RIVINGTON'S LOYALIST PRESS

The New York Gazetteer published by James Rivington in the years just prior to the American Revolution was the most influential of the city’s Loyalist newspapers. Rivington, whose publishing career had started in London, immigrated to the colonies hoping to take advantage of the promising financial opportunities he was sure existed in America. Quite sensitive to the political atmosphere in New York where “so many Persons of a vast Variety of Views and Inclinations are to be satisfied,” Rivington promised his readers that “no personal Satire and acrimonious Centures on any Society or Class of Men shall ever stain this paper.” However, as the possibility of independence grew ever closer, his press became less and less objective despite his repeated attempts to convince the Patriot faction that his sole goal in life was “to live and die a free and impartial Printer.” This statemen proved false and Rivington was soon appointed the King’s Printer for New York at a salary of 100 pounds. During the war his newspaper, renamed the Royal Gazette, served as a Loyalist mouthpiece for the King. It published stories of Patriot atrocities, defeats, desertions, and wilting morale. The promise that only “truth, candor and decorum” would inhabit the pages of his paper became a travesty. After the war Rivington wished to remain in New York City. And unlike most of the Loyalists of his ilk, he was allowed to do so. Apparently Rivington, for whatever reason, had acted as a secret agent for the Continental Army for which his services were amply rewarded with money and the promise of personal protection by Washington.

The following two pieces are examples of the type of materials that could be found in his New York Gazette. The first piece is a poem Rivington published in response to the frustration he felt arising from Patriot complaints that his paper was biased. The language in the poem must have done little to assuage the Patriot’s suspicions. The second piece is exerted from a letter addressed to the worthy citizens of New York by James Varnell, a young and brilliant professor at King’s College who wrote using the pseudonym Poplicola. His main purpose was to argue against opposition to the Tea Act, but in this particular section basic loyalist themes of obligation and faithfulness to the mother country, the need for a civil society of laws promulgated by legitimate authorities, not by extralegal committees of a few men who have “have presumed to act in the Character of Representatives and Substitutes of the Province,” of the Patriot’s danger to liberty, and of their tyrannical behavior, are stressed. Ironically, Varnell’s talents were apparently not limited solely to polemics because like Rivington, he also became a spy. It was the Reverend Varnell (he had left for England to be ordained since the ceremony in the Anglican Church required a bishop and there was none in the colonies and had stayed on as a minister to the British government) that was instrumental in purloining the secret correspondence which passed between the American delegation and the French court from March to October of 1777.

Who dare their high behests oppose.
Stark raving mad, with party rage,
With coward arms, those foes engage,
And lurk in print, a nameless crew,
Intent to slander, rob, undo.
Conscious of guilt, they hide their shame,
And stab conceal’d the printer’s fame.
Dares the poor man impartial be.
He’s doom’d to want and infamy.
Condemn’d by their imperial ire
Treating all men as mortal foes,

To poison, pillage, daggers, fire;
Precarious lives in constant dread,
Tar, feathers, murder, haunt his bed;
If he dares publish, ought but lies.
…Alas, vain men, how blind, how weak;
Is this the liberty we seek!
Alas, by nobler motives led
A Hampden fell, a Sydney bled.



Can any man, after this, doubt whether he injures his country, when he cherishes the rival of the parent state in this most important commerce? For his opposition to such destructive conduct, the author of this paper has been injuriously and cruelly maligned. But whiles he desires to molest no fellow citizen in the enjoyment of liberty of the press, he is received never to relinquish himself an equal enjoyment of the same invaluable privilege the birthright of Englishmen, while he loves America, he will never consider it a disgrace to love Old England also. He is no friend to either who wishes to see their interests divided. Destroy the parental trunk and the branches must perish with it.
Examine, fellow-citizens! The conduct of the men, who would revive our fatal dissentions; and you can be no longer deceived. Their politicians have already proved subversive of LIBERTY; their measures introductive of the most imperious TYRANNY. Have they restrained their career? No, fellow-citizens! I feel indignation and shame mingling in my bosom, when I reflect that a few men whom only the political storm could cast up from the bottom in notice) have presumed to act in the character of representatives and substitutes of the Province. When did they derive the authority to treat with the commissioners, as ambassadors for the venerable body of merchants, the mechanics, and the landed interest of this colony? Who vested them with the power of delegates? Who commissioned them to compound for us, to state the measure of our demands and the terms which should satisfy us? If to be governed without our consent, given immediately, or by our representatives, is SLAVERY, then, fellow citizens! Have we been treated as SLAVES. –But it may be said in their excuse, “that their jealousy for our liberties, has hurried them into misconduct.” But what marks of public spirit have they discovered? If the illicit trade is fatal to our country; why have they not renounced it? This is the surest proof they can give of disinterestedness; why then is it not given? “Perish the noxious commodity, (would be the voice of every good citizen) rather than debate the dernier resort of government—the SANCTITY OF OATHS; or support the interest of a foreign country, in opposition to our own!” Spirits of immortal worthies! That expired in the bright cause of freedom, teach us , O teach us by your example,----that a love of liberty is a love of our country---that we cannot love our country, if we prefer the interest of a rival to hers---That genuine liberty can only be found in civil society---that without laws, civil society cannot stand---that laws are of no benefit, if they may be transgresses at pleasure---that if one part of the community transgresses them, another may also---that where all are free from the restraints of law, there is no security for any.

POPLICOLA


Sources:

Callahan, North. Royal Raiders: The Tories of the American Revolution. New York:
Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1963.

Potter, Janice. The Liberty We Seek: Loyalist Ideology in Colonial New York and
Massachusetts. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1983.

Rivington Press, 1773.

Rivington’s New York Newspaper: Exerts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783. Compiled
by Kenneth Scott. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1973.