Gazette Of The United States. A National Paper, By John Fenno, 1792- First Publication Of Postal Routes

Gazette of the United States. A National Paper, Published Wednesdays and Saturdays by John Fenno, No. 69, High Street, Philadelphia. [No. 84, of Vol. III.] Wednesday, February 15, 1792. [Whole No. 292.].
Toned with some edge tears but not affecting text. Sewing holes along the center line with remains of thread present. Edge chips, tears, and stains but overall, very good condition of this original newspaper. Subscribers and publication numbers show that at its peak, 1,400 newspapers were sold, and the paper had about 400 subscribers. Measures: 10 by 16 inches.

The paper was published during the George Washington Presidency.

The Washington cabinet
Office Name Term

President
George Washington 1789–1797

Vice President
John Adams
1789–1797

Secretary of State
John Jay (acting)
1789–1790
Thomas Jefferson
1790–1793
Edmund Randolph
1794–1795
Timothy Pickering
1795–1797

Secretary of the Treasury
Alexander Hamilton
1789–1795
Oliver Wolcott Jr.
1795–1797

Secretary of War
Henry Knox
1789–1794
Timothy Pickering
1795
James McHenry
1796–1797

Attorney General
Edmund Randolph
1789–1794
William Bradford
1794–1795
Charles Lee


