those who were behind in their subscriptions an opportunity to catch up.[1]
The evacuation of Boston by the British, early in the war, allowed the patriot journals to hold sway there unmolested. For three years, during which Newport was in the hands of the enemy, the Newport Mercury was published at Rehoboth, but upon their withdrawal the paper was brought back to Newport, and there resumed its original influence under the editorship of Henry Barber.[2]
The only paper in Baltimore, Goddard's Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, gave the patriots no little concern. Associated with Goddard was Colonel Eleazer Oswald, one of the finest artillery officers in the American army—a man who, despite his services in the patriot cause, suffered because of his association with Goddard, when the latter's friendship for Charles Lee led him to take up Lee's fight against Washington. Goddard was mobbed for his attacks on General Washington and Oswald left Baltimore and went to Philadelphia.
As might be expected from the leading position of the city in both politics and journalism, the service rendered by the Philadelphia papers was second to none during the war. When the British entered the city, however, both the Pennsylvania Gazette and Bradford's Journal suspended publication. The Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser followed the example of Holt and moved with the government up to Lancaster, where it remained until the British withdrawal. The Packet was owned by Dunlap and Claypoole and afterward became the first daily paper in America.
