Law in Nineteenth-Century American Periodicals

Law and lawyers have been an integral part of American periodical publishing since the beginning. In 1740, Benjamin Franklin announced that he would publish the first true American magazine, The General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in America. He chose John Webbe, a Philadelphia lawyer, as the first editor. ¹ As it happened, Webbe’s loyalties lay with another publisher, Andrew Bradford, and Webbe decided to serve as editor of Bradford’s competing magazine, the American Monthly, whose first issue saw the light of day in February 1741. ² The choice of a lawyer to edit a general circulation magazine was sensible, for these earliest American magazines were dedicated to improving the circulation of literature in the colonies, as well as to carrying political news and commentary. Colonial lawyers were part of the educated elite and were active both in literary and political circles. In the years following the establishment of Franklin’s and Bradford’s magazines (Bradford published only three issues and Franklin, six), ³ dozens of additional magazines were founded (many were equally short-lived), and other lawyers, notably Noah Webster and Francis Hopkinson, took up the editorial pen. ⁴ The tradition of lawyers serving as editors of general circulation magazines continued well into the nineteenth century, as witnessed by the activities of such notable lawyers as the South Carolinian lawyer Hugh Swinton Legare, who served for a time as the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. ⁵