Page:History of Journalism in the United States.djvu/27

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM

CHAPTER I

HISTORIC PREPARATION FOR JOURNALISM

Mayflower leader a printer—Democracy and the press—Interest in the "newes"—Public opinion vs. English government—Persecution of authors and printers in England—L'Estrange, first licensor of the press—First newspaper in English—English politics reflected in New England—Printing in Boston—Political development affecting publication.

Among the one hundred and two passengers on the Mayflower, which brought to this country in 1620 the first body of men who were to give to the American nation its character and tendency, was William Brewster. In addition to being the spiritual guide of the little group, Brewster had the experience, unusual in those days, of having been a practical printer. A man of education, he had been sent to jail for his religious beliefs, and with others of his faith had sought refuge in Holland. He had procured a printing press and in Leyden, where the press was untrammeled, had published a number of books attacking the English authorities.

The day before the Pilgrims landed, they drew up, in the cabin of the Mayflower, their celebrated agreement, based on the idea of equal rights for the general good—"The birth of popular constitutional liberty," Bancroft calls it. In any case, it was the first expression of the democratic idea toward which humanity had been painfully toiling for centuries.

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