Gotham's First Crime Boss Defends  Himself     " The Captain," as Isaiah Rynders (1804-1885) was known, was a violent man and a violent racist.  He earned the captain's title for briefly captaining a sloop (one sail) packet boat along the Hudson River before becoming a gambler and knife fighter. Some time in the late 1830s he appeared in New York City and worked his way up in politics as the enforcing arm of the Tammy Hall Democrats.        Rynders owned a string of saloons in the city and gathered around him men who were young, violent, and looking for money.  He was head of the crime gang Dead Rabbits, a  thoroughly  criminal enterprise, and president of The Empire Club," which generally did the  rough  enforcement  for Tammy Hall.      "The Captain"  Rynders was a leader in what was called "The Astor Opera House Riot in May,1849.  (Worthy of its own future blog entry.)  In the 185...

          The Emancipation Proclamation  "One Last Card" by John Tenniel appeared in the October 1862 issue of the British satire magazine Punch ( Tenniel later became famous as the first illustrator of Alice in Wonderland) Emancipation Proclamation             Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was not a straightforward freeing of all slaves. In fact, it pleased nobody except those held in bondage behind Confederate lines on whom it had no effect. It was not meant as a humanitarian gesture, rather as an attempt to entice states in rebellion to rejoin the Union.               It was a political ploy which did not work as intended.             Lincoln waited to issue the proclamation until the Union had won a great military victory—and Union victories were few and minor until Se...

  December 21, 1859 Alexandria, Va. Gazette POST OFFICE In the modern age of email and internet we have little concept of how important safe, quick mail delivery was for the development of commerce.  The development of national brands of consumer items was not possible without quick reliable delivery.   A more subtle  impact the post office had on American infrastructure and commerce, was its ability to let contracts to carry the mail.  A mail delivery contract often made the difference in whether a railroad decided to extend a line to a particular area. Just as influential was the post office’s decision to let contracts to ships carrying mail to England, France, Mexico and other points.  Congress was reluctant to authorize money for the US Navy to buy or build steamships, (by the time the US Navy had three steamships, the British Navy had several hundred.)  When the Post office announced contracts to carry mail abroad, ship owners had to commissi...

  Richard Hoe's Cylinder steam driven printing press 1860 Journalism Of all the puerile follies that have masqueraded before High Heaven in the guise of Reform, the most childish has been the idea that the editor could vindicate his independence only by sitting on the fence and throwing stones with impartial vigor alike at friend and foe . --Whitelaw Reid, Republican Editor of the New York Tribune 1879 October 30, 1847 “We hope to see the day when the press is regarded as an avenue to distinction as eligible as the other learned professions.  It affords opportunity which other professions do not for the exercise of the highest talent and largest attainments in a direction to sway the minds of people, to enlighten their ignorance, and uphold and elevate public morals.” The New Orleans Picayune Since this is a blog based on what newspapers told the public it is probably best to start with a brief examination of how newspapers were printed and distributed as well as t...