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

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using an additional six pages of the paper, and turning quite personal and
venomous. Spotswood, in his reply, wrote to the printer that, “I hope he [Speaker
Randolph] will not fall out with you, and cut off your Salary from the Assembly, if
you carry back to him my Answer to his extraordinary Epistle.” 43 Such an answer
would seem to indicate former governor Spotswood’s belief that the House of
Burgesses influenced the printer and what he would publish. 44 It also demonstrates
the importance of control over what could get into the newspaper. Spotswood
understood that the only way to spread his message widely was through the local
gazette, and that constraints on the printer might prevent him from being able to
do that. The controversy continued with letters in the newspapers even after
Randolph passed away the next year. Burgess Edwin Conway had a letter printed,
which noted not only Spotswood’s mishandling of the money, but his continued
disputes with the lower assembly while governor. 45 Both sides appeared to turn to
print to establish the legitimacy of their argument and to appeal to a wider group
than simply the members of the government. While the discourse was limited to
members of the ruling elite, never actually opening up to broad public participation,
it was a remarkable early public airing of a political dispute. That this would appear
at all in the public prints was unusual, as such arguments between elite members of
the political leadership rarely were published at this time. It demonstrated just how
43 Alexander Spotswood, letter to printer William Parks, 1736. Washburn Autograph
Collection, vol. 22, p. 47, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Virginia Gazette (Dec. 17,
1736), 1-3. Ibid., (Dec. 24, 1736), 1-3.
44 Greene, Quest for Power, 289, suggests this was not actually the case, that the Governors
had more control at this time than did the assembly. The Burgesses voted on the printer’s salary,
but the Governor and his Council needed to approve it as well. Greene also notes, in “ ‘Virtus et
Libertas’,” in Crow, Southern Experience, 55-59, that during and after Spotswood was a time of
political harmony in Virginia, with no factions and much cooperation between the governor and
gentry. (Spotswood was of course technically the Lieutenant Governor, acting as resident
governor).
45 Virginia Gazette (Parks, April 22, 1737).