, by
publishing the dispute. 102 This is a marked difference from earlier consensus-style
governance with the typical settling of any inter-governmental disputes in private.
Increasingly, those who governed were turning to the public for validation and
support. This also displays an erosion of political deference, as the popularly elected
burgesses deferred not to the elite council, but rather to the larger, more common
public. When the two sides had only one public printer, he got caught in the
middle, and his income was directly threatened. As Stephen Botein noted, printers
were primarily businessmen, not ideologues, and while dependent on government
income, they had to walk a careful line, attempting to avoid controversy and
101 Ibid., (March 14, 1748/9-May 11, 1749), 10:290, 291, 335-337, and 401-404. John M.
Hemphill, II, “The Origin, Development, and Influence of the Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780”
(research files, Virginia Gazette folder, Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg, no date
given), 4-7. Morton, Colonial Virginia, 2:504-5. The newspapers for this period are not extant, but
while Morton suggests the Council’s resolve was published, Hemphill claims that it was not, at
least until later.
102 Ibid., 2:411-3
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