One single sheet, folded with 4 printed pages including advertising. Items on the agenda are:
• Continuation of the Constitution of Government, taken from the Delaware Gazette Published for the Consideration of the Citizens of the Delaware State, Pursuant to an Order of Convention of the 31st of Dec. 1791. (Continuation from the Gazette of Feb. 4th of 1791. Describing: Writ of habeas corpus.
• Land and property.
• Execution of a writ.
• Judges and courts.
• Article VII and Justices of the Supreme Court (Federal and State).
• Magnetic Tides and the boundaries of the United States (yet unknown).
• Discussion of moving African Americans to Serra Leone and other places and questioning the veracity as well as the morality of doing so. Stating that the African people have the same rights as any other person in the United States (clearly not everyone agreed to the statement).
• Resolutions of the Congress of Virginia and petition 0f its Federal Senators to insist on open door meetings when they are in session.
• Congress in the US city of Philadelphia debating the route of the mail from Boston to New Hampshire and its route through Exeter, Portsmouth, and Newbury (Massachusetts). The main post road from Portsmouth New Hampshire to Boston.
• February 13, establishment of post office roads in Maryland, Georgia, and Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations.
• Number of electors shall be equal to the number of Senators and Representatives of the States and the electors shall elect the President and Vice President of the United States (historical formation of the election process).
• Report on the King of France and the pending revolution. February 13, 1792, the King was jockeying for more control. The revolution got its kick star that August, and the King and Queen were executed in 1793.
• War Department- An announcement by Henry Knox, Secretary of War, that disabled veterans will be receiving compensation and how and what they need to prove disability due to the war and how they would receive the compensation.
• Post office and the Establishment of Mails for 1792 by Robert Patton, Postmaster. Designation of Eastern Mail, Southern Mail as well as mail to other places and the delivery dates so determined.
• Advertisements for Teas, Lead Manufacturing, Auctioneer, The Dismal Swamp Company, Formation of a College in Massachusetts, and North Carolina by State taxation funds as well as the formation of Saint John’s College in Maryland.
• Printing of a Bible by Isiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts in Royal Quarto!
Editor John Fenno’s Gazette of the United States was the leading Federalist newspaper during the late 1700s, a period in U.S. history that was rife with partisan politics. The paper, published on Wednesdays and Saturdays, defended the Federalist administration, and condemned anyone who questioned it. Its biggest champion was perhaps Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton organized the funding of the Gazette, granted Fenno the Treasury Department’s printing contracts, and was even one of the newspaper’s (anonymous) contributors. The first issue appeared on 15 April 1789, and was published in New York City, the nation's capital at the time. In 1791, the paper relocated to Philadelphia, following the move of the capital, as Gazette became the de facto newspaper of record for the federal government. The Gazette featured foreign affairs, political essays, letters, Hamilton’s Treasury Department papers and reports, and general news. It ran numerous articles and covered many events that would prove foundational in the development of the United States.
The Gazette of the United States was an early American newspaper, first issued semiweekly in New York on April 15, 1789, but moving the next year to Philadelphia when the nation's capital moved there the next year. It was friendly to the Federalist Party. Its founder, John Fenno, intended it to unify the country under its new government. As the leading Federalist newspaper of its time, it praised the Washington and Adams administrations and their policies. Its Federalist sponsors, chiefly Alexander Hamilton, granted it substantial funding; because some of it was directly from the government, the Gazette is considered to have been semi-official. The influence of the newspaper inspired the creation of the National Gazette and the Philadelphia Aurora, rival newspapers for the Democratic-Republicans.
Throughout its history, the Gazette was renamed multiple times. Starting from 1798, the ownership and editorship of Fenno's newspaper passed between multiple people. The influence of the newspaper declined around this time, but it continued to print until March 7, 1818, consolidating into another newspaper. When the government of the Constitution was established, there was no strong pro-Federalist newspaper in New York, then the capital city of the country. Some commercial newspapers at this time supported the Federalists, but politics was a side topic for them. The party's leaders wanted a robust, distinctively political newspaper to advance their cause.
John Fenno was a businessman and schoolmaster from Boston, with prior experience in journalism. As a supporter of the new Constitution, he envisioned a national, authoritative newspaper that would promote the new administration to unify the new country. Fenno's vision attracted Federalists as sponsors such as Christopher Gore, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and Senator Rufus King. Fenno later adopted the partisan motto, "He that is not for us, is against us".
Aside from his political goal, Fenno also founded the Gazette as a promising commercial opportunity, expecting to retire wealthy in ten years. He planned to secure printing contracts with the government and subcontract the printing of his newspaper. Unusually for a newspaper, the Gazette did not publish advertisements because Fenno did not want to suggest ties to a local region and felt that advertising would be beneath the dignity of his work. It also did not offer general printing services.
Fenno moved to New York to start publishing his newspaper. While his sponsors had sent him to the capital with substantial funding, Fenno initially struggled to start printing the Gazette. No printer in New York would agree to a subcontract, and Fenno had to hire former colleague John Russell to print the paper. Sponsors provided little aid when Fenno wanted more. On April 15, 1789, the Gazette of the United States finally started printing as a semiweekly newspaper, just in time for President Washington's inauguration later the same month.
The paper's first government printing contract was signed in July 1789, later than expected. John Fenno began to fall into debt as the year progressed. With a top circulation of 1,400 copies, his project did not meet his expectation for commercial success. 400 of the subscribers avoided paying, and awaited contracts were made too slowly. The business could not make up its own operating costs or support Fenno's family, not to mention the loans it needed to begin. Supposedly enthusiastic sponsors still did not offer enough help. Thus he was forced to include advertising in November. In 1790, the business moved to Philadelphia, which had been declared the new capital city.
In the face of newfound opposition, Federalists in the government gave aid to the struggling newspaper. Hamilton gifted a grant to Fenno in 1790 and 1791, and Fenno also received control of the Senate's and most of the Department of Treasury's printing business. Although Fenno's wish for his Gazette to become official was never fulfilled, it did receive semi-official status through his government job. Even after the grants, Fenno's debt continued to grow until 1793, when he stopped the publication of the Gazette on September 18, 1793, amid the yellow fever epidemic. After a request from Fenno, Hamilton and Rufus King raised an amount of money about equal to Fenno's debt. On December 11, 1793, the newspaper started printing again, a now daily publication, excluding Sundays. Like other urban newspapers, it offered printing services to paying customers and avoided subcontracts.

Notes: Noted small holes and tears, not affecting text, toning and small stains, good condition overall, see photos

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