The following note was published on the front page of the Kennebec Journal’s first edition on Jan. 8, 1825, written by the KJ’s first publishers, Russell Eaton and Luther Severance:

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORNING, BY EATON & SEVERANCE.

TO THE PUBLIC.

Many of those who will read this paper have probably seen the proposals which we made some months since, in which we set forth some of our views, and the principles which should govern us.

We have been reminded that it is easier to make promises than to fulfil them; of which fact there is, unfortunately, abundant evidence, not only in the conduct of public journalists, but in that of many other descriptions of people. A well conducted publication, which has obtained the reputation of a zealous regard for truth, and impartial and manly course of conduct, must undoubtedly possess a considerable influence in society, while those of an opposite character, of which it is confessed there are a great number, furnish some shew of excuse for those who would curtail the liberty of the press under the pretence of restraining its licentiousness.

There is no necessity, however, for governmental interference on this subject.

The evil will cure itself. “Error ceases to be dangerous when reason is left free to combat it.” An honest and discerning community are better arbiters in this matter, better guardians of public morals, than the satellites of a throne, or even those whom the people may delight to honor. It is to the decision of such a community that we now, with great deference, appeal.

We are aware of the important responsibility we are assuming, and of our inability to pass a judicious sentence on the literature of our country, or to point out, with infallible certainty the true path to individual felicity, or to national happiness and glory: but while we shew an honest zeal in the cause of truth, and a sincere devotion to those principles which are the support and the admiration of freemen, we hope to receive some excuse for those errors of judgment which may proceed from youth and incapacity; soliciting from their lenity that which we could not claim for our merit.

It may, we fear with too much truth, be urged that there are already a sufficient number of political publications in this state; but by an increase the public cannot suffer. Competition, in this as in all other cases, stimulates to exertion. And when we consider the rapid increase of population, the extensive resources, and the great commercial advantages, which this state possesses, being now inferior to only three states in the amount of her tonnage; her vast forests of valuable timber, and the extent of her navigable waters, affording more safe harbors, perhaps, than all the other Atlantic states together; the physical strength of her hardy and industrious population; and, above all, the moral energy which results from the universal diffusion of letters, by the means of books and newspapers; we think we hazard little in predicting that the state of Maine is destined, at no distant day, to take a high rank among her western sisters. If her climate is less mild than that of Italy or France, so is it less enervating. If she cannot produce an Ariosto, a Petrarch, or a Boccacio, neither will she nurse an Aretino or a Borgia. If she is not destined to sustain so dense a population as China, France, or Holland, she will be the more likely to resist the insidious approaches of luxury; for the richest nations are not generally the most powerful, or the most happy and free. If she has a bleak and rockbound shore, and her hills, though covered with flocks of the finest wool, are not as fertile as the alluvial fatness of the Mississippian valley, neither is her atmosphere filled with a destroying pestilence. The mountains of Peloponesus produced a more vigorous and independent race than the luxuriant plains of Asia; and the rugged passes of Thermopylae were, in the cause of Greece, equal to millions of Persian soldiers.

The front page of the first Kennebec Journal on Jan. 8, 1825. Newspapers.com archive

Wealth constitutes the sinews of war in monarchical governments, and in all offensive wars, where mercenaries are employed to fight, totally indifferent to the merits of the cause in which they are engaged; but intelligent heads, strong arms, and stout hearts, are the surest defence of the liberties of a republican people. We apprehend more danger from the future riches of Maine than from her poverty. She produces all the necessaries of life in abundance; her soil is as productive, perhaps, as that of any other state lying along the Atlantic coast, this side of the Cape of Florida; and her natural water communications are not surpassed by those of any state in the Union, enabling her to waft the productions of her fields and her forests to the highway of nations with the utmost facility. Her fisheries, also, not only minister to the Comfort and subsistence of her people, but are a mine of wealth to the nation.

Dr. Franklin says, “Every fish we draw out of the water is worth a piece of money.” The fisherman, therefore, annually gathers a golden harvest from the deep.

Maine, however, is but a younger sister in the confederacy. The political liberty she enjoys is rather by inheritance than the result of her virtue or bravery; but we trust she will yield to none in her patriotism, or her attachment to the political bond which has enabled us to sustain the rude shock of external violence, under circumstances calculated to excite the apprehensions of the patriot, and to prove to the governments of Europe that our national character, and the property of our citizens, cannot be made the sport of their pride and their avarice with impunity. If we have too long suffered such contumely and injury heretofore, in the language of Mr. Monroe, let it be our fixed determination never to submit to the like in future.” United, we have nothing to fear from abroad.

