The Blue Laws were puritanical laws enacted in 1732 at New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Their objective was to stamp out heresy and enforce a strict observance of the Sunday. Research Blue Laws
In America, in 1631 a law was enacted by the Massachusetts Assembly, providing that no man should be a freeman of the colony unless he became a member of some church. This requirement was abolished under the charter of 1691. A similar rule prevailed in the New Haven colony between 1639 and 1662. Research Church Members' Suffrage
A newspaper is a publication reporting and commenting upon news. The first periodicals were published by the Romans., the first newspapers proper were produced in Venice by the government, published monthly during the war of 1563 against the Turks.
The first genuine newspaper established in the United States was the Boston News Letter founded at Boston in 1704 by Postmaster John Campbell, and continued until 1776. Previous to this there had been
issued at Boston three publications of one number each. Of these the first, called a Newspaper Extraordinary consisted wholly of extracts from a letter of Dr. Increase Mather, who was then in London endeavouring to obtain a new charter for Massachusetts. This letter was published by Samuel Green in 1689.
On September the 25th, 1690, appeared the first and only number of
Publick Occurrences Foreign and Domestic issued by Benjamin Harris. The authorities promptly seized and suppressed the paper as 'a pamphlet published contrary to law and containing reflections of a very high nature'. In 1697 B Green and J Allen republished a news letter, bearing no title, which had been issued in London the same year. It was printed on a single page, .and contained small news items from the continent. After the Boston News Letter there appeared in 1719 the Boston Gazette Andrew Bradford issuing the American Weekly Mercury at Philadelphia the same year. James Franklin established the New England Courant at Boston two years later. This was suppressed for its attacks upon the Government and clergy, but was revived by Benjamin Franklin. WilliamBradford began the Gazette at New York in 1725, and John Peter Zenger the New York Weekly Journal in 1733, in the cause of the people against the Colonial Government. Zenger's paper may be regarded as a prototype of the modern news journal. Newspapers were founded in the other American colonies in the following order: In Maryland, at Annapolis, in 1727; in South Carolina, at Charleston, in 1731; in Rhode Island, at Newport, in 1731; in Virginia, at Williamsburg, in 1736; in North Carolina, at New Berne, in 1755; in Connecticut, at New Haven, in 1755; in New Hampshire, at Portsmouth, in 1756; in Georgia, at Savannah, in 1763; in Vermont, at Westminster, in 1781.
Between 1704 and 1775 seventy-eight different newspapers had been printed with varied success in the American colonies. Of these, thirty-nine were in actual process of publication at the outbreak of the American War of Independence. The papers most influential in advancing the revolutionary cause were the Boston Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy, On the British occupation of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, most of the Whig journals were suspended. It has been estimated that the thirty-nine newspapers of 1775 circulated about 1,300,000 copies annually.
After the Federal Constitution was adopted in America the newspapers fell largely into the hands of English immigrants, men of versatility and talent. Violent partisan controversies arose. The most influential papers of this period were the Columbian Centinel, published at Boston during forty years, commencing in 1784, by Benjamin Russell; the New York Minerva, established at New York in 1793 by Noah Webster; the New York Evening Post, established as the central organ of the Federalists in 1801; the Philadelphia Aurora, founded by Benjamin Franklin Bache in 1790, and afterward edited with vindictive partisanship by William Duane, an Englishman; the Philadelphia National Gazette, established in 1791 by Philip Freneau; and the National Intelligencer, established at Washington by Samuel H Smith in 1800.
The first American penny paper was the New York Sun, established in 1833 by Benjamin Day. The first American Sunday paper was the Sunday Courier, appearing in New York in 1825, with but little success. The chief period of the political influence of editors in the United States was that beginning in 1830 and ending after the American Civil War. Before that date the editor was often of little account, but from 1830 to 1870 the paper was often known chiefly as the organ of the individual editor's opinions. Research Newspaper
Suffrage is the right to express an opinion by voting on political questions, applied in particular to the right to vote at parliamentary elections.
Restricted suffrage was the rule in America until well into the 19th century. Massachusetts and New Haven colonies for a time gave the suffrage to none but church members. In most of the colonies a freehold qualification prevailed, sometimes the 'forty-shilling freehold' of English law, sometimes a freehold of so many acres.
The constitutions made in the Revolutionary period mostly provided for the former in the Northern States, for the latter in the Southern, while New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Georgia had simply a requirement of tax-paying. The Constitution of 1787 left this matter entirely to the States, allowing all to vote for Congressmen in a given State who could vote for the members of the State House of Representatives. After 1789, the influence of democratic principles led to the abolition of property qualifications in Georgia in 1798; in Maryland in 1801 and 1809; in Massachusetts in 1821; in New York in 1821; in Delaware in 1831; in New Jersey in 1844; in Connecticut in 1845; in Virginia in 1850; in North Carolina in 1854 and 1868; in South Carolina in 1865; in Rhode Island, except in some municipal elections, in 1888.
The FifteenthAmendment forbids any State, or the United States, to deny the suffrage to any citizen because of race, colour or previous condition of servitude. The new States have mostly provided for manhood suffrage from the first, often even for the suffrage of aliens in process of naturalization. Research Suffrage
In May, 1643, at the solicitation of the Colonial Government of Connecticut, the colonies of MassachusettsBay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven met by delegates at Boston, and bound themselves together under a written constitution for mutual protection against the Indians, and the French and Dutch settlers of Canada and New York. This league existed forty years. Each colony had one vote in controlling the league. Each managed its own internal affairs, the general management of the confederation being intrusted to a board of eight commissioners. After 1664 the confederation languished, and in 1684 it expired. Research United Colonies of New England
Yale University is a famous and respected American university. It was chartered as the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701. The college was first established at Saybrook, but was removed to New Haven in 1717, and the name of Yale College was adopted in honour of Elihu Yale who had made large gifts to the school. A new charter was obtained in 1745, and in 1887 the title of Yale University was authorised by the legislature. Research Yale University
Benjamin Trumbull was an American clergyman and historian. He was born in 1735 and died in 1820. He was pastor at New Haven from 1760 to 1820. He wrote a 'General History of the United States', and 'History of Connecticut from 1630 to 1713'. Research Benjamin Trumbull
George W Bush is an American Republican politician. He was born in 1946 at New Haven, Connecticut. George W Bush was Governor of Texas before becoming the 43rd President of the USA through a rigged election in 2001. The election was illegal, the Republicans having had 50,000 eligible voters (almost all Democrat supporters) removed from the right to vote in the state of Florida (he won the election by a majority of a little over 500, and yet 40,000 counter votes were disallowed). Research George W. Bush
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Abbreviations
Research Blue Laws