Bound together, then, by kindred interests and kindred sympathies, we should never permit the brand of discord to disturb the harmony which is necessary to our safety and happiness.

The constitution of Maine gives to all her citizens a voice in her government; and all are thereby interested in supporting it. It is necessary, therefore, that all should be capable of judging when the affairs of state are well managed; for the people are the “high court of appeals,” before whom all the legislative or executive agents of the government must answer for their official conduct: and no argument is necessary to prove that such a court should be competent to decide correctly.

As we hope to obtain a circulation for our paper among the farmers of this state we shall devote a considerable part of it to agricultural information, selecting such articles as shall tend to economize the labor, and improve the system of husbandry of the industrious cultivator.

If one employment of the community deserves more attention than another, the interests of the farmer should predominate over all others. His was the primeval employment of civilized man. It is on the farmers that every other description of society depend for the necessities of life. In all popular governments, in war they are the “bone and muscle” of the country, and in peace they fill the horn of plenty from the abundance of their stores; and they are at all times the grand bulwark of civil liberty. Though the populace of large ‘cities may become profligate from the great inequalities of wealth, the ambition of the rich, and the dependance of the poor, it is to the intelligent and virtuous “lords of the soil” that the philanthropist and patriot can look with confidence, as the conservators of the political rights, and the preservers of the public morals of a nation. When our agricultural population shall have become insensible to the advantages of free institutions, and regardless of national concerns, then will this nation have passed the meridian of her glory. She may, perhaps, struggle awhile, with unnatural strength, in the convulsive throes of a military despotism, but she will be rapidly approaching that second childhood of nations which is the sure and immediate precursor of their final dissolution. This people, now so proud of their integrity and stubborn independence, will then be, as Sallust describes Rome in his own times, “rotten to the core”; for “a bold yeomanry, a nation’s pride, When once destroy’d, can never be supplied.”

In the composition of our paper, we shall be careful in making such selections as will not only amuse the evening fire side, after the labors or business of the day, but tend to elevate the moral faculties, and render the citizen sensible of the duties he owes to his God and to his country, and the important relations he sustains in society.

All communications from experienced farmers; tending to promote the interests of agriculture, describing chemical experiments on soils; the “culture suiting to the different kinds of seeds and plants, and what will thrive and rise, and what the genius of the soil denies.”

All improved methods in the raising of horses, cattle, or other animals, and useful observations, of various kinds, on the art of which “immortal Maro sung,” are respectfully solicited, that we may have it in our power to lighten the toils of the husbandman, and render his increase more abundant.

We shall exert ourselves to give our readers the earliest information of the proceedings of the national and state governments, of which it is their duty to be fully informed. The limits of a weekly newspaper will not contain a full account of the conduct of a single legislature, at full length; and we shall omit, or only briefly notice, such proceedings as are not deemed important, and condense, as much as possible, those which are considered of primary interest to the community; and, in copying foreign or domestic news, we shall seek to avoid minute details, where the minutiae are not of themselves interesting: so that our paper may contain as much useful information.

The merchants, mechanics, and others, who may favor us with their patronage and encouragement, we shall endeavor to accommodate by giving an account of the arrival and departure of all vessels from this port, and such other ship news and business information as may be important to the people of Augusta, or other inhabitants on this river; and we shall notice all new publications of law reports, and interesting juridical decisions; in which we shall endeavor to obtain the assistance of some gentleman of the profession.

All communications that may be offered, of a literary, political, local, or religious nature, not involving sectarian principles, or doctrines in dispute, written with temperance and brevity, and considered to be conducive to public good, will be inserted in this paper: but we shall sedulously guard against all personal altercation, except to do justice to the injured character of an individual: and we hope no consideration may ever induce us to suffer the Journal to become the packhorse of quarrelsome scribblers, or the receptacle of the spleen and abuse of those who claim exclusive wisdom and honesty.

As it is believed there are many gentlemen in this vicinity of a cultivated literary taste, any contributions which their leisure may enable them to furnish will be received as a favor.

RUSSELL EATON,
LUTHER SEVERANCE.